The Most Famous Kissing Photographs Of All Time

A kiss can be the most innocent or intimate of moments, as simple as a greeting, as complex as the sealing of someone's fate. Maybe those various meanings capable of such a simply human act is what leads us to be so fascinated by images of the lip-lock: what is the motive, the context, the result? Despite the gesture's universal use, it's one not easy to capture on film. To celebrate World Kissing Day today, here are 10 of The Most Famous Kissing Photographs Of All Time—pucker up.

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Surrealist linchpin Man Ray started making what he called rayographs in the 1920s. This was a camera-less form of photography, later known as photogram, in which objects are placed directly onto photo-sensitive paper and exposed directly to light. In this, one of his first, he used the process on a pair of hands, then on a pair of heads—his and that of his lover, Kiki de Montparnasse.

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When photographer Alfred Wertheimer took on an assignment to follow a young Elvis Presley around for eight days in 1956, neither Wertheimer nor Presley could have imagined the enormity of The King’s impending fame. Of that thousands-photos session, this “Kiss Me Quick” scene that Werthemier stumbled into on his way back from the men’s room, remains one of the most iconic—and sexiest—of the era.

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On the 30th anniversary of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik, otherwise known as East Germany, Soviet Leader Leonid Brezhnev visited from Russia. Communist political leaders frequently kissed as a matter of formality in those days. So when East German President Erich Honecker went to embrace the Soviet leader, the kiss wasn’t exactly shocking—except for the enthusiasm both men showed for the lip lock. Of the dozen or so photographers there, Bossu was the only one to capture this moment. It ran in newspapers all over the world and was painted into effigy on the Berlin wall. In addition, it spawned a joke: “As a politician, rubbish. But what a good kisser!”

The photographer told Rolling Stone about the photo she took five hours before Lennon was shot: "What is interesting is she said she'd take her top off and I said, 'Leave everything on,’ not really preconceiving the picture at all. Then he curled up next to her and it was very, very strong. You couldn't help but feel that he was cold and he looked like he was clinging on to her. I think it was amazing to look at the first Polaroid and they were both very excited. John said, 'You've captured our relationship exactly. Promise me it'll be on the cover.' I looked him in the eye and we shook on it." It was the last professional photograph of Lennon.

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This photo a frame from one of the highest-grossing motion pictures of the 1950s, one spoofed and emulated for years to come. When Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr came together in Halona Cove on the eastern side of Oahu, it was Lancaster’s idea for the kiss to occur as the waves crashed over the two of them, heightening the drama. Perhaps the fact Kerr and Lancaster were romantically involved outside of the picture during the filming has something to do with the image’s intensity and authenticity.

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A photographer based in Jacksonville, Florida, Morabito won the 1968 Pullitzer Prize in spot news photography for this 1967 photo. The Rolleiflex-captured photo depicts two telephone utility line workers. Randall Chapman is unconscious, suspended upside down, after coming into contact with a highvoltage wire; J.D. Thompson gives his colleague mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. It may not be a kiss shared for romantic reasons, but it’s a powerful smooch caught on film, nonetheless.

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Photographer Tanya Chalkin managed one of the most artful moments on our list, creating something sexual, intimate, private, sentimental, and visually stunning all at once. The photo’s ubiquity in dorm rooms and desktop wallpapers everywhere proves just how special the image is. Staged? Definitely, to a degree of perfection. But is it any less moving for that? Certainly not. A certain kind of humanity bleeds between these lips.

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After the Vancouver Canucks loss to the Boston Bruins in the 2011 Stanley Cup, riots erupted in the streets of Vancouver, British Columbia. Police forces and riot police were called in to control the crowd. When riot police advanced, Scott Jones and his girlfriend Alex Thomas were knocked to the ground. Photographer Richard Lam captured the original photo, not knowing the couple was kissing. When he filed his photos to his editor and the photo was published, it was thought to be staged, or not as tender a moment as we’d like to think—it could have been that one of the people was injured. But as reports rolled in about the kissing couple, the incredible moment of peace and innocence amid chaos and destruction proved to be genuine.

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Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt was in Times Square on V-J Day, the day of World War II victory over Japan on August 14, 1945. By his own account, he saw a sailor running through the street kissing every single woman he came across—young, old, fair, comely, homely. He took exactly four pictures that day, waiting for the right moment where the sailor, in a dark uniform, would chose the right kiss to make the photograph pop. The contrast of the white nurse’s uniform against his added a tension to the snap. It was published in Life Magazine the following week, becoming an instant cultural icon.

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Like Eisenstaedt, Doisneau used a Leica camera but in his native France. Also like Eisenstaedt, his most prominent photograph was published in Life Magazine—this one on August 12, 1950. By removing the pose of a eagerly-shared kiss from a political context, Doisneau managed a kind of universal recognition to his photo that became a symbol of young love, without the spur of wartime victory. Though Doisneau had posed the two in the photo to get the snap, a couple of young lovers erroneously believed the picture to be of them. In 1992, Doisenau and his supposed subjects underwent litigation to sort the matter out. "I would never have dared to photograph people like that. Lovers kissing in the street, those couples are rarely legitimate," Doisneau, who was a careful and reserved man, said at the time. After he died in 1993, the photographer’s daughter said the process had torn him apart.

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