Some months ago BBC4 aired a documentary about Life magazine presented by Rankin. I watched this at the time and recorded it to
review it when I started the Narrative
and Illustration section of the course.
America in Pictures:
The Story of Life Magazine included interviews with several staff
photographers from the magazine, their work, their stories and what inspired
them to cover the stories they did.
The first issue of Life
magazine hit the shelves in 1936 and changed the way news was reported to
people across America. It is credited
with being the magazine that created photojournalism and the picture
essay. The publication was about the
pictures, not the text. It was about the
writers carrying the photographers bags and been led by their images.
Life celebrated
America and all things American. It
charted the history of a country on the brink of war to the birth of a super
power. It explored the cities and
countryside of America, its people and the development of the nation.
In the beginning there were four photographers – Thomas
McEvoy, Peter Stackpole, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Burke-White. Burke-White got the front cover for the first
issue. She was renowned for her use of
flash lights and was very meticulous in her work as the first female war
photographer. It is widely known that
she used her sexuality to give her professional advantage and would frequently
bed generals to get her the best wartime scoops. A rival photographer at Life was chastised because she was getting all the stories which
led to one of the most famous telegrams being sent back to HQ – “Burke-White
has a piece of equipment that I don’t have.”
Thomas McEvoy was known for his use of disguise to capture
people unawares; whilst Stackpole earned himself the honour of being the mad
scientist inventing an underwater camera and constantly looking for new ways to
get that picture.
Alfred Eisentaedt is probably one of the greatest
photographers of Life. He worked on assignments throughout the
lifetime of the magazine. His most
famous shot is Times Square VJ day with a soldier and a nurse kissing. It captured the jubilance of the people as
the war finally came to an end. It paved
the way for the new generation of America.
Eisenstaedt used a rolleiflex camera and shot from the hip
to make his subjects unaware he was shooting them. He wanted to capture them as they were
naturally and unaware of the lens.
It was an overnight success and its coverage of WW2 became
part of the American psyche. It was the first
time images of the war could be seen as it was actually happening. Robert Capa landed on Normandy for the D Day
landings and sent the rolls back of the horrors of the battle. It was the first time an image of a dead body
had been published and it was a big ethical decision to make.
The photo essays brought an intensity to news stories that
hadn’t been experienced before. The
“Career Girl” series by Leonard McCoombe was a very intimate portrayal of women
in the workplace. W Eugene Smith’s
“Country Doctor” brought a human element to the narrative of a deeply
personal level. You got a true insight
into the lives of the people, the dilemmas they faced and tragedy that often
unfolded. In a clip from an interview
with Eugene Smith he speaks of how he “becomes immersed in their life, part of
their life and speaks of what he is participating in.”
In the 1950s Life covered the boom years of America showing
industrialisation and modernisation of the country that was becoming a super
power.
The 1960s saw its coverage of the Vietnam War. Life was such a powerful force that when it
took an anti-war stance it successfully changed the view of the people of
America of their country’s involvement in the war. Larry Burrows covered the Vietnam War shooting
over a nine-year-period until his death when he stepped on a landmine. In old footage of him he spoke of his guilt
of capitalising on others grief and said that he had to do so to make his
contribution to show others what people are going through.
Burk Uzzle was interviewed at his home by Rankin. Burk is still working but focussing and
producing some of his best work in fine art photography. After working for Life he went on to become a
Magnum photographer. Burk comes across
as very much a free spirit where everything is about capturing the moment when
the subject reveals itself. Burk never
took Life up on the opportunity to become a staff writer preferring to work on
a contract basis. His anecdotes about
heated argument with picture editors probably points to why.
One assignment Burk was sent to shoot was the Playboy
mansion. Rankin unwittingly asks him
what that was like to which he gets the reply “well it made me horny.” I suppose if you ask a stupid question…
Another photography featured in the programme was Bill
Eppridge who was particularly skilled at embedding himself with his
subjects. His coverage of a couple who
were heroin addicts was published after spending 6 months with the couple. He also got the ‘shot’ of the assassination
of Bobby Kennedy.
At this point in the programme you have to worry about the
BBC’s choice of Rankin as a presenter.
Eppridge asks him to go fishing with him whilst they talk. As they walk to the river Rankin quips how he
in not dressed for this to which Eppridge replies “I’m sure the fish won’t
mind.” You would expect there to be more
pressing matter on Rankin’s mind other than whether he got his shoes dirty or
not, especially when in the presence of a great documentary photography that
risked his life to get the picture.
Harry Benson the Glaswegian celebrity shooter talked about
his life as a ‘rat’ snooping around trying to get the image required. His techniques for building up relationships
with the people he shot varied but he maintained that he never took them up on
dinner invitations because they were not his friends. They were people he shot. Being friendly and seeing them outside of a
professional environment would open the door to them trying to influence his
decisions in what images made the cut.
The programme concluded with a brief interview with John
Shearer who captured the civil rights movement in New York during the 60s and
70s. He claimed he didn’t see the danger
in his work and the places he found himself – it was all about the
pictures. To protect his work he used to
stash his films at different delis around the city in case it got damaged in
the field.
The programme was a very general overview of Life magazine
through the years. It didn’t go into
detail too much about the photographic techniques used by the photographers or
their work in particular. I can only
assume that this was because it was geared towards a very general
audience. Rankin I felt was a weak
presenter and asked timid childlike questions at times and his attempt to capture
a modern day version of Eisenstaedt’s Times Square image absorbed too much
time. Time that would have been better
spent fish with Eppridge.
Since watching the programme I have put together these
online resources for the people either interviewed or mentioned in the
programme.
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