thedrifter
09-15-06, 07:18 AM
Honors for Joseph Rosenthal
- Chronicle Staff Report
Friday, September 15, 2006
The Navy Department's Distinguished Public Service Award will be presented posthumously today to Joseph J. Rosenthal, the photographer who took the famous picture of Marines raising the flag on Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima during World War II.
The presentation will occur during a ceremony at the Marines Memorial Association in San Francisco at 1 p.m. Speakers will include retired Lt. Gen. Larry Snowden, the senior survivor of the Iwo Jima landing; Maj. Gen. Michael Lehnert, representing the commandant of the Marine Corps; and David Kennerly, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who was a friend of Mr. Rosenthal's.
The ceremony is open to the public.
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m. Saturday at St. Emydius Church, 286 Ashton Ave., San Francisco.
Mr. Rosenthal died Aug. 20 at the age of 94. The family prefers memorial contributions to the St. Anthony's Dining Room, 121 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, CA 94102, or the Marines Memorial Association, 602 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94102.
Ellie
thedrifter
09-16-06, 07:54 AM
A photographer worth thousands of words
Paying respect to man who shot the greatest photo of all
- Steve Rubenstein, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Photographer Joe Rosenthal, who caught the 1/400th of a second that defined the courage and sacrifice of a country at war, was remembered on Friday as a gentle, gracious and gifted photojournalist who was in perpetual awe of the bravery of the ordinary American soldier.
"Joe's picture offered hope to our nation that victory would ultimately be ours,'' said Larry Snowden, a retired three-star Marine Corps general. "It captures a moment that is revered forever in the history of our corps.''
Rosenthal, who died Aug. 20 in Novato at the age of 94, took the picture of five Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the flag on the mountaintop above the Iwo Jima battlefield during World War II. Taken on Feb. 23, 1945, it has been called the most famous photograph of all time.
A standing-room auditorium full of hundreds of friends and family gathered at the Marines Memorial Theater in San Francisco to celebrate Rosenthal's remarkable six-decade career behind the viewfinder, and also to gaze at his photographs and listen to his recorded interviews.
"Yes, I'm the fellow who took the picture of the flag raising,'' Rosenthal's voice echoed in the hall, "but it was the Marines who took Iwo Jima.''
For three decades after the war, Rosenthal was a photographer for The San Francisco Chronicle. His friend, reporter Carl Nolte, recalled that Rosenthal was a "short, stocky guy with a toothbrush mustache'' who rarely spoke of the horrors he had seen on the battlefield.
"He may have looked like somebody's grandfather, but he was a tough guy," Nolte said. "He dressed in a serviceable suit, worn and shiny. He was rumpled. He was a consummate professional who never drew attention to himself.''
As a staff photographer, Nolte said, Rosenthal was called upon to shoot "press conferences, fires, cheap crimes, the mayor and Seabiscuit the horse.''
Rosenthal's daughter, Anne, said she hoped her father could be remembered for "more than the time to click one camera shutter.''
"He was idealistic, he could be stubborn, but he had a sense of fair play,'' she said. "His word was as good as gold, and he was always 10 minutes early.''
His daughter fondly recalled her father's love of ham and cheese sandwiches, split pea soup, horse races, the pumpkin fields of Half Moon Bay and his two pet box turtles, Dasher and Dancer.
Rosenthal, a native of Washington, D.C., became a photographer after poor eyesight prevented him from enlisting in the military.
"Joe didn't have to be at Iwo Jima,'' said Marine Maj. Gen. Mike Lehnert. "It took great courage to be on Iwo Jima. Joe had great courage. If he had not been on that mountaintop, exposing himself to the same dangers, that moment would have been lost to history.''
Rosenthal, who won the Pulitzer Prize for photography, always kept his fame in check. He gave away countless copies of the picture, and always kept a supply in the trunk of his Chronicle photo car. He never accepted money for it. But, as he would sign the photo for a well-wisher, he would discreetly include a pre-addressed envelope so that a donation might be sent to the St. Anthony Dining Room in San Francisco.
Another friend, photographer David Hume Kennerly, called the Mount Suribachi masterpiece the "Gettysburg Address of photography'' and read aloud tributes to Rosenthal from former Presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush.
He added, with a smile, that Rosenthal took his pictures long before the days of digital cameras.
"There were no second chances,'' Kennerly said. "No digital replay to see if you got it or not.''
At the end of the service, the auditorium fell silent as dozens of Rosenthal's lesser-known World War II photographs filled the screen. Many were horrific images of the body-strewn battlefields of the Pacific.
"The exploits of the Marine Corps were very special,'' Rosenthal reminded the crowd in a printed page of recollections. "I saw hand-to-hand combat, mortar attacks, artillery attacks tear bodies to pieces. I saw boys become men. Those Marines saved the day and saved our country for us, up to and including today.''
A memorial Mass will be celebrated at 1 p.m. today at St. Emydius Church, 286 Ashton Ave., San Francisco.
E-mail Steve Rubenstein at srubenstein@sfchronicle.com.
Ellie