Picture: Courtesy of WestLicht Photgraphica Auction
Alfred Eisenstaedt used a Leica IIIa to take the historic image that depicts a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, New York on VJ Day in August 1945, explained a spokesman for the WestLicht Camera Auction in Vienna where the camera will go on sale on 25 May.
‘Eisenstaedt loved the camera so much that he used it 50 years later for his last ever photo shoot… of President Clinton with his family.’
An original, signed, print of Eisenstaedt’s iconic image will be up for grabs in a separate auction to be held a day earlier.
The photo – which was published in Life magazine and became symbolic of the end of the Second World War – is described by the Life website as ‘arguably, the single most famous still image of the 20th century’.
It is worth noting, adds the website, that ‘contrary to what countless people have long believed, the photo of the sailor kissing the nurse did not appear on the cover of Life.
‘It did warrant a full page of its own inside the magazine (page 27 of the August 27 1945 issue, to be exact) but was simply part of a larger multi-page feature titled, simply, “Victory Celebrations”‘.
Eisenstaedt’s Leica camera is expected to fetch up to €25,000.
The photo is estimated to go under the hammer for €16,000-18,000.
For details of both auctions visit www.westlicht-auction.com
Picture: Courtesy of W
estLicht Camera Auction
