Pictures are a combination of serendipity, instinct and experience, of course a good photographer has all of these things going for him.

Hal Buell

Categorized in : Top News

But it's not particularly a perfect timeline of history, if I were to do a book of photographs that recorded a timeline of history, there would be some Pulitzer winners that would not be in there and there would be some that would be.

This picture never fails to draw a gasp, the picture itself is the news; it shows that dramatic moment between life and death.

The horror of war, that photo will always be a symbol of that con... by Hal Buell

The horror of war, that photo will always be a symbol of that concept.

He came alongside the stage and he put his camera on stage ... and he kind of blindly shot the picture, it's one of those vignettes ... an oddity that caught the eye of the editors.

The most surprising thing to me is... that even today there are many people who believe that the picture was posed, it still comes up over and over again.

Like any good, experienced and talented photographer, there's a sense of anticipation and a sense of shooting a picture at peak action -- and Joe got it, you couldn't have captured the action at a better peak. A moment earlier, and the flag would have been too low. If it had been a second later, the flag's staff would have been straight up and the photo wouldn't have had that strong diagonal line.

It's exquisite, you have this strong, diagonal line made by the flag staff. You have the flag snapping in the breeze. You have the pyramid-like shape of the Marines pushing the flag up. The men obviously are separate, but they appear as one. The blank background enhances the action by providing no distractions. Also, the photo is gifted with a softly filtered light. A very thin haze of clouds filters the light so that the shadows aren't harsh, but there is detail in all the shadows on the uniforms and the flag.

There's just no comparison, i mean, we're talking about the diffe... by Hal Buell

There's just no comparison, i mean, we're talking about the difference between diamonds and glass.

They came to the conclusion that the picture was not posed, it was an authentic news picture of the second flag being raised.

Louis Lowery said it was an honest-to-God picture and they remained friends, in fact, Joe attended Lou Lowery's funeral when he died.

Joe Rosenthal stopped and was struck by a wave of emotion about what it cost to put that flag up there.

Joe did not pose that picture. by Hal Buell

Joe did not pose that picture.

It was perfectly serviceable. by Hal Buell

It was perfectly serviceable.