OldGlory goes up on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima. As the battle continued and three of the marines pictured are killed, AP printed one of the most famous photographs to come out of the war. The widespread appearance of this image, while the battle was still front page news, amazed the viewer, and probably added an immediate boost to its future as an icon. At every stage of what we now call photojournalism, there has been searing individual images that remain imbedded in each generation s memories. It is not, therefore, the technology that makes a great image but the skill of the photographer.
Technology is used to produce anddistribute one person s brilliant insight.
Each of these images has become a myth and has condensed numerous speeches. It is unique, but at the same time it refers to other images that preceded it or that, in imitation, have followed it. It is incredible when an earthquake, forexample, takes place without photographs immediately available to describe it. Photojournalism, in all its forms, brings the past to the present in the form of historical document. Moment to moment the news ages.