Alfred Eisenstaedt

About Alfred Eisenstaedt

Who is it?: Father of Photojournalism
Birth Day: December 06, 1898
Birth Place: Tczew, Germany, German
Died On: August 23, 1995(1995-08-23) (aged 96)\nOak Bluffs, Massachusetts, U.S.
Birth Sign: Capricorn
Occupation: Photojournalism

Alfred Eisenstaedt Net Worth

Alfred Eisenstaedt was born on December 06, 1898 in Tczew, Germany, German, is Father of Photojournalism. Alfred Eisenstaedt was a prominent German photographer who rose to worldwide fame with his work for ‘Life Magazine’. His famous picture of a sailor kissing a nurse on the V-J Day celebration in New York remains an iconic image capturing the happiness and joy Americans felt when the World War II came to an end. A highly talented man, Eisenstaedt possessed the uncanny ability to capture memorable images of news-worthy happenings and thus earned the title of "the father of photojournalism". He has captured several of the historical events that shaped the world in the 20th century and has also photographed many a famous personality ranging from dignitaries to film stars, politicians to religious leaders, and artists to common man. His popularity was largely due to the fact that he was unfailingly able to capture the magic of a fleeting moment in his images and convey a thousand emotions through his photographs. He realized his passion for photography the day he set his hands on a camera as a teen and then he quickly went from one success to another. A German by birth, he emigrated to the U.S. during the Nazi regime. Deeply devoted to the art of photography, he experimented with different lenses, filters and lighting effects.
Alfred Eisenstaedt is a member of Photographers

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Alfred Eisenstaedt images

Awards and nominations:

Since 1999, the Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography have been administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Biography/Timeline

1898

Eisenstaedt was born in Dirschau (Tczew) in West Prussia, Imperial Germany in 1898. His family was Jewish and moved to Berlin in 1906. Eisenstaedt was fascinated by photography from his youth and began taking pictures at age 14 when he was given his first camera, an Eastman Kodak Folding Camera with roll film. He later served in the German Army's artillery during World War I and was wounded in 1918. While working as a belt and button salesman in the 1920s in Weimar Germany, Eisenstaedt began taking photographs as a freelancer for the Pacific and Atlantic Photos' Berlin office in 1928. The office was taken over by the Associated Press in 1931.

1929

Eisenstaedt became a full-time Photographer in 1929 when he was hired by the Associated Press office in Germany, and within a year he was described as a "photographer extraordinaire." He also worked for Illustrierte Zeitung, published by Ullstein Verlag, then the world's largest publishing house. Four years later he photographed the famous first meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Italy. Other notable early pictures by Eisenstaedt include his depiction of a waiter at the ice rink of the Grand Hotel in St. Moritz in 1932 and Joseph Goebbels at the League of Nations in Geneva in 1933. Although initially friendly, Goebbels scowled at Eisenstaedt when he took the photograph.

1932

This 1932 photograph depicts a waiter at the ice rink of the Grand Hotel. "I did one smashing picture", Eisenstaedt wrote, "of the skating headwaiter. To be sure the picture was sharp, I put a chair on the ice and asked the waiter to skate by it. I had a Miroflex camera and focused on the chair."

1935

After first settling in New York in 1935, Eisenstaedt lived in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, for the rest of his life. Until shortly before his death, he would walk daily from his home to his Life office on the Avenue of the Americas and 51st Street.

1944

From his early years as professional Photographer he became an enthusiast for small 35 mm film cameras, especially the Leica camera. Unlike most news Photographers at the time who relied on much larger and less portable 4" x 5" press cameras with flash attachments, Eisenstaedt preferred the smaller hand-held Leica, which gave him greater speed and more flexibility when shooting news events or capturing candids of people in action. His photos were also notable as a result of his typical use of natural light as opposed to relying of flash lighting. In 1944, Life described him as the "dean of today's miniature-camera experts."

1945

Eisenstaedt's most famous photograph is of an American Sailor grabbing and kissing a stranger—a young woman—on August 14, 1945 in Times Square. He took this photograph using a Leica IIIa. (The photograph is known under various names: V-J Day in Times Square, V-Day, and others.) Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the V-J Day celebrations, he stated that he did not get a chance to obtain names and details, which has encouraged a number of mutually incompatible claims to the identities of the subjects.

1972

Along with entertainers and celebrities, he photographed politicians, Philosophers, artists, industrialists, and authors during his career with Life. By 1972 he had photographed nearly 2,500 stories and had more than 90 of his photos on the cover. With Life's circulation of two million readers, Eisenstaedt's reputation increased substantially. According to one Historian, "his photographs have a power and a symbolic resonance that made him one of the best Life Photographers." In subsequent years, he also worked for Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Town & Country and others.

1993

Two years before his death, Eisenstaedt photographed President Bill Clinton with wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea. The session took place at the Granary Gallery in West Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard and was documented by a photograph published in People magazine on September 13, 1993.

1999

Since 1999, the Alfred Eisenstaedt Awards for Magazine Photography have been administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.