Joe Rosenthal

Joe Rosenthal was an American photographer who took one of the most famous photographs of the twentieth century. Born in 1911, he worked as a news photographer during the Second World War. In 1945, on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, he captured the image of United States Marines raising a flag on a mountaintop during fierce fighting, a picture of struggle and triumph that stirred a nation.

The photograph won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a huge bronze war memorial near Washington. Rosenthal spent much of his later life answering questions about that single, powerful image. His photograph became a lasting symbol of sacrifice and shared effort, one of the defining pictures of the war.