Existing comment:
Iwo Jima, from the series History
2013 archival pigment print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Donald Standford Rosenfeld Jr.
2017.41.12
Levinthal's photograph restages an iconic moment captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal toward the end of World War II. The original Pulitzer Prize–winning image shows six American Marines from behind raising a flag on Mount Suribachi after taking control of the Japanese territory during the battle of Iwo Jima. In Levinthal's version, six toy soldiers face the viewer and raise a tattered American flag. By reversing the vantage point, Levinthal reminds us that history is constantly changing as new perspectives inform what we think we know about the past. |