October 21, 2020
LIFE Magazine and the Power of Photography
Katherine Bussard
Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography,
Princeton University Art Museum
Marge D'Amico, Introducer, and Katherine Bussard
Minutes of the Seventh Meeting of the 79th Year
President Stephen Schreiber called the meeting to order at 10:17 a.m. Jock McFarlane presented the minutes of the October 14 meeting. The meeting was attended by 140 members. President Schreiber reported positive feedback to the closed captioning experiment, and indicated a review of costs and benefits of permanently offering closed captioning of all meetings is underway. He also reported that because of Zoom availability, we can accommodate larger numbers of members and he urged current members to consider younger retiree friends who might be good candidates for membership. He reported that there is no current waiting list. President Schreiber reported that 99 percent of all dues had been paid, and 1 percent was “in the mail.” He congratulated treasurer Miquelon Weyeneth and assistant treasurer David Long on a job well done.
Marge D’Amico introduced the speaker, Katherine “Kate” Bussard, Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography at the Princeton University Art Museum. She holds a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. Before coming to Princeton, she served as associate curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the past 15 years she has written several books. Most recently, she co-authored an award-winning publication exploring the intersection of photography, architecture, and urban studies, The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, 1960-1980. Her topic was her most recent exhibition, Life Magazine and the Power of Photography, exploring the photographic impact of Life magazine.
Curator Bussard provided a historian’s view of Life’s role in American society from its founding in 1936 to its demise, caused by the dual impacts of television and the costs of printing and mailing. At its zenith, 25 percent of the United States population subscribed to Life, and pass-along readership boosted its viewership to 75 percent of the population.
She stated that as a leading publication of Time-Life Corporation, the editors of Life perceived the magazine to be a news magazine with emphasis on photo-journalism, while sister publication Time placed its emphasis on the written word.
In the course of its 36 years and 1,872 weekly issues, Life produced 120,000 photo stories for which editors reviewed over 10 million photos, most of which were discarded. Bussard and co-curator Kirsten Gresh wrote a companion book to the exhibition. From the authors’ deep dive into the archives of Life we were presented with many article photos as well as insider photos. A six-person editorial group evaluated stacks of photos for possible use in future photo stories.
Peggy Sargent, the negative-editor (not to be confused with a negative editor) was first to examine a photographer’s negatives and decide which images to blow up for further editorial consideration. We met lab technicians, photo-story editors and many of the staff, free-lance, and contract photographers, including the legendary Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks, an African-American super-star of his time.
Bussard chose six iconic photo spreads to discuss during her lecture. The first cover was an architectural photo of the newly completed Fort Peck Dam in Montana. Another was J.R. Ireland’s famous “zombie shot” of a New York City audience at an early color 3-D movie, the audience which, the speaker pointed out, was all white. Next was “The Kiss” between a sailor and a nurse on V-J day by Alfred Eisenstadt.
Margaret Bourke-White had worked with Henry Luce at Fortune Magazine, and was the only woman among the four “founding photographers” at Life. Curator Bussard spent considerable time on the 1943 photo-story of the workforce at the steel mills in Gary, Indiana. Ann Zarik was the cover “model” in full welder gear. The government had expressed its desire to Life to feature women in men’s jobs as part of supporting the war effort. This article featured nine intimate portraits of “women of steel” including a Croatian, a Latina, and an African American as part of the array of working women.
Bussard chose a picture of Zarik for the cover of the exhibition companion book because she felt that the photo conveyed “power” which was, after all, the subject of Life Magazine and the Power of Photography.
As part of the exhibition’s emphasis on process, we saw several pre-publication layouts where dummy text was positioned relative to photos, and the photos were positioned experimentally in relationship to one another. The photo story of Flavio Di Silva, a Brazilian child suffering from asthma who was brought to good health as a charity case in Denver, Colorado, was laid out to emphasize with equal importance the poverty in South America and the humanitarian efforts of generous Americans. This article was another example of Life being enlisted by government, in this case, by the State Department to address communism in Latin America.
Bussard’s “favorite” image, when asked during Q&A, was of Sara Jean Collins, the 5th victim of the 1963 Birmingham Church bombing that killed four young African-American girls. We saw the cropping that took place from the original image to the final published photo, and learned about the text, a letter from an Alabamian blaming not just the perpetrators but all white people for this tragedy. Bussard found this photo story to have an increasingly powerful impact on her in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.
Life bought and/or negotiated for exclusive rights to photos of many historical events, including the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination and the moon landing in 1969.
Bussard quoted an art director who expressed the intention to resign if Life ran the Zapruder frames in color. Life later produced a special commemorative edition in color. The proceeds were donated to Jaqueline Kennedy, who in turn donated them to the JFK library.
Bussard concluded by directing Old Guard members to the website: artmuseum.princeton.edu, where there are numerous exhibition-related resources including additional images, lectures, and inter-active offerings.
Respectfully submitted,
Owen Leach
Marge D’Amico introduced the speaker, Katherine “Kate” Bussard, Peter C. Bunnell Curator of Photography at the Princeton University Art Museum. She holds a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. Before coming to Princeton, she served as associate curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the past 15 years she has written several books. Most recently, she co-authored an award-winning publication exploring the intersection of photography, architecture, and urban studies, The City Lost and Found: Capturing New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, 1960-1980. Her topic was her most recent exhibition, Life Magazine and the Power of Photography, exploring the photographic impact of Life magazine.
Curator Bussard provided a historian’s view of Life’s role in American society from its founding in 1936 to its demise, caused by the dual impacts of television and the costs of printing and mailing. At its zenith, 25 percent of the United States population subscribed to Life, and pass-along readership boosted its viewership to 75 percent of the population.
She stated that as a leading publication of Time-Life Corporation, the editors of Life perceived the magazine to be a news magazine with emphasis on photo-journalism, while sister publication Time placed its emphasis on the written word.
In the course of its 36 years and 1,872 weekly issues, Life produced 120,000 photo stories for which editors reviewed over 10 million photos, most of which were discarded. Bussard and co-curator Kirsten Gresh wrote a companion book to the exhibition. From the authors’ deep dive into the archives of Life we were presented with many article photos as well as insider photos. A six-person editorial group evaluated stacks of photos for possible use in future photo stories.
Peggy Sargent, the negative-editor (not to be confused with a negative editor) was first to examine a photographer’s negatives and decide which images to blow up for further editorial consideration. We met lab technicians, photo-story editors and many of the staff, free-lance, and contract photographers, including the legendary Margaret Bourke-White and Gordon Parks, an African-American super-star of his time.
Bussard chose six iconic photo spreads to discuss during her lecture. The first cover was an architectural photo of the newly completed Fort Peck Dam in Montana. Another was J.R. Ireland’s famous “zombie shot” of a New York City audience at an early color 3-D movie, the audience which, the speaker pointed out, was all white. Next was “The Kiss” between a sailor and a nurse on V-J day by Alfred Eisenstadt.
Margaret Bourke-White had worked with Henry Luce at Fortune Magazine, and was the only woman among the four “founding photographers” at Life. Curator Bussard spent considerable time on the 1943 photo-story of the workforce at the steel mills in Gary, Indiana. Ann Zarik was the cover “model” in full welder gear. The government had expressed its desire to Life to feature women in men’s jobs as part of supporting the war effort. This article featured nine intimate portraits of “women of steel” including a Croatian, a Latina, and an African American as part of the array of working women.
Bussard chose a picture of Zarik for the cover of the exhibition companion book because she felt that the photo conveyed “power” which was, after all, the subject of Life Magazine and the Power of Photography.
As part of the exhibition’s emphasis on process, we saw several pre-publication layouts where dummy text was positioned relative to photos, and the photos were positioned experimentally in relationship to one another. The photo story of Flavio Di Silva, a Brazilian child suffering from asthma who was brought to good health as a charity case in Denver, Colorado, was laid out to emphasize with equal importance the poverty in South America and the humanitarian efforts of generous Americans. This article was another example of Life being enlisted by government, in this case, by the State Department to address communism in Latin America.
Bussard’s “favorite” image, when asked during Q&A, was of Sara Jean Collins, the 5th victim of the 1963 Birmingham Church bombing that killed four young African-American girls. We saw the cropping that took place from the original image to the final published photo, and learned about the text, a letter from an Alabamian blaming not just the perpetrators but all white people for this tragedy. Bussard found this photo story to have an increasingly powerful impact on her in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing.
Life bought and/or negotiated for exclusive rights to photos of many historical events, including the Zapruder film of the JFK assassination and the moon landing in 1969.
Bussard quoted an art director who expressed the intention to resign if Life ran the Zapruder frames in color. Life later produced a special commemorative edition in color. The proceeds were donated to Jaqueline Kennedy, who in turn donated them to the JFK library.
Bussard concluded by directing Old Guard members to the website: artmuseum.princeton.edu, where there are numerous exhibition-related resources including additional images, lectures, and inter-active offerings.
Respectfully submitted,
Owen Leach