The Ultimate Confrontation
The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet is a photograph of Jan Rose Kasmir (born in 1950), at that time an American high-school student. This iconic photograph was taken by French photographer Marc Riboud.[1] Riboud photographed Kasmir on 21 October 1967 while taking part with over 100,000 anti-war activists in the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam's March on the Pentagon to protest U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Seventeen-year-old Kasmir was shown clasping a chrysanthemum and gazing at bayonet-wielding soldiers. The photo was featured in the December 30, 1969 special edition of Look magazine under the title The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet.[2] The photo was republished world-wide and became a symbol of the flower power movement. Smithsonian magazine later called it "a gauzy juxtaposition of armed force and flower child innocence".[3]
Kasmir graduated in 1986 from the New York College of Health Professions in Manhasset, New York as a massage therapist, and worked in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina until 1991. She then moved to Aarhus, Denmark, with her Danish husband and their daughter.[3] She returned with her daughter to the United States in 2002, and resumed living on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.[4]
In February 2003, Riboud again photographed Kasmir protesting against the Iraq War where she carried a poster-size copy of the 1967 photograph.[3]
In 2010, Kasmir was invited by the Spanish organization Avalon Project Peace NGO to speak during activities for International Peace Day in Seville, Spain.[4][5]
In January 2017, she joined the Women's March in Washington, D.C.[6]
See also
[edit]- Flower Power, a similar photograph taken by Bernie Boston the same day
References
[edit]- ^ Riboud, Marc. "USA. Washington DC. 1967. An American young girl, Jan Rose." Magnum Photos. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
- ^ Jan Rose Kasmir. "The Ultimate Confrontation: The Flower and the Bayonet". www.sixtiessurvivors.com. Retrieved June 27, 2016.
- ^ a b c Curry, Andrew (April 2004). "Flower Child". Smithsonian. Vol. 35, no. 1. p. 27. Archived from the original on 2013-03-24. Retrieved 2009-01-08.
- ^ a b Paprocki, Justin (October 23, 2010). "Activist celebrates peace day in Spain". The Island Packet. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
- ^ "Jan Rose Kasmir Peace Now 2010, Paz Ahora". Retrieved 2022-12-06.
- ^ Zorthian, Julia (January 21, 2017). "The Subject of an Iconic Protest Photo Returns for the Women's March". TIME. Archived from the original on May 15, 2018. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
External links
[edit]- Kasmir Photo, by Marc Riboud, October 1967
- Kasmir Interview Archived 2013-10-16 at the Wayback Machine by El Proyecto Avalon
- Kasmir, Jan Rose (November 7, 2014). "That's me in the picture: Jan Rose Kasmir at an anti-Vietnam war rally at the Pentagon, in 1967". The Guardian. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
