thanks in part to an early, spontaneous encounter with an exhibit of Henri Cartier Bresson in Florence
(Angi, it is still one of my favorite travel memories!).
Eisenstaedt made me smile this week.
Life magazine asks: Is this the happiest photo ever made? To Eisenstaedt, the camera was a conduit for transmitting pure joy. Like so many of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s most storied photographs, this one flirts with sentimentality — but avoids that ignoble fate by virtue of its energy, and its immediacy. This is not a depiction of manufactured emotion, but a masterfully framed instant of authentic, explosive spirit.
The drum major for the University of Michigan marching band high-steps as a line children follow suit, 1950.
The photo was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, who was covering the University of Michigan's marching band. When some children playing nearby set off after this practicing drum major, he snapped the photo. Said Eisenstaedt, "This is a completely spontaneous, unstaged picture."
The photographer took many notable photos -- the famous V-J Day kiss in Times Square, of Marilyn Monroe, of Albert Einstein, of Joseph Goebbels -- but the drum major one above and his ballet series are my favorites (particularly this one).
via {kottke}
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