raisingtheflagoniwojima

Photographer Joe Rosenthal Shares the Story Behind ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’

70 years ago today, photographer Joe Rosenthal captured a photograph of six US soldiers raising a flag on Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. That photo (shown above), became an instant iconic image -- these days we would say it "went viral" -- and was published in thousands of publications around the world.

It went on to became the only photo to win a Pulitzer Prize in the same year it was published, and the image is now one of the most republished and recognizable photos of all time.

Leica III Behind Iconic ‘Flag Over Reichstag’ Photo Going Up for Auction in November

It's a day heavy with beautiful Leica news. First, we shared the photos and story behind this one-of-a-Kind Leica M4 that you can't have, and now we've caught wind of another iconic Leica that is going up for sale (and is probably just as unattainable for most of us).

What makes this Leica (a Leica III, to be exact) special isn't some particular one-of-a-kind design, it's the fact that this is the actual camera used by photographer Yevgeni Khaldei to take his iconic Raising a Flag Over The Reichstag photograph in 1945.