Life Magazine and the Power of Photography

The first comprehensive consideration of Life magazines groundbreaking and influential contribution to the history of photography From the Great Depression to the Vietnam War, the vast majority of the photographs printed and consumed in the United States appeared on the pages of illustrated magazines. Offering an in-depth look at the photography featured in Life magazine throughout its weekly run from 1936 to 1972, this volume examines how the magazines use of images fundamentally shaped the modern idea of photography in the United States. The work of photographers both celebrated and overlookedincluding Margaret Bourke-White, Larry Burrows, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Frank Dandridge, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Fritz Goro, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smithis explored in the context of the creative and editorial structures at Life. Contributions from 25 scholars in a range of fields, from art history to American studies, provide insights into how the photographs published in Lifeused to promote a predominately white, middle-class perspectivecame to play a role in cultural dialogues in the United States around war, race, technology, art, and national identity. Drawing on unprecedented access to Life magazines picture and paper archives, as well as photographers archives, this generously illustrated volume presents previously unpublished materials, such as caption files, contact sheets, and shooting scripts, that shed new light on the collaborative process behind many now-iconic images and photo-essays. Distributed for the Princeton University Art Museum Exhibition Schedule: Princeton University Art Museum Museum of Fine Arts, Boston