Contents
| This theme includes example sections and will be revised and added to as we proceed. Suggestions for additions, improvements and the correction of factual errors are always appreciated.
Status: Collect > Document > Analyse > Improve |
519.01 Photojournalism > Photo-essays in LIFE magazine
     
In the first issue of LIFE magazine (Vol.1 No.1, 23 November 1936) there was a photo-essay by Margaret Bourke-White on Franklin Roosevelt has a Wild West dealing with the community of Fort Peck in Montana (USA) and a work-relief project building an earthen dam.
Within a single photo-essay all the photographs were taken by a single photographer and told a multi-level story - they could use interior, exterior, day, night and aerial shots - the key was to bring together a coherent view of a subject that the reader could relate to. The first issue of LIFE sold out the entire 466,000 run and within a year the magazine had a circulation of over a million.
LIFE magazine excelled in this and produced many of the greatest photo-essays ever produced including:
519.02 Photojournalism > Margaret Bourke-White: Fort Peck Dam
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
The editors for the first issue of LIFE magazine (Nov. 23, 1936) selected the photo-essay "Building the Fort Peck Dam" by Margaret Bourke-White.
"If any Charter Subscriber is surprised by what turned out to be the first story in this first issue of LIFE, he is not nearly so surprised as [we] were. Photographer Margaret Bourke-White had been dispatched to the Northwest to photograph the multimillion dollar projects of the Columbia River Basin. What the editors expected were construction pictures as only Bourke-White can take them. What the editors got was a human document of American frontier life which, to them at least, was a revelation."
A photograph from this series was used on the front cover of LIFE.
519.03 Photojournalism > W. Eugene Smith: The Spanish Village (1951)
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
 
Magnum photographer W.Eugene Smith (LIFE, 9 April 1951)
519.04 Photojournalism > W. Eugene Smith: Man of Mercy (1954)
About this photographer | Photographs by this photographer
   
Magnum photographer W. Eugene Smith went to document the charitable work of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. In the photography Stockade for the Insane It is what we do not see that scares us the most - in the 1954 photo reportage Man of Mercy by W. Eugene Smith on Albert Schweitzer that was published in LIFE magazine the caption explains but what remains unseen is left entirely to our imagination.
519.05 Photojournalism > LIFE magazine photographers
                                            
It has been estimated that in the over eighteen hundred issues of LIFE magazine about two thousand photo-essays were published (Maitland Edey Great Photographic Essays from LIFE Boston, New York Graphic Society 1978).
Many talented photographers worked for LIFE magazine including:
‡ In 1957 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of LIFE the book LIFE photographers: Their Careers and Favorite Pictures was published and the indicated photographers were included in it. What is interesting in retrospect is that the photographers who produced what would later be regarded as some of the key photo essays W. Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson were not included.
alan@luminous-lint.com |
General reading
Edey, Maitland, 1978, Great Photographic Essays from LIFE, (Boston: New York Graphic Society) isbn-10: 0821207423 isbn-13: 978-0821207420 [Δ]
Rayfield, Stanley, 1957, LIFE photographers: Their Careers and Favorite Pictures, (Doubleday) [Δ]
Readings on, or by, individual photographers
Margaret Bourke-White
Callahan, Sean (ed.), 1975, The Photographs of Margaret Bourke-White, (Boston: New York Graphic Society) [Δ]
Goldberg, Vicki, 1986, Margaret Bourke-White: A Biography, (New York: Harper and Row) [Δ]
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Eisenstaedt, Alfred, 1985, Eisenstaedt on Eisenstaedt: A Self-Portrait, (New York: Abbeville Press) [Introduction by Peter Adam] [Δ]
Gordon Parks
Kunhardt, Peter & Roth, Paul (eds.), 2012, Gordon Parks: Collected Works, (Steidl / The Gordon Parks Foundation) isbn-13: 978-3869305301 [Five volumes] [Δ]
John Phillips
Phillips, John, 1985, It Happened in Our Lifetime: A memoir in words and pictures, (Little, Brown) isbn-10: 0316706094 isbn-13: 978-0316706094 [Δ]
W. Eugene Smith
Johnson, William S (ed.), 1981, W. Eugene Smith: Master of the Photographic Essay, (Millerton, NY: Aperture) [Δ]
Maddow, B., 1985, Let Truth Be the Prejudice, W. Eugene Smith, His Life and Photographs, (Millerton, NY: Aperture) [Δ]
Smith, W. Eugene, 1993, W. Eugene Smith: His Photographs and Notes, (New York: Aperture) [Δ]
Willumson, Glenn G, 1992, W. Eugene Smith and the Photographic Essay, (New York: Cambridge University Press) [Δ]
If you feel this list is missing a significant book or article please let me know - Alan - alan@luminous-lint.com
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) • Harry Benson • Margaret Bourke-White (1904-1971) • James Burke • Cornell Capa (1918-2008) • Robert Capa (1913-1954) • Ed Clark • Ralph Crane • Loomis Dean (1917-2005) • John Dominis (1921-) • Alfred Eisenstaedt (1898-1995) • Eliot Elisofon (1911-1973) • Andreas Feininger (1906-1999) • Fritz Goro (1901-1986) • Marie Hansen (1918-1969) • Dmitri Kessel (1902-1995) • Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) • Clarence John Laughlin (1905-1985) • John Loengard • Hansel Mieth (1909-1998) • Gjon Mili (1904-1984) • Ralph Morse • Carl Mydans (1907-2004) • Gordon Parks (1912-2006) • John Phillips (1914-1996) • Arthur Rickerby • George Silk (1916-) • W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) • Peter Stackpole | Home > Themes > Photojournalism > Magazines and photojournalism - Example > LIFE magazine
|
