One of them cuts in on the sailor for a kiss with the nurse. Explore {{searchView.params.phrase}} by color family {{familyColorButtonText(colorFamily.name)}} [25], Mendonsa was identified by a team of volunteers from the Naval War College in August 2005 as "the kisser". (Reuters photo: Brendan McDermid) The iconic WWII V-J Day photo comes under fire from the Trigger Warning crowd. [4] The photograph does not clearly show the face of either person involved, and numerous people have claimed to be the subjects. William C. Shrout The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images Written By: Eliza Berman Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square, after news broke of the Japanese surrender in World War II, has lived a storied life since it was taken on August 15, 1945. V-J Day in Times Square (1945), taken on August 14th in midtown Manhattan by acclaimed Life photojournalist Greta Zimmer Friedman, identified later as the nurse in the photo, became the subject of perhaps the most iconic photo taken on V-J Day on Aug. 14, 1945… Unlike the Eisenstaedt photograph, which is protected by copyright, this Navy photograph is in the public domain because it was produced by a federal government employee on official duty. [12], "It wasn't my choice to be kissed. Lawrence Verria and George Galdorisi, authors of The Kissing Sailor, a 2012 book about the identity of the subjects of the photograph that had become so famous, used interviews of claimants, expert photograph analysis, and identification of people in the background, as well as, consultations with forensic anthropologists and facial recognition specialists. “I went straight to Times Square,” Greta Zimmer Friedman said in a 2005 interview for the Library of Congress’s Veterans History Project, “where I saw on the lighted billboard that goes around the building, V-J Day, V-J Day, and that really confirmed what the people have said in the office.” A two-page spread faces a montage of three similar photographs of cele… V-J Day in Times Square. "[17] In one of the four photographs that Eisenstaedt took, Mendonsa claims that Rita is visible in the background behind the kissing couple. A uniformed sailor clutches a woman at her waist, her back arched dramatically as their lips lock, their faces obscured. Takes His Bride on a Battlefield Tour, Feeling a Draft: LIFE’s Ode to Beer Drinkers, Canada’s School on Wheels: A Teacher’s Daughter Remembers. [37][38] He stated that on that day he was using the subway to go to Brooklyn to visit his girlfriend, Ardith Bloomfield. Explore the Photograph. The picture portrays a U.S. Navy sailor grabbing and kissing a stranger—a woman in a white dress—on Victory over Japan Day (“V-J Day”) in New York City’s Times Square on August 14, 1945. V-J Day Kiss in Times Square. Glenn McDuffie laid claim in 2007 and was supported by Houston Police Department forensic artist Lois Gibson. A nurse saw him, and opened her arms to him. But “The Kiss” was not the only photograph taken that day, nor was Eisenstaedt the only photographer navigating the boisterous New York City festivities. [28][29] The Sarasota Police Department was notified and authorities have since restored the statue. [8], His photograph became a cultural icon overnight and, by establishing his copyright, Eisenstaedt carefully controlled the rights to it, only allowing a limited number of reproductions that determined how it could be used.[9]. Another LIFE photographer, William C. Shrout, brought a different set of negatives back to the office that day, with his own perspective on the people’s response to peace. Friedman died at age 92 on September 8, 2016, in Richmond, Virginia, of age-related health complications. The image on that day in Times Square is perfect: The … According to Mendonsa's account of the events of the day, the kiss would have occurred at approximately 2 p.m. [7], I was walking through the crowds on V-J Day, looking for pictures. Publishing information about those claiming to be the subjects of the Eisensteadt photograph, an October 1980 issue of Life did not include Muscarello or Glenn McDuffie,[41] because their claims were made much later. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. This was the hectic scene in Times Square, New York City, on August 14, 1945, otherwise known as Victory over Japan Day, or V-J Day. Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt. The original interpretations of the photograph centered on the jubilation of the 1945 V-J Day celebrations. In 2012, while performing a show for the Marines during the New York City Fleet Week, singer Katy Perry kissed a man on stage, replicating the pose. was unveiled on August 24, 2013, to honor the event captured in the photograph. Often called “The Kiss,” it became the iconic image of celebration at war’s end, a black-and-white bookend separating an era of darkness from the beginning of a time of peace. Explore {{searchView.params.phrase}} by color family {{familyColorButtonText(colorFamily.name)}} I took exactly four pictures. My first impression of the image was that it conveyed a sense of unparalleled happiness and spontaneity. In recent decades this iconic photograph has engendered condemnation, after Greta Zimmer Friedman, the woman being kissed by the sailor (believed to have been George Mendonsa) said that the kiss was nonconsensual. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. Mendonsa planted a kiss on Friedman, whom he had never met. V-J Day celebrations in Times Square, August 14, 1945. On August 3, 2008, Glenn McDuffie was recognized for his 81st birthday as the "Kissing Sailor" during the seventh-inning stretch of the Houston Astros and New York Mets game at Minute Maid Park. In 2019, shortly after Mendonsa died at age 95, a statue of the kiss in Florida was tagged with #metoo graffiti. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. The astonished woman on the left in Jorgensen's photograph has been positively identified as Kay Hughes Dorius of Utah.[11]. August 1945. They concluded that Mendonsa's version of events is untenable. The photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt was first published in Life magazine and is called "V-J Day in Times Square," … Taken on V-J Day, 1945, as thousands jammed Times Square. V-J Day in Times Square (also V-Day and The Kiss) is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays a U.S. Navy sailor grabbing and kissing a stranger—a woman in a white dress—on Victory over Japan Day (“V-J Day”) in New York City ‘s Times Square on August 14, 1945. V-J Day in Times Square, also known as V-J and The Kiss, was taken on August 14, 1945. "[31] Muscarello has described his condition on August 14, 1945 as being quite drunk,[32] and having no clear memory of his actions in the square. It was Tuesday noon August 14, 1945 when Radio Tokyo broadcasted a statement by Emperor Hirohito. In recent decades this iconic photograph has engendered condemnation, after Greta Zimmer Friedman, the woman being kissed by the sailor (believed to have been George Mendonsa) said that the kiss was nonconsensual. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. He stated that his mother claimed he was the man after seeing the photograph, and he came to believe it.[33]. Alfred Eisenstaed—Time Life/Getty Images. It was done within a few seconds. And Shrout’s images of the man behind that photo remind us that, even if a photojournalist is meant to be an impartial witness to history, he is also a part of the history he is witnessing. I wasn't kissing him. Navy Vet in 'V-J Day in Times Square' Photo Dies. In the August 14, 2007, issue of AM New York McDuffie said he passed five polygraph tests confirming his claim to be the man. She measured his ears, facial bones, hairline, wrist, knuckles, and hand, and she compared those to enlargements of Eisenstaedt's photograph. [22], George Mendonsa (or alternatively Mendonça, according to certain sources) of Newport, Rhode Island, on leave from the USS The Sullivans (DD-537), was watching a movie with his future wife, Rita Petry,[17] at Radio City Music Hall when the doors opened and people started screaming the war was over. They concluded that the woman was Greta Zimmer Friedman and that she was wearing her dental hygienist uniform in the photograph. V-J Day in Times Square is a photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt that portrays an American sailor kissing a woman in a white dress on Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) in … [citation needed] McDuffie died on March 14, 2014.[40]. Day I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. The photograph is dark and shows few details of the main subjects, not showing the lower legs and feet of the subjects, but showing clearly the powerful headlock. A statue commemorating Eisenstaedt’s photo in Times Square, August 2015. 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