Today on back to school, we’re looking at influential photojournalist and portrait photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt.
Born in Germany in 1898, Alfred and his family moved to Berlin in 1906 where he started becoming fascinated with his parents Kodak Brownie. After WW1, Eisenstaedt became a button salesman, working as a freelance photographer on the side.
In 1929 he was hired by the associated press, and began his career in earnest. In 1933, he was given exclusive coverage of the league of nations meeting where he photographed the first meeting of Hitler and Mussolini - as well as this candid photograph of Joseph Goebbels.
Photographed in a moment of uncharacteristic candidness on his 35mm Leica, this image has become one of the most enduring images of the lead up to WW2 and ran in LIFE and TIME magazine simultaneously upon its release.
_____________
#AlfredEisenstaedt#lifemagazine#timemagazine#photojournalism#photographichistory#arthistory#backtoschool#photojournalist#documentaryphotography
After the outbreak of war in Germany, Eisenstaedt and his family left for New York City where he became LIFE magazines lead staff photographer, working with Margaret Bourke-White and Robert Capa to cover WW2, and the war effort of the UK, US and all the other allied nations.
Eisenstaedt was known for being extremely prolific in his output, and by the end of his career he had photographed more than 2500 stories for LIFE and TIME - but the most enduring is this photograph from a story marking the end of the war. A solider and a nurse in an embrace in times square.
This picture has become one of the most enduring images of all time, despite the romantic story being debunked.
_____________
#AlfredEisenstaedt#lifemagazine#timemagazine#photojournalism#photographichistory#arthistory#backtoschool#photojournalist#documentaryphotography
Although mostly known for his celebrated journalistic output, Eisenstaedt also created portraits of some of histories most famous people - Alfred Einstein, Winston Churchill, Sophia Loren, and perhaps most famously, Marilyn Monroe.
Eisenstaedt lived alone in his house in Jackson Heights, Queens from 1935 until the end of his life. He continued photographing for his entire life, even working on a series for People magazine on the newly elected Clinton family in their home weeks before his death.
He died at 96 in his home in Queens.
_____________
#AlfredEisenstaedt#lifemagazine#timemagazine#photojournalism#photographichistory#arthistory#backtoschool#photojournalist#documentaryphotography