In each reduction the essence of the man was sought. And again when the number was reduced to one hundred and fifty for a traveling version. The museum members who were responsible for the Retrospective were acutely aware of the tremendous distillation that occurred in reducing a million negatives to two hundred and fifty prints. Because this very objectivity may well make him like the Medieval artist who worked for the cathedral and not for his name. We must not conclude, of course, that the anonymity which usually adheres to a photoreporter is entirely detrimental, or always an unfair submersion of individuality. And once it became possible for a spectator to grasp the same vivid, living, exciting personality that Eisenstaedt is to his editors and friends, he took on a stature that because his pictures are seen only scattered over years and issues is usually overlooked. In such a presentation the personality of the photographer appeared. In the Retrospective Exhibit celebrating Eisenstaedt’s twenty-five years with LIFE, originated at George Eastman House in Rochester, the pictures were displayed for their own sake, without benefit of story, and with no more than an identifying title attached. We have isolated the pictures because of what we saw emerge in recent exhibitions of his work where the customary violation by isolation was done. And furthermore with the printed page in mind of his boss, LIFE magazine, by whose courtesy these nine pictures are reproduced. It does violence to publish Alfred Eisenstaedt’s pictures alone on a page because he habitually works with the word and picture printed page in mind. Who drew the lines Who made the chair back Tyger, Tyger, burning bright who framed thy fearful symmetry The rest go on about their business Secure in his unobtrusiveness.Ī man listening to a speech A Prime Minister listening to his Emperor in EthiopiaĪs Eisenstaedt sees deeply His people witness the mid-ocean of his heart Alfred Eisenstaedt inside his apartment/office on the 28th floor of the Time & Life Building in Manhattan. The evil watch Alfred Eisenstaedt apprehensive of every move. We have chosen a few of the people who have withstood the crucible of your camera Claiming, it’s more important to click with people than to click the shutter, Alfred Eisenstaedt defined the practice of photojournalism as one of its pioneering practitioners, from the years leading up to World War II to the closing decade of the.