At the end of World War I or World War II, a soldier suddenly picked up a picture of a famous woman in the street ~

A world-famous photographic work "Kiss of Victory" to celebrate the victory of World War II.

Background:

1On August 4th, 945, the streets and squares of new york were crowded with people celebrating the victory of World War II. People were in high spirits and strangers hugged and kissed each other. In Times Square, a sailor and a nurse in white met by chance. They also embraced and kissed affectionately. However, the scene of the two kissing happened to be photographed by photographer Alfred? Eisenstad captured it in time, and this moment became the cover photo of American Life magazine. This photo has been widely circulated since then and is known as "the kiss of victory".

However, The Kiss of Victory, which has been circulating in the history of photojournalism for decades, was proved to be false at the end of the 20th century, and one of the important reasons was that it was described as "the kiss at the end of World War II". However, according to the protagonist of the photo, it was taken in May of 1945, three months before the Japanese surrender day at the end of World War II (of course, this photo is still suspected of posing).

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Three aesthetic states of news photography —— Comment on the famous photographic work Kiss of Victory

International News magazine published a picture, The Power of Moment (Kiss of Victory), with an introduction: This work was shot in August of 1945 and 14, which profoundly reflected the theme that human beings yearn for peace and hate war, infected every reader and produced enduring charm.

Where did the Global Times in Kiss of the Century come from? "A 75-year-old man named Jim Reynolds publicly admitted that the male citizen in the photo was himself. The photo was not taken in August of that year, but in May, the day when the German Nazis were defeated. " It was published in the world three months later, which caused the dislocation of the background of the times.

The photographer who took this photo was Alfred Eisenhut. This was inspired by the boss of Life magazine, and it was carefully planned from creativity and composition to the posture of the kissed nurse. Author Eisen Hitter said: On the day of Japanese surrender, I saw a soldier running down the street in Times Square, hugging any adult woman along the way. When he hugged a white nurse, I took four pictures of him kissing the nurse in one breath. When Life magazine published this work for the first time in August 1945, the title read: "Kiss at the end of World War II". Moreover, the "end" of the Second World War was in August, not May, which is also an ironclad historical fact.

Judging from the above materials, the Kiss of Victory is controversial in its authenticity and validity. But what is meaningful is that this work was more than half a century ago, and it still ranks first among the most influential photographic works in the 20th century in the selection of various magazines. A few years ago, foreign newspapers launched an activity to look for information about "people in painting", but they attracted several "people in painting". The nurse's wife asked "what did she say after kissing", and finally she recognized "Yanwu" as a real person. Until today, the works are still being played on high frequency, and many readers believe that even if the works are inconsistent with the news facts, it is difficult to forget their pictures and touching charm. This is exactly what Eisenhut said before his death: "People told me that when I went to heaven, they would remember this photo, that is, they also remembered me".

Why didn't readers' love for works decrease during the Spring and Autumn Period? Even ignore the specific time or process of the incident and continue to appreciate this relatively unreal news picture based on reasonable logic? This shows that there is a deep connotation beyond time and space behind the work. Levchuk, a Russian literary theorist, once said that every work will get the most positive response from a certain range of people, and what they are most interested in, most understandable and most in need of is the question raised by this work.

Primitive aesthetic form

In the planning, shooting, editing and appreciation of news photography, the shooting of works is always the first. The deeper the photographer is rooted in the original life, the wider the creative territory and the greater the original innovation of his works. However, the photographer really arrived at the scene and became an observer of life events. With the understanding of the subject, he often fails to take good photos. There may be many factors, but through the phenomenon that Kiss of Victory transcends time and space and is loved by people, we can find that news photo communication is a dynamic interactive effect, which is jointly promoted by creators, disseminators and photo readers. In this three-dimensional interactive effect, there is a scale that plays an important role in moving the whole body, which is the aesthetic three States of news photography: the instantaneous situation of the scene, the aesthetic modality of the subject and the symbolic attitude of cognition, which is the fulcrum of the original innovation of the work.

In this "three-state interactive progressive" relationship, the first scene is the condition that constitutes news picture information, which consists of three components: instantaneous process, instantaneous mode and instantaneous representation; The second aesthetic form is that news reflects the creative characteristics of social beauty, which is subject to the aesthetic perception, aesthetic consciousness and aesthetic theory of authors and readers; The third symbolic meaning is the "crown jewel" of news photography. Its aesthetic feeling is vague, time and space are open and hierarchical. It is an abstract extension and three-dimensional transcendence of the original meaning of events, which has both the dissemination value of picture information and the speculative value of life significance.

If we take "masterpiece" as a reference, we should admit that in today's news photo reports, we often pay more attention to the short and fast picture information, while ignoring the exploration of instantaneous process, instantaneous mode and instantaneous representation; Pay more attention to the documentary capture of photographic objects, but lack conscious news aesthetic consciousness and aesthetic theory guidance; I look forward to the rich content and connotation of the work, but I lack the pursuit of the symbolic meaning of the work. The communication effect of news photography requires that every devoted photojournalist or photoeditor should be a "trinity" pursuer. Because the first state is the basis of the spiritual product of news pictures, it can be described as "true"; The second state is the symbol that the creator enters the news aesthetic experience, which can be described as "beauty"; The third state is that the work becomes the basis of "historical photos" or "instantaneous essence", which can be described as "wonderful". The three forms of "truth, beauty and strangeness" represent three heights, and the "trinity" can be described as "having a realm, it becomes a whole." For the masterpiece Kiss of Victory, the aesthetic "three states" are perfectly reflected in its picture: limited space and infinite eternal shadow, which are understood by the author, works and readers; Instantaneity, modality and intention blend together; "Three States" lurk in the picture, and the simple picture corresponds to infinite images, reaching the highest level of original innovation of news photography.

Field condition

The scene of news photography refers to the momentum and form of news events, with the moment when the picture is frozen as the smallest detection unit. The aesthetic feeling of news photography exists in the "scene", so this "scene" is also the aesthetic place. News photographers should naturally pay attention to the basic news facts, that is, the backbone of factual materials, the so-called five "W", the "newness" of news, the guiding significance of news, whether readers welcome it, and so on. These considerations are realized through the scenes of news. If you fall into a formulaic mechanical procedure, the "flowing water" of news works will become a "stagnant pool".

Although the fixed-frame image of news photography is a short moment, this moment exists in the process of event development. Only through close observation can we find and lock one of the scenes. This scene is the best instantaneous mode, which shows that all kinds of photographic elements are presented in an orderly and proper way in a meaningful form, the main body is distinct and prominent, the companion explains the plot, the environment sets off the atmosphere, the tone shows perspective, and all elements unrelated to the theme are excluded from the picture. Of course, this "meaningful" instantaneous mode will show different styles due to different themes. At this time, the creator only needs to concentrate on the blink of an eye appearance of the subject, discover its energetic inner world through the external phenomena such as vivid expression, saturated emotion and changing action of the subject, and confirm the accuracy of his understanding and judgment when the mind and emotion of the object are externalized, and issue capture instructions. This kind of "instant appearance" is hidden in the instant process of things' development and occurs on the basis of the formation of instant mode. It has a large amount of information, high saturation and obvious theme orientation, and often becomes an "instant essence". The Kiss of Victory took place in Times Square, new york. Several photographers took this scene. Victor Georgeson, a naval photographer, shot with a 120 dual-lens camera. The legs of the nurse in white were cut off, which destroyed her graceful posture. The picture is a rigid square composition, and the main body does not appear clearly in the background, which hinders the perspective effect. The camera of Ai is 135, and the composition is vertical. Street lines converge forward, and the main body is distinct and prominent, forming a long-term effect; The nurse's head, waist and legs are stretched into a beautiful rebound bow at three points. The man expresses the heat of joy and the nurse responds with complete understanding. The soldier's hand holding a gun now stays at the waist of angels in white, which highlights the center of the structure in a rigid and flexible way, making the work have extraordinary news sensitivity and news beauty. Therefore, Ai's famous saying that "photos come from the brain" can be circulated with his works to this day, and it cannot be said that his grasp of the scene situation is excellent.

Aesthetic form

Aesthetic modality refers to the emotional state of photographers, photo editors and photo readers in practical activities. They look at the use and function of news photography from different angles and attach their feelings to the direct cause. Emotion is the core of aesthetic feeling, and the original meaning of aesthetics is the concepts closely related to emotion, such as feeling, sensibility and interest, rather than the general misunderstanding of beauty and coolness. The aesthetic feeling of news is accompanied by different news practice activities such as perception, emotion and thinking. Appreciate the visual news such as Kiss of Victory with the background of life and death events, and find and experience rich emotional comfort from it to meet the peaceful aesthetic needs. As for the psychological form of aesthetic feeling, it is a relatively stable and personalized aesthetic psychology, which needs to be gradually formed under the mutual induction of aesthetic perception, aesthetic consciousness and aesthetic theory. People's aesthetic psychology is different, and their aesthetic modality will vary widely. This is the so-called "different opinions".

The occurrence of aesthetic form depends on the aesthetic value of news itself. In fact, the news value of news is accompanied by aesthetic value. In addition to news value being the primary criterion to measure news events, there is also an aesthetic value that is inseparable from news value, which is also an important criterion to measure news itself. The aesthetic value of news photography is a strict and vague judgment. If news information does not have strict aesthetic value, it is equivalent to information garbage and should be discarded. Moreover, this kind of aesthetic information is difficult to be accurately measured, and its "wonderful realization" is often immersed in people's hearts in silent synaesthesia, which conforms to the principle of "people-oriented truth". Compared with people's "idea truth", "people-oriented truth" can moisten things more quietly, and achieve the barrier-free effect of "people are connected and reason is connected". Only in this way can you appreciate the feeling of beauty described by Mr. Zhu Guangqian: "This psychological activity without will and abstract thinking is called intuition, the isolated and isolated image seen by intuition is called image, aesthetic experience is the intuition of image, and beauty is the characteristic of things when they present images in intuition."

It can be said that the emotional attitude and aesthetic charm of practitioners are conveyed through the details of the picture, the environmental atmosphere and the behavior of the characters; The aesthetic value of news is radiated by the image and appeal of the work. Viewers also need pictures with both news value and aesthetic value. People always face the specific visual image, open the door of feeling or emotion, get aesthetic infection in the process of emotional shock, and then produce a chain of rational understanding. As Eisenstein said, "Pictures lead us to emotions and from emotions to thoughts".