One my favorite photos is "Children at a Puppet Theatre". It was taken by famed photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt, most commonly known for his elegant portraits of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe. But he never stopped looking for those moments of serendipity out on the street. The most famous of these is the iconic picture of the sailor kissing the nurse in Times Square on V-J Day.
'Children at a Puppet Theatre', taken at the end of a re-enactment of "St. George and the Dragon', reminds me of how magical it can be reading to a group of children at story time. When you read a great time-tested tale such as The Frog Prince, it's amazing how no two children have the same reaction. One day when I came to the end of The Frog Prince, when the frog turns into a prince, one little boy stared at the book in utter amazement. He could not have looked any more stunned had a prince suddenly appeared in the classroom.
Here is Eisenstaedt's account of how he was able to get the shot at the puppet Theatre:
"It took a long time to get the angle I liked, but the best picture is the one I took at the climax of the action. It carries all the excitement of the children screaming, "The dragon is slain!" Very often this sort of thing is only a momentary vision, my brain does not register, only my eyes and finger react. Click."
