Joe,I hope you have taken your Speed Graphic along with you.

We shall miss you,but never forgotten that's for sure.God Bless....

Well said, Sid! His name may fade from memory but his work will live forever.

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/obituaries/index.html

Excellent obituary for Mr. Rosenthal. It won't be there forever, so read it now.

Free registration may be required.

Mr Rosenthal's Speed is in the George Eastman House http://www.eastmanhouse.org

http://www.eastmanhouse.org/exhibits/container_3/index.php

A reference to Mr. Rosenthal's Speed in the 2003 exebitions.


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: tsgrimm on 2006-08-23 09:57 ]</font>

Yes,read OK,no problem.

Did I read somewhere that the negs still exist at A.P.HQ in N.Y.and they opened the vault to take a look at the famous pictures only recently.

Quote:

On 2006-08-23 10:22, Graflex Sid wrote: Did I read somewhere that the negs still exist at A.P.HQ in N.Y.and they opened the vault to take a look at the famous pictures only recently.

Hi Sid...

I hadn't read that, but somewhere around my humble abode here I have a videotape of a History Channel documentary about the battle of Iwo Jima and the Flag Raisings. As I recall, the tape begins with a brief segment with actor Gene Hackman walking up to Joe's Speed Graphic (on a tripod) and saying the line "...1/400th of a second, that's all it took..."

To answer your question, later in the same documentary they interview some AP official who takes us viewers into the bowels of the building to a locked cabinet in a climate controlled room, in which rests several cameras on a shelf and the original 4x5 camera negative of the famous photo, along with a few enlargements. How many of Rosenthal's OTHER negatives repose there is not mentioned, but the priceless one is definitely there.

As an aside does anyone have a link to, or can post a picture of, Joe's Anny Speed Graphic? I've searched the Eastman sites but to no avail. I have recently seen a photo of Joe standing under the flag shortly after it was raised and he is holding the camera at his side by the handstrap, but I can find no "museum" photos of the camera (except the quick glimpse we see of it in the History Channel documentary).

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: sobahguy on 2006-08-23 17:52 ]</font>

Found it!

The report came from Richard Pyle,an A.P.Writer,published in the N.Y.DAILY NEWS on August 21st.under the heading "Iwo Jima photo remains an icon for the marine corps"

...and went on to say "The most famous photograph of World War II,and maybe of all time,rests in a box in a locked steel cage at A.P. photo library in New York.The death of JOE ROSENTHAL,the man who took it,was an occasion to bring it out for a rare examination"

"Donning white cotten gloves,A.P.chief photo librarian,Charles Zoeller,opened the box marked 'Iwo Jima 1945,Joe Rosenthal,0 negs' Inside were 31 5x4 negs from the Speed Graphic camera that Rosenthal had carried through one of the bloodiest battles of the pacific war,including The Picture."

It went on to say..."Zoeller flipped the switch on a light board and held up the neg.There it was-the black & white image of 5 marines and one navy corpsman pushing a flagpole upward in what would become the ultimate symbol of that conflict"

The picture was taken Feb 23rd.1945.