Life magazine asks: Is this the happiest photo ever made?
The photo was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, who was covering the University of Michigan’s marching band. When some children playing nearby set off after this practicing drum major, he snapped the photo. Said Eisenstaedt, “This is a completely spontaneous, unstaged picture.”
The photographer took many notable photos — the famous V-J Day kiss in Times Square, of Marilyn Monroe, of Albert Einstein, of Joseph Goebbels — but the drum major one above and his ballet series are my favorites (particularly this one).