Post war years – The last 25 years

Post war years – The last 25 years

Joseph John Rosenthal was an American photographer, renowned for his iconic World War II photograph in 1945 Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, taken during the Battle of Iwo Jima. The image itself displays a sense of determination and pride as the flag is hoisted up.

During the Second World War George Rodger was a war correspondent for life magazine in 1945 he became the first photographer to enter Bergen – Belsen concentration camp. As a photojournalist he understandably became traumatised by the horrors of the camp which no one should have to see. 

In the 1950’s a photographer called Robert Frank moved to America from Switzerland. Robert Frank's The Americans is widely celebrated as the most important photography book since World War II. Including 83 photographs made largely in 1955 and 1956 while Frank travelled around the United States, the book looked beneath the surface of American life to reveal a profound sense of alienation, angst, and loneliness.

In the 1950s and 60s Diane Arbus, writer and photographer, photographed people seen to be on the edges of society or of people whose normality seemed ugly or surreal.

Born in New York in 1923 Richard Avedon was one of the most prominent photographers of his generation as he revolutionized fashion photography. He reinforces the impact of the subject by removing anything extraneous from the photograph. By using a white backdrop for his portraits he allows the figure, or sometimes just the face, to dominate the space.