Joe Rosenthal

Joseph John Rosenthal (1911–2006) was an American photographer who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World war II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima. His picture became one of the best-known photographs of the war.

Rosenthal was rejected by the US Army as a photographer because of poor eyesight, but he joined the Associated Press and followed the US Marine Corps in the Pacific Theater of Operations during the war. Rosenthal made his famous photo on February 23, 1945, five days after the Marines landed at Iwo Jima. In later years, when asked about the photo, he would say "I took the picture, the Marines took Iwo Jima."

Rosenthal left the AP later in 1945 and became the chief photographer and manager of Times Wide World Photos. He then later joined the San Francisco Chronicle. He worked there as a photographer for 35 years, sporting a black beret Basque, before retiring in 1981.