Photography Collection

The list of photographers for Life magazine reads like the Who’s Who of international photo journalism: Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, photographer for the above story, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gordon Parks and Henri Huet. Alas, the platform for photographers such as these will cease to exist in the future. Because of dwindling advertising revenues the 20^th April edition will be the last one, according to the publishers Time Inc. However, the Internet portal will remain online and the Netzeitung reports further that the huge photo archive will be available for free downloads from the Internet. This is not the first closure in the history of Life magazine. 1972 was the end for the first time for the initial weekly publication, six years later Life re-emerged on the market as a monthly newspaper supplement. In 2000 followed the second closure with a relaunch four years later. With competition from Parade with a circulation of 32 million in 400 newspapers and from USA Weekend with 23 million in 612 newspapers, Life, with today only 13 million in 103 newspapers, can’t keep up. However, according to Mediaweek all three publications have incurred losses during the first quarter.

Life was founded in 1936 by publisher Henry Luce; the first edition contained five photographs by Alfred Eisenstaedt and cost 10 cents, as shown on the Cover above. At that time the USA suffered from the aftermath of an economic crisis and the 1929 stock market crash. Mass unemployment and poverty gripped the country. Hence the Cover photograph of 1936 tells an entire story on its own. A story of hope, because 11 000 men worked on the Ford-Peck-Dam, completed in 1940. 11 000 Americans and immigrants were thus able to feed their families and themselves whereas itinerant workers in the West of the USA went hungry and despaired in make-shift camps because they could not find any work. It was the end for them and their families, when they had to sell their car in order to have money to survive. To walk to the next job was not only too far but also dangerous in the heat of Texas or Arizona. This misery was also documented by Margaret Bourke-White.

In Germany meanwhile the National Socialists had seized power and Europe was poised on the brink of the 2^nd World War. During that time, within four months, the circulation of Life on the other side of the Atlantic jumped from 380000 to more than a million. And soon the magazine was internationally renowned for showing its readers unadorned pictures of what war is like. Without any kind of sensationalism, propaganda or aesthetics to glorify heroes and dictators. There were plenty of photographers offering such pictures on both sides of the Atlantic and more than enough newspapers and magazines that printed them. And then there were artists like Leni Riefenstahl who, with precisely that aesthetic, paved the way for war. But as a war correspondent the brutal battles between armed forces and civilians horrified her and she refused to supply pictures. However, the experience did not herald her break with the regime. Meanwhile, Margaret Bourke-White, the first female war correspondent sent Life her pictures from Russia, North Africa and Italy. On 7^th October 1942, after the landing of the Allies in Italy, Robert Capa witnessed the explosion of a time-fused bomb inside the post office in Naples. Some 100 people, soldiers of the 82^nd US- Airborne Division and civilians, died. Capa photographed the catastrophe for Life; however he made his name not because of the battles in Italy, but for D-Day, the allied invasion of Normandy.

© Robert Capa, fair use under United States copyright law

In order to document the allied attack of the Normandy beaches, Capa, together with soldiers from E-Company of the 16^th Regiment, 1^st US-Infantry Division, boarded a landing craft in the early hours of 6^th June 1944. It was a Tuesday. He was holding onto the stern of the rolling craft, behind the soldiers who waited for the bow ramps to be lowered and to storm the beaches. They did not reach the appointed attack sector of Omaha beach as planned, but landed off the 2.2 kilometers long beach Easy Red. When the coxswain lowered the bow ramps they saw steel defences towering out of the water and a beach disappearing into the smoke of explosions. The infantry soldiers waded through water up to their hips and took cover behind the defences while the German soldiers’ MG-bullets ricocheted off the steel girders and sprayed the surf around them. Capa started to photograph still standing on the open bow ramp. The coxswain, wanting to turn the boat round as quickly as possible and believing him to hesitate, kicked him out. “The water was cold and the beach more than 90 meters away”, remembers the photographer later. “German fire peppered the water around me and I hurried to reach one of the steel defences.” For a few minutes he shared the cover with a soldier. “He took the water protection off his rifle and without taking aim, fired into the smoke on the beach. However, his firing encouraged him to wade on and so left the cover behind the steel defence to me.”

© Robert Capa, fair use under United States copyright law

Capa now felt safe enough to photograph the other soldiers who, like himself, had taken cover behind the steel defences. Wading to a disabled US-tank, he continuously clicked his two Contax-II-cameras. “I lived through a never before known terror and my whole body shook while all the time looking around me”. Throughout he repeated a sentence he had picked up during the Spanish Civil War: “Es und cosa muy seria.” This is serious business. To Robert Capa it seemed an eternity before he spied a landing craft in the surf. “I did neither think nor decide; I simply stood up and ran for it.” Racing for the boat he held his cameras high to protect them from water. He had shot three films and took 106 pictures. On reaching England, he boarded the first train for London in order to have the photos developed. John Morris, photo editor at Life, had already waited impatiently for the material since Tuesday 6^th June. It needed to go rapidly through British censorship and on to New York. The following evening, from a port on the Channel, came the hoped for phone call: Capa’s photographs would be in London within one or two hours. Around 21 hours a courier delivered a total of four miniature and six medium format films to the offices of Life. Dennis Banks, the young laboratory assistant developed them and suddenly raced up the stairs to John Morris. “They are ruined, ruined! Robert Capa’s films are all ruined!” In the hectic he had closed the door to the drying room, where he had hung the films. The negatives could only dry properly with the door left slightly open; otherwise the air would be too stuffy. The surface of the films was damaged. John Morris looked at them, three rolls were unusable, only on the fourth were eleven usable pictures. At 3.30 on Thursday morning Morris, with the pictures, raced his Austin through London’s deserted streets to the censor’s office where first of all he had to wait. The pictures needed to be handed over to a courier by 9 o’clock in order to arrive on time in Life’s New York head office. But Morris did not leave the Ministry of Information until 8.45. Again he raced through London, this time to Grosvenor Square. He sprinted the last 40 meters to the courier service and entered their office just as the delegated assistant was about to close the transport bag destined for the USA. “Wait!” Morris shouted. On Saturday evening, shortly after going to press, the publishers of Life cabled London: TODAY WAS ONE OF THE GREAT PICTURE DAYS IN LIFE’S OFFICE, WHEN CAPA’S BEACHLANDING AND OTHER SHOTS ARRIVED. On 19^th June 1944 eight photos by Robert Capa were published in the magazine. The captions stated that the pictures were slightly out of focus, because Capa’s hands had trembled from excitement. Capa denied this and accused the London laboratory of Life to have ruined his films. 1945 saw peace again in Europe and nine years later Capa once again visited a war theatre for Life, this time Korea. But this was his last assignment; he was mortally wounded when stepping on a mine. After the end of the Korean War other themes played a part in Life: In the 60’s many pictures of film stars, the Kennedy family, the Landing on the Moon were printed. Only during the Vietnam War did the magazine again show unadorned pictures of military conflicts, this time in South East Asia. The reporting by Life helped to bring about anti-war protests in the USA. The big times of the magazine however were soon to be over. Diminishing circulation saw the first closure of the magazine in 1972. From 1978 onwards it was again published monthly, but till today it has never again reached the circulation numbers it enjoyed during the heyday of photo journalism.

We thank Debra Richman and Jennifer Zwadzinski of Life for their support for this article. They also supplied the first cover of the magazine. Thanks to Elfie Griffiths for the translation.