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8 Photographers Who Were at the Right Place at the Right Time

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Exceptional Exposures: Photojournalism Online features some of the most well-known press photographs ever published. Including celebrated names such as Alfred Eisenstaedt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joe Rosenthal, W. Eugene Smith and more, this auction provides the opportunity to acquire images made by famous photographers who were in the right place at the right time. -AIMEE PFLIEGER, PHOTOGRAPHS SPECIALIST

Exceptional Exposures: Photojournalism Online
17 November–1 December
 

 

8 Photographers Who Were at the Right Place at the Right Time

  • Alfred Eisenstaedt, René Breguet, Ice Skating Waiter, St. Moritz, 1932. Starting Bid $3,000.
    The waiters of the Grand Hotel in St Moritz were renowned for serving tea and cocktails while on ice skates. Eisenstaedt had to focus on the chair in order to make sure the photo stayed sharp. This image appeared in the 7 December 1936 issue of LIFE magazine.

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  • Joe Rosenthal, Marines of the 28th Regiment of the 5th Division Raise the American Flag Atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, 1945. Starting Bid $1,800.
    This iconic image from World War II, published through the Associated Press on 25 February 1945, became popular the moment it was first printed. Rosenthal was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Photography the same year for this incredibly poignant, instantly recognisable photo, reproduced on stamps, currency, posters, bonds and more.  

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  • Leonard Freed, Baltimore, MD, USA (Martin Luther King Jr. in Motorcade after Being Nominated for the Nobel-Prize for Peace), 1964. Starting Bid $4,000.
    This photograph shows Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. upon his return to the US from Norway after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Freed was able to get very close to his subjects, and his chronicles of the Civil Rights Movement – especially of King – are remarkably intimate.

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  • Ruth Orkin, American Girl in Italy, Florence, 1951. Starting Bid $7,000.
    Ruth Orkin captured this and other candid photographs of her 23-year-old friend Ninalee Craig during a photo shoot in Florence in 1951. The photographs from that day ran in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1952 for a photo essay called “When You Travel Alone. . .” Although the entire essay is a fascinating time capsule, this image remains, without a doubt, the most well-known and reproduced.

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  • Weegee, Selected Photographs from Opening Night at The Metropolitan Opera, 1943. Starting Bid $8,000.
    Although Weegee fully admitted to staging this photograph taken for PM Daily in 1943, it is one of the most acclaimed and beloved images in the history of photography. Weegee was a freelance news photographer, and while many of his photographs were candid, he knew what it took to capture a readily saleable image.

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  • Brian Hamill, Selected Photographs from 'The Troubles, Derry, Northern Ireland,' 1972. Starting Bid $2,200.
    In the early 1970s, Hamill traveled to Northern Ireland to photograph the violent 30-year conflict known as The Troubles for The New York Times Magazine. Hamill was able to get incredibly close to skirmishes, as well as the quieter – though still palpably tense – moments in between.

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  • Alfred Eisenstaedt, First Lesson at the Truempy Ballet School, Berlin, 1930. Starting Bid $3,800.
    The enormous reach of LIFE magazine, combined with Eisenstaedt’s images, led to the incredible popularity of his “picture stories.” Eisenstaedt produced more than 2,500 stories and 90 covers for LIFE during his career. This is one of the images that continues to be an international favourite.

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  • Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sale of Gold in the Last Days of Kuomintang, Shanghai, China, 1948. Starting Bid $3,500.
    Much has been said about Cartier-Bresson’s incredible sense of timing, but it is truly evident in an image such as this. The composition is notable not only because of the world events precipitating the riot (the Chinese Civil War and Revolution), but because of Cartier-Bresson’s ability to capture the expressions and dramatic movement of the individuals in the crowd.

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