Joe Rosenthal

ROSENTHAL, Joe (1911.10.09-2006.08.20) Washington D.C. Associated Press photographer who captured a Pulitzer Prize-winning shot titled, "Old Glory goes up on Mt. Suribachi." on Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945.

Major themes World War II

Career His famous photograph showed a few US soldiers pushing a large American flag upright on the captured mountain. The photo was published on the front page of the New York Times and later served as the model for the Iwo Jima Memorial in Washington D.C. It becomes one of the most famous war-time photos in history.

Iwo Jima is one of the Bonin Islands (Ogasawara) about halfway between Tokyo and Guam. The islands were under US control from 1945 to 1968.

After college, he joined the Newspaper Enterprise Association in San Francisco and later became a staff photographer with the San Francisco Examiner.

At the start of World War II, he applied to the US Army to be a military photographer, but was rejected due to poor eyesight. The Associated Press sent him to cover the war in the Pacific.

After the war, he became the chief photographer of Times Wide World Photos and later worked for the San Francisco Chronicle. (2002.11.24)

Awards Pulitzer Prize, 1945

Sample photos http://www.newseum.org/warstories/interviews/mov/journalists/bio.asp?ID=32