Just before things got out of control with Covid-19 I drove to Princeton with a friend to see the Life Magazine and the Power of Photography Exhibit at the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton. My friend isn’t a photographer but he was enticed – in part, because after the show and lunch, we would be heading over to the Princeton Record Exchange to hunt for vinyl (spoiler alert … he was really glad he saw the show!).

Now, like most things, the Princeton Art Museum is temporarily closed, but with any luck things will be better before the show is scheduled to end on June 21st. Perhaps it will be extended – I hope so!  I am writing this in the hope that those who can make it will be able to see this show because it’s truly worth the visit!

For all of us that grew up with Life Magazine and looked forward to its arrival in the mail every week, this is a must see.  I remember as a kid looking at all the great pictures and the accompanying text that made up Life’s fabulous photo essays. In 1972 Life went from weekly to monthly publication and ceased publication in 2000, except for some occasional special editions. I still miss it, but this exhibit provided a wonderful chance to relive some of those memories of the hours spent reading Life from cover to cover!  And it was exciting to view some of the famous work I had seen on those pages or had heard about, now in the form of beautiful silver gelatin prints.

Life’s stable of photographers was truly first class; here are some of the highlights. The first thing that struck me was seeing the cover of the 1936 inaugural issue of Life as a pictorial magazine (It had previously been a weekly humor publication that folded during the earlier part of the Depression. Henry Luce bought the name and re-launched the magazine.) was Margaret Bourke-White’s Fort Peck Dam, Montana, 1936. Side by side were the original cover and a beautiful silver gelatin print. Other famous silver gelatin prints on display included several of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s images made in China, Robert Capa’s Normandy Invasion on D-Day, Soldier Advancing Through the Surf, June 6, 1944,  (photographs made in China); Alfred Eisenstaedt’s VJ Day in Times Square, New York, 1945; J.R Everman’s Audience Watching Movie Wearing 3-D Spectacles, 1952; and Yousuf Karsh’s Winston Churchill, 1941.

Additionally on display were the silver gelatin prints and magazine print of some of Life’s most famous essays including Margaret Bourke-White’s Women in Steel, and Carl Maydan’s Lake Tule that depicted the lives of Japanese Americans in a California internment camp during World War II.

Also very special were silver gelatin prints and marked-up proof sheets for classic essays by Gordon Parks (Harlem Gang Leader) and Eugene Smith (Nurse Midwife).

What a great show! I feel so lucky to have been able to spend time reminiscing, seeing the iconic images as silver gelatin prints and studying the proof sheets to get an understanding of the what the photographers saw and their editors thought.

If it reopens, and it is at all possible, do try to see this wonderful exhibit. Highly recommended! If not, then consider getting the companion book, Life Magazine and the Power of Photography, edited by Katherine A. Bussard and Kristen Gresh.

Stay safe,

Michael