Find Beauty in a Kiss this Valentines Day

You can find beauty philosophy everywhere, even in a kiss amongst chaos. Below I have listed my two favourite kisses of all time captured by photograph including the Vancouver Kiss and the VJ-Day Kiss.

The first picture is known as the Vancouver Kiss. The picture is of an Australian bartender named Scott Jones and his girlfriend a Canadian college student named Alex Thomas. The photograph was taken by Richard Lam during the Vancouver Stanley Cup Riot of 2011. A witness named William wrote to the Vancouver Sun who stated:

"What happened was the police line rushed the crowd and this couple trying to stay together couldn't react in time and were run over my two riot police officers.

The girl who was knocked over landed head first on the pavement with her boyfriend landing partially on top of her. She was in visible pain, crying, but the two officers gave them a parting shove and moved on."

It is said that Scott Jones kissed his girlfriend Alex Thomas to calm her amongst the chaos surrounding them.

Vancouver Kiss

The second picture is known as VJ-Day Kiss. The picture is a nurse from a Doctor's Hospital of New York City named Edith Shain and a solider from Newport, Rhode Island named George Medonca. The photograph was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt during the Victory over Japan Day in Times Square. Victory over Japan Day marked the surrender of the Japan, ending the World War II.

Alfred Eisenstaedt's book named "Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt: A Self Portrait" recounts how the photograph was captured:

"In Times Square on V.J. Day I saw a sailor running along the street grabbing any and every girl in sight. Whether she was a grandmother, stout, thin, old, didn't make a difference. I was running ahead of him with my Leica looking back over my shoulder but none of the pictures that were possible pleased me. Then suddenly, in a flash, I saw something white being grabbed. I turned around and clicked the moment the sailor kissed the nurse. If she had been dressed in a dark dress I would never have taken the picture. If the sailor had worn a white uniform, the same. I took exactly four pictures. It was done within a few seconds.

Only one is right, on account of the balance. In the others the emphasis is wrong — the sailor on the left side is either too small or too tall. People tell me that when I am in heaven they will remember this picture."

The VJ-Day Kiss is seen as a symbol of peace, love and hope. Although the soldier was going around kissing every women in Times Square, it is said that this nurse in particular slapped him!

VJ-Day Kiss

Happy Valentines Day! What do you think about the stories behind the photographs?