Raising The Flag On Iwo Jima Joe Rosenthal
John White of the Chicago Sun Times said, “We’ve got this front seat to history, front seat to history. Every day we’ve got a front seat to history.” There is a reason that we always hear or have said ourselves that a picture is worth a thousand words. One photo can change the course of history. In the short film “A Glimpse of Life: The Pulitzer Photographs,” we are hit again and again with historical moments captured through the lens of a camera.
What does it take for a photograph to be worthy of the Pulitzer Prize? “It’s not a photography contest. It’s about telling some of the biggest stories of the year,” photojournalist William Snyder said. Some photos are more than just pictures. They affect us in different ways. A photo of an Olympic runner, with every muscle in his body flexed, sweat pouring down his brow and the agony of the race shown in his contorted face, captured just as he breaks through the finish line ribbon. Photos that make us feel pain and suffering and, perhaps, haunt us long after we look away. These are photos that are worthy for the Pulitzer Prize in Photojournalism.
In 1945, Joe Rosenthal of The Associated Press stood in the right spot at the right time on Iwo Jima, Japan, and shot one of the most recognizable photos of all time. This photo is of United States soldiers, dressed in combat gear, in various positions, standing on top of a pile of twisted metal and rubble. It captures them mid-point forcing a metal pole through this pile of waste.
The soldiers are grasping the pole on which an American flag waves in the wind. The contrast between the pile of rubble and the soldiers, with a clouded sky as a backdrop, is especially stunning. Whether on purpose or not, the fact that we see none of the soldiers’ faces represents that they could be any of the thousands of American soldiers.
In November 1963, as Lee Harvey Oswald was being escorted through a crowd of waiting photographers and reporters by police and FBI officers, he was likely the most hated man in America. Photojournalist, Robert Jackson was among those waiting outside the Dallas Police Department where Oswald was being held for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Jack Ruby was also waiting in the crowd and within seconds of Oswald exiting the building, Ruby pulled out a gun and shot Oswald point blank in the stomach. Robert Jackson captured the face of Lee Harvey Oswald at the very moment of the shot. He said, “It was very quick, and Ruby maybe took two steps. He fired, then I fired.” He continued, “If I had planned it, I probably would have missed it.” The photo was taken just beyond the darkened doorway, with an overhead light illuminating the scene, giving it the feeling of an old movie set.
Nick Ut, a Vietnamese photojournalist, won the Pulitzer Prize for his photo of children fleeing the horror of war in Viet Nam. The photo caused controversy for its content of a naked young girl running toward the camera. You can almost hear the screams in this still shot. The children’s faces display a horror that transcends words. The young girl’s clothes had been burned from the Napalm bombs dropped on their village. The Associated Press, for whom Ut worked, and other publications waived their rule of no frontal nudity and published the photo.
Interestingly, after the shot, Ut picked up the girl and took her to the hospital where he was told they wouldn’t be able to save her. He insisted that they try anyway. Kim Phuc is the 9-year-old girl in the photo. She now lives in Canada with her husband and children and has a lifelong bond with the man she calls “Uncle Ut.”
In 1975, Jerry Gay shot a photo that would receive the Pulitzer Prize. At first glance, it looks like a black and white photo of exhausted soldiers during war. They were just that, except the soldiers were Seattle firefighters, the weapons were water hoses and the enemy was fire. You can feel the emotions in their faces: looking defeated, sitting on the ground against a fire-ravaged hillside with thick gray smoke between them and the fire. Had the photo been shot in color film it could have lost all the emotion. Though color photos can add life to the subject, sometimes the lack of color brings out the feelings more sharply.
Michel du Cille and Carol Guzy won a Pulitzer for a photo taken in 1986 during the mudslides in Columbia. It is of a dark-skinned arm rising from the caked mud. Imagine replacing the mud with cool blue water and you might think it was a picture of an Olympic athlete breaking through the water in pursuit of gold in the 800-meter freestyle. It is stunning that one single arm can show the power and determination to survive.
The most moving part of “A Glimpse for Life” may be the words of photographer William Snyder from The Dallas Morning News. In 1991 he photographed the children of Romania, orphaned by war. He said, “I was so horrified, upset. But what was there was really hard to do—obviously, it still bothers me.” His eyes well up with tears as he excuses himself, putting his head down, unable to continue.
A picture of a short-haired boy who looks to be about 14 years old is hard to take your eyes from. He stands behind a rough-looking picket fence with one hand reaching through the pickets. Over this fence runs strands of barbed wire. He shows no emotion, no hope in his eyes, held captive in a scene not of his choosing. It’s a simple picture really, but with enough power to stab into the coldest of hearts.
Photojournalist Stan Grossfeld sums up what drives photojournalists with this powerful statement. “If I care about something, I can make half a million people care about it.”
