It is impossible for someone to truly understand the depth of emotion that a service member experiences coming home from a grueling war. The United States ended WWII with a victory and began the voyage home. Sailors, Marines, Airmen, and Soldiers all returning home after one of the deadliest wars in hopes to see their family. Months and months of a life filled with the highest highs and lowest lows of emotions finally on the downward slope all coming to an end once the feet of these men touched American soil. This linear perspective picture taken by LIFE magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, shows us how a lifetime full of emotions can be warped up in one moment. Alfred captured the happiest moment in this young man's life to that point. At first glance one would think these two "love birds" were celebrating a long time apart with a romantic kiss, but as we know there is a deeper story behind a moment in time captured by photography.
This picture was captured in the middle of Times Square New York for Life magazine. There is a remarkable field of view for the cameras that were available in the mid 40's. The iconic street view of the city is grasped by the image. Knowing that a photographer for a highly regarded magazine took this photograph we can assume that he took hundreds if not thousands of them. He saw something in this picture that he knew would have the effect that I did. There are many things that help this picture catch the eye of the viewer. This picture was not edited what so ever and the fact that it is perfectly centered is sheer coincidence. The focus on the old-time cameras was all but nonexistent but somehow this kiss was captured at the perfect time at the perfect place.
After a very revealing study of this image, I gained a newfound understanding of it. Many of the people who have gazed at this picture have the thought that the nurse and the sailor were in love or at least a couple.
In actuality, on June eleventh 1939, shortly after being born at Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital, the child of a student and a sailor is taken to Joan at her Brentwood home and named Joan Crawford Jr. ... She is photographed in bed with Oscar statue. ... Christina spends many years at Chadwick before her mother pulls her out after she is caught kissing a boy in the barn. ...
Scenes 1+2 The Wingfield apartment faces an alley in a lower middle class St. Louis tenement. There is a fire escape with a landing that serves as a porch. "The scene is memory," indicate the stage directions, and, as such, the interior is "rather dim and poetic." There is a screen-like surface on ...
