LIFE Photographer Ralph Morse on one of his favorite photographs:
“I was handed an assignment to cover mononucleosis, ‘the kissing disease.’ It was a scary illness back then — everyone who got it thought they had leukemia. So, I try and capture this kissing disease in photos — by taking pictures of two teenagers drinking a soda from two straws, or eating ice cream from the same bowl, and none of these really do the trick. That afternoon I’m walking on Broadway, wondering how I can illustrate this story, and I pass a camera store with a trick lens in the window, a little device that makes a lot of little scenes with one shot. Three dollars! I buy it, get back to the studio and call the office, saying I need a male and female reporter for ten minutes. They arrive, I ask them to kiss, and this little piece of glass does all the rest.”
(see more of Ralph’s favorite photographs here)