style="overflow: hidden; color: #000000; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;">In August 1945, Life magazine published a photograph that would become one of the most iconic images of the 20th century. Alfred Eisenstaedt’s picture of a sailor kissing a nurse in New York’s Times Square captured America’s imagination, because it represented a fairytale ending to the second world war. This was Perseus and Andromeda, St George and the princess, Superman and Lois Lane: America had vanquished a monster, and its reward was the gratitude of the world, represented here by a kiss.