Alfred Eisenstaedt

Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898–1995) was a German‑American photojournalist whose work for Life magazine set the standard for modern picture‑storytelling. Born in Dirschau (now Tczew, Poland), he moved with his family to Berlin in 1906 and served in the German Army during World War I. After covering the Nobel Prize ceremonies in Stockholm for a German publication in 1929, he began using the then‑new 35 mm Leica camera—an unobtrusive tool that would define his candid style.

In 1936, following Hitler’s rise to power, Eisenstaedt immigrated to the United States and became one of Life’s four original staff photographers. Over more than five decades he produced over 2,500 picture stories and shot 90 covers, capturing everyone from Winston Churchill and John F. Kennedy to Marlene Dietrich and Charlie Chaplin. His mastery of the Leica allowed him to anticipate and record unguarded moments, bringing an unprecedented intimacy to news and celebrity imagery.

Eisenstaedt’s most iconic photograph—known simply as “The Kiss”—depicts an exuberant sailor embracing a nurse in Times Square on V‑J Day, August 14, 1945. That single frame, like much of his work, balanced technical precision with human emotion, establishing a visual shorthand for both historical significance and the joy of everyday life.

Honored as “Photographer of the Year” by both Encyclopedia Britannica and the University of Missouri School of Journalism in 1951, Eisenstaedt later received the Presidential Medal of Arts and the ICP Infinity Master of Photography Award. He continued photographing into his nineties, leaving a legacy of images that continue to inspire photojournalists around the world.