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Famous Photography: Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima

In the voting for top honors in famous photography, a lot of votes would surely go to “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal on February 23, 1945. There have even been reenactments of this most unique of famous photography, as well as a Clint Eastwood movie, “Flags of Our Fathers” (2006). It was not exactly your regular travel photography assignment.

You’ve Seen It

In case you are wondering what this most famous of famous photography images looks like, let’s refresh your memory. It is a stark black and white photograph of six United States Marines pushing to raise a battle-scared American flag and pole into the sand and twisted landscape. The flag is rising towards a bright white sky. It looks as if the Marines are having a tough time raising the flag.

Why So Popular

What makes a picture enter the realms of famous photography? Part of it is that it captures the essence of a huge event into one image. “Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima” is considered the iconic image of World War II, even though this happened on the Japanese front and not the European front, where most of the action was. Somehow, despite all of the odds, the good guys won.

Another element that makes a picture rise to the ranks of famous photography is that it has a certain timelessness, using symbols that talks to our collective unconscious. Flags are included in that silent pictorial language. It is known to many cultures that flags mean victory. Raising the flag, family crest or shield of your army or side onto the enemy territory was the ultimate declaration of victory.

Brief History

This elite specimen of famous photography is actually the second raising of the flag at Iwo Jima. However, this was the time the island was finally won. The flag was raised inside of a Japanese pipe. The image was so startling and so triumphant that it was published in newspapers a mere seventeen and a half hours after it was taken, at a time when it normally took a couple of days for news photographs to be published.

The photo was so good that it was accused of what all famous photography is accused of – being faked. Although there are many famous photos that have been set up (Marilyn Monroe over the steam grating comes to mind), Joe Rosenthal and the three Marines that survived World War II were able to testify that it wasn’t. It was just one of those things.