Joe Rosenthal

Joseph John Rosenthal (October 9, 1911 – August 20, 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 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima. His picture became one of the best-known photographs of the war, and was replicated as the United States Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.
Joseph Rosenthal was born on October 9, 1911, in Washington, D.C. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants; he converted to Catholicism during his youth. He had four brothers. His interest in photography started as a hobby during the Great Depression. He graduated from McKinley High School in 1929, and after working as an office boy, he moved to San Francisco where he became a reporter-photographer for The San Francisco News in 1932.
Rosenthal was rejected by the U.S. Army as a photographer because of poor e…