past and present, are....’’ For most of the remainder
of the twentieth century,Lifeplayed a major role in
expanding the role of photography in U.S. culture.
Photography has altered U.S. visual culture pro-
foundly over the last century andLife’s refinement
of, and consistent use of, the photo-essay has con-
tributed to these changes. Their best-known picture
editor, Wilson Hicks, famously noted that pictures,
if carefully organized and accompanied by cap-
tions, ‘‘lend themselves to something of the same
manipulation as words.’’ It is hard to overestimate
the significance ofLife’s contribution to the history
of photography or to correctly gauge the effects of
the magazine’s editorializing on American social
history. Much of our understanding of the rhetoric
of images comes from exposure to the use of photo-
graphy thatLifepioneered and some part of what
generations of Americans have understood of the
world came to them via the magazine.
While the success ofLifewas unprecedented, sell-
ing over a million copies each week within four
months of its initial publication, the magazine itself
did have key models on which to build. Foremost
among these, Luce’s premier publication,Fortune,
had for years been using photographs in increas-
ingly essayistic forms. This magazine dedicated to
business and culture had also utilized the services of
Leica photographers such as Dr. Erich Salomon,
whose suites of candid photographs ignited a shift
in whatFortunewas after in its photography. By
1935 the magazine was consistently favoring the use
of the lightweight 35 mm cameras for use by its
photographers, especially when focusing on people.
Their star photographer, Margaret Bourke-White,
struggled through the transition to a more huma-
nistic approach to photography that year before
signing on to work atLife. Her famous coverFort
Peck Damand the accompanying photographs for
Life’sfirst issue demonstrated that by 1936 she had
mastered the art of candid photography without
losing her touch for creating monumentalizing
images of industry.
TheothermajorsourcethatLucereliedonforthe
early development ofLifewas the example of the
German illustrated press. For much of the 1920s,
first in Germany and then in France and England,
European illustrated magazines had demonstrated a
great agility in the use of photography as journalism.
TheMu ̈nchner Illustrierte Presseand theBerliner Illu-
strirte Zeitung, among others, had long and successful
track records when Luce sent Daniel Longwell, the
editor in charge of planningLife,toGermanyto
study their illustrated publications. Luce also hired
Kurt Korff, the celebrated editor of theBerliner Illu-
strirte Zeitung, who had by then fled Nazi Germany
forNewYork,tocomeworkwithLongwellinthe
role of advisor. At Korff’s recommendation, Alfred
Eisenstaedt was hired as one of the main staff photo-
graphers at the magazine. Eisenstaedt and Bourke-
White’s photographic contributions to the early issues
ofLiferepresent the twin models on which the maga-
zine was predicated: the German illustrated press and
Luce’s own publication,Fortune.
In the summer before he published the first issue,
Luce released a prospectus for his new magazine in
which he discussed his plans:To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events;
to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the
proud; to see strange things—machines, armies, multi-
tudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see
man’s work—his paintings, towers, and discoveries...to
see and take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed;
to see and be instructed.During the first two years ofLife’s publication
the editors pursued a program of experimentation
with formats. Some of their signature layout fea-
tures, such as the two-page bleed where one image
extends to all four borders of a two-page spread,
were developed at this time. As well, they early
discovered the sales value of a little sex. Seldom
did an issue ofLifemiss the opportunity to include
partially clad women, sometimes under cover of a
story on Hollywood or thinly veiled as a fashion
piece on the season’s swimwear. Though this prac-
tice opened the magazine to criticism from some
fronts, its impact on sales was undeniable.
Lifesoon realized that they needed more photo-
graphers on their staff. In addition to Bourke-
White and Eisenstaedt, they began publication
with only two other experienced photographers—
Peter Stackpole and Thomas D. McAvoy. The
editors planned to supplement their staff photo-
graphers’ photo-essays with news service pictures.
They also wished to find people familiar with the
growing practice of documentary photography.
To this end, as the magazine hired new photogra-
phers they sought out people such as Carl Mydans
who had trained under Roy Stryker in the Histor-
ical Section of the Farm Security Administration
(FSA). Stryker taught FSA photographers to
work from a script to ensure that they brought
home images that supported a particular argu-
ment. Documentary became a mode of photo-
graphic persuasion that used the rhetoric of
realism to gain an authoritative voice on a given
subject. Stories were planned in advance and the
photographers given lists of desired images to go
create. Along with the captions and the context
of the magazine’s story, the photographs carriedLIFE MAGAZINE