Alfred Eisenstaedt BBC Master Photographers (1983)

it started around 1911 1912 and an uncle of mine gave me a Eastman Kodak folding camera number three as a birthday present and I started the photograph right away and one of my first pictures was this picture in Berlin the Gruner world lake I put the film in a wooden frame and expose it to the Sun to develop in daylight and I was amazed and up to the day that's possible to photograph and see the picture and I was rather satisfied until an acquaintance of mine who lived across the street came to me and says but look you can enlarge this year you can do this in this enlarging which is you showed me a contraption of one box with a frosted light inside first pallet you can move up and down and this was that second when the photo bug bit me and there's our enormous possibilities seventy years later Alfred Eisenstaedt now aged 85 is still busily taking photographs Eisenstaedt has been called the father of photojournalism the man who invented the candid camera at a time when television did not exist in newspapers carried few pictures he was one of the first to photograph concerts literary meetings political rallies and social events working for The Associated Press in Germany and later for Life magazine in America he has probably photographed more famous people than any other photographer his pictures of musicians writers actors and politicians of pre-war Germany are a unique historical record of events which shaped much of our present-day life on the 3rd of no in the December 1929 I became professional and six days later I was are in Stockholm with my first assignment for the Associated Press as a freelance photographer it was see it was the Nobel Prize award for literature Thomas Mann for the Born brogues behind him sit Selma lager live the great Swedish author who also got a prize after the session was over the Nobel Prize Thomas Mann addressed fellow scientists and other people backstage on an occasion like this where there are many photographers the wrong no no not many but there were about three there were probably Keystone was at that time probably the Associated Press and I don't know the others but you were always dressed properly not in the fashion today not the jeans that didn't exist at that time no but you had to be dressed always properly on all your sign or assignments always tie oh yes definitely I had a cutaway I had later on tails and and then black tie and so on would you take many photographs and all no no no this was done with glass plates I took one picture and when somebody moved was very bad I took two because you see they were very heavy in my position my pockets especially my pockets for my tails and black tile were reinforced because I had to carry so many so many glass plates and steel orders at the same time I did also the confirmation of three babies with their prod fathers notice notice the fashion everybody in Germany at these these the colossus how do you call this collar stiff collars yes now this is what I love this is a toy Society in Berlin and here elderly men which again with stiff collars you know it's impossible today naturally assemble some rails on the floor of the society now every good German at that I'm here to have an aquarium tropical fish Guppies Sammy's fighting fish some goldfish and so on this is the aquarium Society all these people have again stiff callers I went to East Prussia and photographs and agricultural school they were milking cows and not to carry the see there they're little stools milking stools attached to their back also the same school a photographed coachman of Prussian Yonkers learning how to hold the reins of horses they look like jungus themself now photographed Albert I am a butcher shop that I am it was 370 years old at this butcher shop the frankfurters were invented and these are three generations of butchers all called hime I think it was around 1931 as he is 25 was around 1930 or 1931 I was sent to buy the associate press at that time to the island boarding island of hidden say the Baltic to photograph the great German author guard Hawkman and this is not a post picture he really was walking in the beach and to me he looked like a personification of work of Gangwon Goethe a gooda like Peter I met him and snapped them with a mirror flakes camera you know I'm amazed that it is so sharp but later the day on later the same day I wanted to try some format picture but when I look at this picture today I'm amazed how bad I was at that time I mean it couldn't happen to me you know what bothers me is this there wouldn't happen today anymore see today you know how far out today I look always at the background first that's a difference the light is fine but this shouldn't have been here see this is not nice not good many people have asked me Timon again how is it possible that you could take so many pictures off of musicians and conductors and singers they didn't object that the usual reason is because there was only one eyes instead around there was no other photographer who did that type of thing in the early thirties and I had the ermine Hawks camera the first so-called candid camera with glass plates this is William Furtwangler photograph at the Berlin Philharmonic in 1932 as you see people listen to the concert a very attentive he plays I remember the fifth symphony by Beethoven our cities usually in the first front row band singers were there or between the members of the orchestra and no question they asked and they've got permission because I was dressed like them and everybody thought I'm a musician myself that's the reason I could do all these things here I'm sitting among the musicians dressed in a dark suit with a tripod between my legs and photographing I further up it from the same place from the same position Igor Stravinsky's he's young Igor Stravinsky I don't know whether you played for fresh cows unlike this probably it did where people shocked by his music I don't remember that because you see I was I've hardly listened to music because I was at that time is the same it happens the same thing if somebody learns how to drive a car you pay attention to all the movements you do with this isn't it doesn't didn't come automatically as a later years now everything comes more or less automatically also 9 32 or 31 a photograph Beruna water conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and Sergey Rachmaninoff sitting together before a concert how did you feel as a young man suddenly photographing all this very very famously I felt I felt also rather important but I never in my life was conceded this was a job for me and I was very proud that I was the one who could do it when I was very much interested this was a work of love are you assign men I'm a very shy man when I don't have a camera otherwise I'm not so shy I'm a little bit shy among crowds you know in crowds I'm a little shy I don't like that people look at me and so and so I like to be like a little mouse in a mouse hole not me you see a very very famous picture never competed on the left you see taken in Berlin at the Philharmonic before a recital is Nathan mid Stein Vladimir Horowitz and the late Gregor Piatigorsky cello now comes a picture I'm very proud of her taking it a tour Toscanini talking to Wieland Wagner before the barrowed festival started and this was taken with the Leica camera and I'm also very proud richard strauss inside spoke was in 1932 or 33 you see photography just started the photojournalist started we didn't know very much about photography for me this was always an adventure and it was amazing something came out and those pictures I developed myself quite often in hotel rooms I'd with I hope you still here at a little tank I developed my films but it wasn't a well paid job at that time no was not very well paid but you did it you see at that time and nothing was didn't count it money wasn't going to be did it for the love of it everything was just different from the day after day people ask today when they get any job how much that time was done for the love of it one of my earliest assignment was to go to Paris where a photograph with larger cameras the rehearsal of Swan Lake ballet didn't have an exposure meter I was only accustomed to that Rembrandt type light I'd only lights coming from the ceiling if you use any artificial light kids always the mood so you get pictures but the mood is gone what is the essence of a good photo story and this is a good as a beholder sees it you know sometimes edit us like a pictures I don't like it something has to please me now there are many things for instance with don't please me but I'm a good soldiers you see I very rarely refuse an assignment and people have said why don't you a free assignment he has been some when somebody gives me an assignment let's say I complain later after I've done the story one of my first pictures with a Leica on a tripod and gala evening at the ski lodge Scala in Milan now this is a it's a nice picture you see the lower boxes always people with in in in with white I but I was looking for some specific thing because this is not is a pleasing picture but it's not the picture until I spied from somewhere here as you see an empty box besides death la but you have to have it in your head and this is was for years and years and yes still s one of my prized pictures of that lovely lovely junk society girl at the premiere at La Scala in Milan without that girl if you take this away it's no picture at all people have asked me how did you expose I don't know but probably at least half a second at least on a very unsteady tripod this picture of Molina was done in 1928 after she did the Blue Angels directed by Joseph von Sternberg it was published time and again now this is a year later a photographed in 1929 it the hotel Arnhem at the press ball I asked her to pose for me she was in in entails and slacks was unheard at that time do you think that people pose very much for the camera no it depends it has something to do probably with the personality of a photographer I just don't know see I never push people around so I have to be smooth I have to more or less diplomat to be a diplomat than a photographer people very often don't take me very seriously because of so little equipment when I married in 1949 my late wife said but where's your real cameras I said these are my real cameras had small cameras and I still don't go around with lots of equipment in 1932 The Associated Press sent me to London to photograph to do many stories of Oxford and in in Cambridge and anything else I said and I wanted to photograph George Bernard Shaw but he was not accessible and somebody told me look he is a vegetarian and bananas everything why don't you try to do something about this or bottom a bun a bunch of bananas and send us a portfolio of my poor face with him in two days I had an appointment and here he looks at my at my pictures was charming when I wanted to pose him says look you don't have to force me I'm a photographer and he did everything for me anything I wondered he played even the spinette or piano what it was he was very tall he was it was wonderful look at that the old typewriter is there is a is a Smith premia he typed himself and his secretary I think miss part of what it is I wish many people would be as cooperative as a child was I photographed at the grand at the I swing of the Grand Hotel in San Moritz a so-called waiter school we're waiters are being taught by the head waiter how to serve drinks to British guests this is one of my great price pictures now to do a smash picture as I follow up with a mirror flex camera reflex camera with glass plates I put the chair here focus at the chair as asked the waiter to pass by what he did in 1933 I was sent to Geneva to photograph the 15th session of the League of Nations and there appeared dr. Joseph Goebbels the Minister for enlightening a lightning and propaganda of Adolf Hitler and you see him this picture has never been published you see it for the first time he smiles but not at me look at his eyes very important he looks at somebody else whom he likes very much now he sees me probably an enemy I don't know what he thinks this is these from Gerber's but love these are the eyes of hate then two months later on the 6th of August the president Paul von Hindenburg died and Hitler became fear of the rise and this is the first time he appeared in Furies uniform you see Hitler Sprott again to attend the funeral behind them fat Goering marshal of the Air Force the / fedot / stout Goering marched in what I think is very interesting about this photograph is the composition of the two white lines of the hats going through yeah but this is not these white lines you see this is not my doom I couldn't do anything it was there when ne ne ne anybody could have done it there's nothing to do with the photographer yes you have only have eyes to see and see the how the composition you can lower the camera do this I mean had always an eye for composition probably how did you feel to photograph a man you must have hated so much when I have a camera in my hand at dawn don't know feel like so many of the artists he photographed eyes instead was forced to leave Germany and in 1935 he emigrated to America his candid approach to photography was immediately appreciated and the second cover of the newly founded Life magazine carried one of his pictures no fewer than 90 covers were to follow and he became its most famous photographer an over 2,000 assignments he traveled all over the world recording events and capturing personalities but the cold statistics a little about the zest and curiosity of the man who produced this formidable record of time passing the titles of his books 50 years of friends and acquaintances witness to our time the eye of eyes instead people and eyes instead Germany sum up a lifetime's occupation many of his photographs have received the highest honors millions of people are familiar with the pictures yet few know the name of the man who took them and whose office contains an historical treasure of a unique kind I've literally thousand thousands of pictures an eight-by-ten at 11:14 and these are thousand thousand of contact friends and among my some of my famous pictures will show you some you found immediately work when you came to America yes I worked at that I'm with The Associated Press and in life did not exist Life magazine no Lima didn't alive existed didn't existed at that life came out a year later Life magazine started 1936 this is Second Life cover and this was taking in West Point the cadet Academy was it very different what was expected from you then 101 into I haven't changed my style it is the same thing you see when you look at who's who they say that I brought candid camera to America I don't know what I did but I started their type of series with Life magazine for me this was old head I did it for years and years in in Europe but here you know people took only one picture before life came out they didn't have serious at only a single picture it was a difference I show you this picture for two reasons this was done in 1937 when the managing editor gave me an assignment to photograph a Roosevelt Hospital in New York now many people have asked me a question but didn't the editors tell you exactly what they want to take I said couldna snowed with Life magazine at that time the ally photographer was an individualist and he could to follow up anything he wanted to do nobody told him what to do but I tell you what he told me he had only one wish and he told me so he says he says Alfred you can do anything you wish to do the only thing I don't want to see is blood how different from New Life magazine they photograph now lots of blood end and color that haven't was black and white at the same time I did this picture of nurses the same nurses here but you have to hear first the idea and the authority and not the fear to ask people which is most important I told you I have no fear when I have my camera so I asked I'm not so shy otherwise I may be shy now the people tell me that I will when I'm in heaven for instance when I'm not on this earth anymore people will remember that picture or this is the photographer who took that picture of VJ Day 15th of August 1945 I was sent down to the Times Square region and I was very lucky because I found this man starting from this building grabbing any and every girl inside whether she was a grandmother was just thought in or dicks then doesn't make any difference and I looked right what's running ahead of it with my little Leica looking over my shoulder like this but never please please me everything was cooked everything was affixed focus you know about ten or fifteen feet away until I saw a flash of a second something white being grabbed that turned around and photographed him photographed photographed him kissing that girl everyone sure to you me to explain more if this girl would have been dressed in dark it would never had a benefit show if the Sailor would have had a white uniform would never never made a picture now I want to show you the interesting thing I took exactly four pictures and this is a picture I picked because that pleased me best it was done within a few seconds plus four or five seconds he was still kissing the girl why did this particular picture please do more than the other on account of composition you see when when you look it is is this best for my eyes best ly balanced see some white see this man doesn't look good he is too tall he takes the emphasis away from this picture he is just right he's too tall again he is nothing you see this this is the best see if this man if this sailor would have been here wouldn't have been good too much white she's standing out this is the best picture of all pleases me best another picture will be remembered by mine heaven he said picture I took at the University of Michigan I had to do a story on the brass band they wanted to photographs the drum major rehearsing in the morning when I run after after them photographed it and while I was running the all the boys from the faculty it is paraded with him this is not people thing in the post picture this was never posed not posted or there's a natural picture people imitated me later but this was not posed while go to the rain forest not rain forest when I did the Galapagos Islands I went to where Kiel and I saw this old lady sitting at a shrine but I never am satisfied only with the general view so I waited and asked her she couldn't took a picture of her a close-up of her that's the picture is there a decisive moment for a photograph to take there's a wonderful story while covering the Conservative Party campaign I traveled with Churchill for several days he had some pictures he was a little napping little dozing until his son Randolph tapped him on the shoulder because this played the national anthem god save the king and he shot like a viper and then I have to tell you a wonderful story of Lord Russell or Bertrand Russell when I came to him I admired a stony face he was absolutely moved like me you know I can also be like him like this people are frightened to me I said my god how do you do it he said to me a crocodile moves very slowly I did a story once of the eminent American painter Andrew Wyatt in Cushing Maine and this is what I found you see you see a drawing of him in the background a Dalmatian dog on the bed and his famous head there but I prayed I prayed that the dog would disappear did mother chase the dog away it came away and it could only take one picture we got one field and this is naturally a better picture much better than this see the difference why is it better or it pleases me I don't know why it pleases me what pleases me I like I don't have to agree with you but it pleases me I think this is a better picture for me several years ago I got an assignment to go to photograph Paris which was called if the editors gave me an assignment with a wanted to call it eyes instead Paris and I said how awful is that assignment and I said this is an horrible title for it anyway so I went to Paris and I went with an interpreter on and any time I raised my camera said Katia Brousseau has taken this corner kappa has taking this and sausage take me this he has taking it everybody has taken it say the only two possibilities either I go away or commit suicide let me do what I want to do and I did it was a very successful story which caused the Parisians this was photographed a puppet theater and the tutoring and after this picture was taken I took some close-up and this is this I like this picture better be though this is much more exciting because she screams out my god the dragon is slain very often this is only a vision of Egypt my brain is short-circuited the only my eyes my eyes and my my little finger react Sunday afternoon of a typical Paris concierge and family you know I waited I focused waited quite some time did this you know focus was done very fast without that sound the camera click mister eyes instead what do you think is the essential qualities for a photographer not a very unobtrusive he has to be unobtrusive the the type of photograph I do and to blend in with the people and and have as little equipment as possible and when people ask me what do you do my Simon I'm always an amateur when you say you are for my magazine you're dead always dead and amateur innocent number you started photo ops yesterday I was tend to Pennsylvania station while the war was still going on and these are all American military men saying goodbye to their sweethearts and wives at Pennsylvania Station these were all taken up with the lack of the Rolleiflex you know you know why with the Rolleiflex because the Rolleiflex I could focus like this at that time at the old Rolleiflex like this and hold it for minutes like this as he said talk to you like this and watch you and click there see do this and watch you again absolutely motionless like a stone they didn't know that I photographed them but if I would do this and it would see me what are you doing there see like this here like this you

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Length: 34min 17sec (2057 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 14 2013