August 14, 1945: Times Square and a Couple of Kisses

You must remember this....

Life Magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt took the iconic image of the nurse and sailor locked in an embrace (she is headlocked, actually) in NYC's Times Square on August 14, 1945, 70 years ago today.

Since then the image has been reproduced, re-staged, reenacted, and remembered in a multitude of ways. It's been investigated too.

On the 70th anniversary of the famous photograph, let's remember that Mr. Eisenstaedt also took time to celebrate the surrender of Japan, and the end of World War II, by doing a little kissing himself.

Alfred to Kissee: "Do You Leica This?"

Eisenstaedt, who was born in Poland and later fled Hitler's Germany in 1935, had a long and distinguished career. After working as a photographer in Berlin, he settled in Queens, New York, and started working for Life in 1935.

The setting for "the kiss" was his stomping grounds. Each day he walked from his home to his office at the Avenue of the Americas and 51st Street. On the day that the surrender of Japan was announced, Eisenstaedt was at the epicenter of the city's celebrations, taking photographs, and even doing a little celebrating himself.

~Jenny Thompson