While the world was observing the 15th anniversary of 9/11 terror attacks, a 92-year-old woman Greta Friedman passed away in the US. The name hardly rang a bell, but the accompanying picture did.
Like the iconic picture of plane crashing into one of the twin towers, which epitomized terrorism in 21st century, her photo of being kissed by a sailor at New York's Times Square went on to acquire an iconic status to evoke the end of a turbulent era in the 20th century.
The photo was taken on Aug. 14, 1945 - the day Japan agreed to surrender and it marked the end of World War II. Known as V-J Day (victory over Japan), it evoked relief and euphoria in the backdrop of cataclysmic events such as Nazi concentration camps and the nuking of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Since then this particular photograph has been a regular fixture at photo exhibitions and photography classes. Apart from those pursuing serious photography, I mean those clicking beyond selfies, not many knew about the photographer or the people featured in the photo.
Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt randomly clicked the photo amid the crowded revelry in the Times Square and he had little idea who the people were.The photo was first published in Life magazine without much fanfare, in the inside pages, and gained recognition (or 'got viral' to use a social media term) much later. It was widely reproduced by various publications and so did the reader curiosity regarding the couple.
There were many claimants to be the kissing couple and it was only around 1980 it was confirmed that it was George Mendonsa and Greta Friedman, an Austria-born nurse who lost her parents in Nazi concentration camps.
Those days photography was coming of age, stepping out of the shadows of painting to be an art form in itself. The cameras had become less unwieldy and user friendly (though still primitive by current digital standards), but colour photography was still many decades away.
As only black and white photos were possible Eisenstaedt was looking for contrasts. In his book 'Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt: A Self-Portrait' he said, “If she [Friedman] had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same.”
And the rest they say is history.
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