A kiss has always been, though rather inconspicuously and sporadically, a recurrent theme of what might be labeled artistic snapshot photography. Some of the most famous photographs depicting a kiss follow.
Robert Doisneau is recognized as a witty, humorous, yet emphatic photographer of Parisian street life, and many of his photographs are viewed as the icons of French lifestyle. Although eventually revealed as posed [1], the photograph entitled Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville has come to be read as a story of boisterous love, lust, and spontaneity.
(Robert Doisneau: Le baiser de l'hôtel de ville)
(Robert Doisneau: Les amoureaux de Paris)
Henri Cartier-Breson is often pronounced the most capable street photographer. He believed in the time-stop, individual history preservative effect of photography, and with the patience of a fisherman, observed the surrounding him life in order to capture “les moments décisifs”.
(Henri Cartier-Breson: Café de Flore)
Alfred Eisenstaedt became famous by means of taking pictures of the famous (both in culture and politics), as well as by pioneering an available light photography. Nonetheless, the photograph for which he is known world-widely is a picture of a sailor passionately kissing a young woman on V-Day in Times Square. This snapshot not only became one of the symbols of the U.S. jubilant victory, but also one of the photographs that contributed to the definition of American photojournalism.
Eliot Erwitt is known for his candid look at the everyday city life, his portraits of people (often juxtaposed with some static objects), and (arguably) predominantly, for his witty photographs of dogs. His photograph California Kiss is considered one of the finest American snapshots from the 1950’s.
John Kimmich-Javier is a trained as an architect photographer who is rather unknown to wider public. His photograph, The Kiss, quite neatly documents Kimmich-Javier’s novel depiction of ancient buildings and their interiors.
In 1968, Rocco Morabito, a former Jacksonville Journal photographer, was awarded Pulitzer Prize for Spot Photography for his photograph entitled The Kiss of Life. The picture captures an apprentice lineman, Champion, who is hanging unconscious having received a high voltage jolt, and another apprentice lineman, Thompson, who breathes life into Champion, and eventually rescues him.
(Rocco Morabito: The kiss of life)
Finally, Nan Goldin is an American photographer known for her documentary(-like) photographs of transsexual and gay communities, drug addicts, and people with AIDS. In spite of the fact that her pictures more often than not burst with the aggressive search for identity, violence in relationships, and rough sexuality; falling into the category of (memento) AIDS and gay photographs, the photograph entitled Gotscho Kissing Gilles affectionately represents a farewell kiss to a lover, a tender kiss of loss.
(Nan Goldin: Gotscho Kissing Gilles)
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