Marilyn Monroe, 1953 by Alfred Eisenstaedt.
(Source: christiantheatheist)
Romantic boho bedrooms
Worth walking suit, 1898
From the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Alfred Eisenstaedt: A jubilant American sailor clutching a white-uniformed nurse in a back-bending, passionate kiss as he vents his joy while thousands jam Times Square to celebrate the long awaited-victory over Japan, New York, 1945.
“In Times Square on V.J. Day, I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing every girl in sight. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse…I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds.”
This is the most famous picture that Alfred Eisenstaedt ever took. This image has been reproduced countless times and resulted from Eisie’s instinct for what would make a good photograph. He recounted that he had followed the sailor who was “running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn’t make any difference.”
The picture, that of a sailor in his blue uniform kissing a nurse in her white uniform, with a passion usually reserved for lovers, became synonymous with the mood of celebration the country felt at the war’s end. Even those who did not know his name, knew his picture.
Eisenstaedt was almost 47-years-old when he took that picture. He got it as he got many of his pictures-persistence rather than planning. He often noted that he had learned it was the reaction to an event that created the best picture, rather than the event itself. That day in August of 1945, Eisenstaedt was simply walking among the crowd that had gathered on the streets of New York. One of the people he noticed was a sailor who was kissing his way through the crowd. He followed him long enough to see him grab the woman whose outfit in white brought the contrast of the sailor’s blue to his keen eye. At that moment, Eisenstaedt snapped the picture.
„I will be remembered when I’m in heaven. People won’t remember my name, but they will know the photographer who did that picture of that nurse being kissed by the sailor at the end of World War II. Everybody remembers that.”
For many years, the identities of the sailor and the nurse in the famous picture remained unknown. But in 1980, a woman named Edith Shain stepped forward and said she was the nurse in the photo. In interviews she has claimed that many sailors were out kissing everyone that day because they were happy to be home and would not be going back to war. It took a bit longer for the sailor to be identified. Glenn McDuffie said in 2007 that he was the sailor in the picture. According to McDuffie, he was exiting the subway in New York when a lady expressed how happy she was for him on account of the end of the war. He ran out into the street cheering and hollering, and then grabbed the nurse and kissed her. It is impossible to prove or disprove absolutely the claims of McDuffie and Shain, and Time has said that the reason why the photo has remained so iconic is because it represents everyman.
Buckminster Fuller poses at the wheel of his car, Dymaxion Car Number One, with another man in the driver’s seat at the Century of Progress, c. 1933. Photograph from Hedrich-Blessing.
Want a copy of this photo?
> Visit our Rights and Reproductions Department and give them this number: HB-01823-G.
Cavemen’s musical instruments date back 40,000 years
The instruments, along with other signs of artistic creativity, date back to 42,000 to 43,000 years ago, during the upper Paleolithic period.
c. 1870
The Met says “The bustle silhouette, although primarily associated with the second half of the 19th century, originated in earlier fashions as a simple bump at the back of the dress, such as with late 17th-early 18th century mantuas and late 18th- early 19th century Empire dresses. The full-blown bustle silhouette had its first Victorian appearance in the late 1860s, which started as fullness in skirts moving to the back of the dress. This fullness was drawn up in ties for walking that created a fashionable puff. This trendsetting puff expanded and was then built up with supports from a variety of different things such as horsehair, metal hoops and down. Styles of this period were often taken from historical inspiration and covered in various types of trim and lace. Accessories were petite and allowed for the focus on the large elaborate gowns. Around 1874, the style altered and the skirts began to hug the thighs in the front while the bustle at the back was reduced to a natural flow from the waist to the train. This period was marked by darker colors, asymmetrical drapery, oversize accessories and elongated forms created by full-length coats. Near the beginning of the 1880s the trends altered once again to include the bustle, this time it would reach its maximum potential with some skirts having the appearance of a full shelf at the back. The dense textiles preferred were covered in trimming, beadwork, puffs and bows to visually elevate them further. The feminine silhouette continued like this through 1889 before the skirts began to reduce and make way for the S-curve silhouette.”