San Francisco names street for Associated Press photographer who captured the iconic Iwo Jima photo

 BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

December 12, 2024

U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raise a U.S. flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, Japan, Feb. 23, 1945. (AP Photo/Joe Rosenthal, File)

Credit/©: ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A photojournalist who captured one of the most enduring images of World War II — the U.S. Marines raising the flag on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima — will have a block in downtown San Francisco named for him Thursday.

Joe Rosenthal, who died in 2006 at age 94, was working for The Associated Press in 1945 when he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning photo.

After the war, he went to work as a staff photographer for the San Francisco Chronicle, and for 35 years until his retirement in 1981, he captured moments of city life both extraordinary and routine.

Rosenthal photographed famous people for the paper, including a young Willie Mays getting his hat fitted as a San Francisco Giant in 1957, and regular people, including children making a joyous dash for freedom on the last day of school in 1965.

Tom Graves, chapter historian for the USMC Combat Correspondents Association, which pushed for the street naming, said it was a shame the talented and humble Rosenthal is known by most for just one photograph.

“From kindergarten to parades, to professional and amateur sports games, he was the hometown photographer,” he told the Chronicle. “I think that’s something that San Francisco should recognize and cherish.”

The 600 block of Sutter Street near downtown’s Union Square will become Joe Rosenthal Way. The Marines Memorial Club, which sits on the block, welcomes the street’s new name.

Rosenthal never considered himself a wartime hero, just a working photographer lucky enough to document the courage of soldiers.

When complimented on his Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, Rosenthal said: “Sure, I took the photo. But the Marines took Iwo Jima.”

Photographers revisit 9/11; 'It was that horrific'

Firefighters at Ground Zero, Sept. 11, 2001
© Bergen Record

Via msnbc Photo Blog

In his new documentary "Witness to History," photojournalist Thomas Franklin revisits 9/11 through the eyes - and lenses - of photojournalists who captured iconic photos that day.

Becky Bratu writes

When Tom Franklin, photojournalist for The Record newspaper in New Jersey, took the picture showing three firemen raising the American flag above the rubble of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, he had no idea it would become an iconic image.

“It was something that just happened,” he said. “I shot it the best way I could and I moved on.”

Franklin said he was standing about 30 yards away from the three firefighters, and the photo was one of a series of frames he shot of them that fateful afternoon.

On the 10-year anniversary of 9/11, Franklin - now a multimedia editor for NorthJersey.com - revisits the day of the attacks in a new documentary about the iconic photos of the day and the photojournalists who captured them. Franklin says photographers played an important role in documenting the historic day.

“I hope a lot of people get to see [the documentary],” he told msnbc.com. “It’s a way of recognizing what journalists do.”

Featuring dramatic images of 9/11, the 13-minute documentary “Witness to History” looks behind the lenses of professional photographers such as David Handschuh of the New York Daily News and Aris Economopoulos of the New Jersey Star-Ledger, and accidental witnesses such as Carmen Taylor, who happened to be visiting New York from Arkansas that day.

Taylor, who was on vacation by herself, told Franklin she would have been screaming if she hadn’t been busy taking photos.

While iconic, most of the images from that day are stirring, if not shocking. Franklin argues there is real value in retelling what happened, particularly because of the horror of the events.

“9/11 was that bad,” he said. “It was that horrific.”

Watch the entire documentary here, and watch Thomas Franklin explain how he got the iconic image of the firemen raising the American flag.


Thomas Franklin's photograph of Firefighters at Ground Zero, Sept. 11, 2001 is included in the exhibition "History's Big Picture" at Monroe Gallery of Photography through September 25, 2011.