By 1972 he had photographed nearly 2,500 stories and had more than 90 of his photos on the cover. He remained a staff photographer from 1936 to 1972, achieving notability for his photojournalism of news events and celebrities.Īlong with entertainers and celebrities, he photographed politicians, philosophers, artists, industrialists, and authors during his career with Life.
The following year, 1936, Time founder Henry Luce bought Life magazine, and Eisenstaedt, already noted for his photography in Europe, was asked to join the new magazine as one of its original staff of four photographers, including Margaret Bourke-White and Robert Capa. They arrived in 1935 and settled in New York, where he subsequently became a naturalized citizen, and joined fellow Associated Press émigrés Leon Daniel and Celia Kutschuk in their PIX Publishing photo agency founded that year. Oppression in Hitler's Nazi Germany caused them to emigrate to the U.S. While working for Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Alfred took over 3,500 photographs in Ethiopia, before emigrating to the United States, where he joined Life magazine, but returned in the following year to Ethiopia to continue his photography.Įisenstaedt's family was Jewish. In 1935, Fascist Italy's impending invasion of Ethiopia led to a burst of international interest in Ethiopia. Although initially friendly, Goebbels scowled at Eisenstaedt when he took the photograph, after learning that Eisenstaedt was Jewish. Moritz in 1932 and Joseph Goebbels at the League of Nations in Geneva in 1933. Other notable early pictures by Eisenstaedt include his depiction of a waiter at the ice rink of the Grand Hotel in St.
Four years later he photographed the famous first meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Italy. The office was taken over by the Associated Press in 1931.Įisenstaedt became a full-time photographer in 1929 when he was hired by the Associated Press office in Germany, and within a year he was described as a "photographer extraordinaire." He also worked for Illustrierte Zeitung, published by Ullstein Verlag, then the world's largest publishing house. While working as a belt and button salesman in the 1920s in Weimar Germany, Eisenstaedt began taking photographs as a freelancer for the Pacific and Atlantic Photos' Berlin office in 1928. He later served in the German Army's artillery during World War I and was wounded in 1918. Eisenstaedt was fascinated by photography from his youth and began taking pictures at age 11 when he was given his first camera, an Eastman Kodak Folding Camera with roll film. His family was Jewish and moved to Berlin in 1906. He was "renowned for his ability to capture memorable images of important people in the news" and for his candid photographs taken with a small 35mm Leica camera, typically with natural lighting.Įisenstaedt was born in Dirschau (Tczew) in West Prussia, Imperial Germany in 1898. Life featured more than 90 of his pictures on its covers, and more than 2,500 of his photo stories were published.Īmong his most famous cover photographs was V-J Day in Times Square, taken during the V-J Day celebration in New York City, showing an American sailor kissing a nurse in a "dancelike dip" which "summed up the euphoria many Americans felt as the war came to a close", in the words of his obituary. He began his career in Germany prior to World War II but achieved prominence as a staff photographer for Life magazine after moving to the U.S. Alfred Eisenstaedt (Decem– August 23, 1995) was a German-born American photographer and photojournalist.
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