DAY 192

HISTORY OF PHOTOGRAPHY

LIFE Magazine and Photojournalism

LETTING PICTURES TELL THE STORY

In the early 1930s, Henry Luce, publisher of Time and Fortune magazines, became captivated by the idea of a photograph-intensive magazine, and he set out to entice a team of the day’s renowned photographers to join him in the endeavor. LIFE magazine debuted in 1936, quickly became a cultural institution, and, among other things, a weekly showcase for a talented, new breed of photojournalists who were taking advantage of new, sturdy compact cameras.

From the first issue, with Margaret Bourke-White’s beautiful cover image of the Fort Peck Dam through the magazine’s final edition in 1972, the world’s top photojournalists’ work graced the pages of LIFE. Among the iconic images presented in the magazine were Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph of a sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square, celebrating V-J Day in 1945 (see page 260), and Eddie Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning 1968 shot of a South Vietnamese police chief executing a Viet Cong soldier.

The magazine was much lauded for its stunning images of various wars, but it was no less remarkable for the portraits of world leaders, artists, actors, and athletes as well as average Americans.

Perhaps even more than the individual images that they published, LIFE regularly featured photo essays on a wide variety of topics. Photojournalism was no longer just about capturing the action, it was also about telling a story—something that the readers of LIFE magazine came to expect from every issue.^{1, 2} —DJG