Joe Rosenthal
[Photographer, b. 1911, Washington, D.C., d. 2006, Novato, California.]

 It has been done in oils, water colors, pastels, chalk and match sticks. A float based on it won a prize in a Rose Bowl parade, and the flag-raising has been re-enacted by children, by gymnasts... and as a part of the Orange Bowl pageant in Miami. It has been sculpted in ice and in hamburger. (On his photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.) 
 Had I posed that shot, I would, of course, have ruined it. I’d have picked fewer men... I would also have made them turn their heads so that they could be identified for AP members throughout the country and nothing like the existing picture would have resulted. (On his photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.) 
 When you take a picture like that, you don’t come away thinking that you got a great shot. You don’t know. (1955,on his photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.) 
 I swung my camera around and held it until I could guess that this was the peak of the action, and shot. I couldn’t positively say I had the picture. It’s something like shooting a football play; you don’t brag until it’s developed. (On his photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.)