I had recently planned a post called iconic photographs, but I was thinking about photos that I have taken over the years, especially of my kids. My point was that certain photographs capture a moment, and the photograph is what you remember, rather than the moment itself. With photos I take, I choose the best ones and, in old days frame them, and now post them online. Those are the photos that represent certain times in my kids’ lives, but that is because I have seen the images so many times. The same is true with classic, or iconic, photos made famous by publication in magazines such as Life. They become icons because of their association with a time or event, and because of the repetition of our seeing them again and again.
These are the types of photos recreated in Lego by amateur photographer Mike Stimpson, as seen on Wired.com. The photo at this link is the famous sailor kissing the nurse. The mystery sailor was my stepdad. He never revealed his identity when photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt was alive, because he did not want to embarrass him and disclose details about his most famous image. He was concerned that people would be disappointed to learn that this photograph that symbolized the end of World War II was a just kid from Perth Amboy, NJ in a sea scout uniform (a part of the Boy Scouts) who thought it would be cool to go to Times Square and kiss nurses.
