Does It Matter if One of the World's Most Iconic Images Was Staged?

 

Does it matter if one of the world's most iconic images was staged? Think of the American Marines planting the flag after taking the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in 1945. The first time was unrehearsed, but Marine Corps Lt. Col. Chandler Johnson thought that the flag should be a bigger one. Thus, a second snap of the men putting the larger flag in the soil on Mount Surbachi was taken. All these years later, the image remains iconic without most people knowing or caring about the details. 

Or what about the famous Times Square photo of a Navy sailor planting a kiss on a nurse on V-J Day?  The snap is the stuff that dreams are made of. George Mendonsa (on leave from serving in the Pacific) was overwhelmingly thrilled that the war was over. To celebrate, he took hold of Greta Zimmerman-Friedman (a dental assistant from Queens and not a nurse as has been long assumed) and gave a her a smooch that would go down in history. Photographer Alfred Eisenstadt confirmed that this was totally impromptu and not staged. 

We appreciate the Marines in a somewhat orchestrated second photo and the sailor and the dental assistant in a verified candid image in a very public place. They remind people of moments from history that were important and worth celebrating. People who love these images aren't concerned with whether they were staged or not but more with how the images make them feel.

But there is another iconic image that is not what it seems to be. "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" is an enduringly iconic picture that I have seen in bars, restaurants, stores, doctors' offices, and even in places overseas. It is easily one of the most famous images in photographic history; however, it was not taken by chance by a daring photographer above New York City – it was staged. It and other images of the same men were taken for publicity..

The men were real ironworkers who agreed to take the photos. These guys were really having lunch, but not necessarily doing their daily routine on a beam on top of what would become 30 Rockefeller Center high above the street courting death. They agreed to do it, and the photo was published in the Herald Tribune in October 1932 at the height of the Depression. 

The image seemed to strike a chord with those who were laborers and those who wished they had a job in that struggling economy. It rings of hope for something bigger than ourselves, something lasting and significant. Those 11 men did not know that their faces would become famous and, sadly, none of the men in the picture or the photographer who took it are known to history.  

It matters little now if the picture was staged or not. Its legacy is that it has stood the test of time and has indelibly captured the essence of bravery and endurance, just as the second image of the Marines planting the flag means more about courage and good defeating evil, so the details matter little now. And the sailor and nurse's kiss in the Crossroads of the World, while impromptu, reaffirms the concepts of romance and hopefulness at the end of a terrible war. 

So, let's enjoy these images for what they are instead of what they are not. They are memorable because they strike a chord of humanity in a world that oftentimes seems inhumane.