Joseph John Rosenthal

Art Brokerage: Joseph John Rosenthal American Artist: b. 1911-2006. Joseph John "Joe" Rosenthal was an American photographer who received the Pulitzer Prize for his iconic World War II photograph Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima. Joseph Rosenthal was born on October 9, 1911 in Washington, D.C. His parents were Russian Jewish immigrants; however, he converted to Catholicism during his youth. His interest in photography started as a hobby in San Francisco, California, during the Great Depression, where he lived with his brother while looking for work. He became a reporter-photographer for the San Francisco News in 1932. He graduated from the University of San Francisco. Rosenthal received the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for the iconic photo. The committee noted that photo as "depicting one of the war's great moments," a "frozen flash of history." Rosenthal left the AP later in 1945 and became the chief photographer and manager of Times Wide World Photos. He then later joined the San Francisco Chronicle. He worked there as a photographer for 35 years, before retiring in 1981. On April 13, 1996, Rosenthal was named an honorary Marine by then Commandant of the Marine Corps General Charles C. Krulak. On August 20, 2006, at age 94, Rosenthal died of natural causes in his sleep at a center for assisted living in Novato, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, in northern Marin County.