What was the title of Victor Jorgensen's photograph of the 1945 Times Square sailor's kiss?

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Victor Jorgensen titled his photograph of the 1945 Times Square sailor's kiss “Kissing the War Goodbye.”

Jorgensen made the picture on August 14, 1945, while serving as a U.S. Navy photojournalist. It records the same spontaneous embrace photographed from another angle by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Jorgensen's image shows less of the surrounding intersection and is darker, but it clearly documents the event in Times Square.

The Navy photograph was published in The New York Times the day after it was taken. Because Jorgensen was a federal employee photographing the scene while on official duty, his image entered the public domain under U.S. government-work rules. Eisenstaedt's better-known image, published by Life, followed a different copyright history.

The two photographs are frequently mixed up because they show the same sailor and woman at nearly the same moment. “V-J Day in Times Square” is Eisenstaedt's famous title; “Kissing the War Goodbye” identifies Jorgensen's separate view.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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