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Time magazine, founded by Britton Haden and Henry Luce in 1923, was America’s first weekly news magazine and made its name through excellent, hard hitting journalism and amazing photography that managed to consistently capture the zeitgeist of society through the decades.
Time still publishes a magazine and although a lot of its work has gone online in the digital era it is still one of the news media industry leaders due to the soceitial relevance of its photojournalism.
Time has built up a huge collection of historically significant photography that stretches back for nearly 100 years and for photographers looking for inspiration a browse through their past catalogs is a great source to tap regularly.
5 Amazing Photos from the Time Magazine Archives.
It is difficult to pick a few photographs from hundreds of very good and very important photographs.
The Vanishing Race by Edward S. Curtis, 1904.
This powerful and politically charged documentary photograph from the turn of the 20th Century shows a group of Native Americans on horseback walking away down a trail that disappears around the corner. This simple, but sad and emotive photograph is a metaphor for the fate of so many Native Americans as the new world spread Westward across the United States; by the turn of the 20th Century most Native Americans had lost their way of life and many realized it would never be coming back again.
Edward S. Curtis, like many others of his time, could see the fate that awaited the tribes of North America after most had already been forced onto reservations and had their way of life stolen and destroyed; and so he set out to document the noble and proud side of this ‘vanishing race’.
Curtis spent 20 years documenting over 80 Native American tribes which he eventually compiled into a unique 20 volume book called ‘The North American Indian’. Much of his work is deeply poignant, particularly with hindsight, but his subjects still shine through the black and white images, full of character and life. Any student of the way of life of the Native American tribes should study the comprehensive work of Edward S. Curtis. Studying his collection of work is fascinating, and yet, sometimes the most simple photograph can capture the real essence of the story, and this image, which he named ‘The Vanishing Race’ manages to tell the sad story of so many tribes, who as the outside world pushed them off their lands, eventually disappeared into the lost pages of history.
The Hindenburg Disaster by Sam Shere, 1937.
On May 6th, 1937, in Manchester Township, New Jersey, a small crowd of photojournalists watched with shocked horror as the 804 foot long Hindenburg airship began to catch fire and the highly flammable hydrogen that kept it afloat exploded into massive bright flames.
The famous German airship, and others like it, were the ultimate symbol of progress, luxury and wealth which is why the photojournalists were waiting to watch it moor on a rainy day in May. The tragic accident that unfolded brought a dramatic end to this notion and the moments that followed ended the reign of the airships forever.
Amazingly, of the 97 people on board, of which 61 were crew members, there were only 35 deaths including 22 crew members and 13 passengers, but the damage had been done in the public mind. The photo that has gone down in history to memorialize this disaster was taken by Sam Shere, one of the photographers waiting for the ship to moor, and it was his photo that was published by the news media all around the world.
Rumors and conspiracies have swirled around the event ever since, with people claiming everything from sabotage to a lightning strike was responsible, but even to this day the real cause of the event is not known. Regardless of the cause of the Hindenburg disaster it was this photo by Sam Shere, as much as the tragedy itself, that changed the course of air travel forever.
Raising the Flag over the Reichstag by Yevgeny Khaldei, 1945.
As the nightmare of WWII drew to close and the Soviet Red Army completed its sweep across Eastern Europe driving the Nazi forces back into Berlin the liberation of Europe was almost at hand. Following a blood soaked last stand the German forces finally crumbled and on the 2nd May 1945, two days after Adolf Hitler had committed suicide, the Red Army raised the Soviet flag over the German Parliament, the Reichstag.
The photographer, Yevgeny Khaldei had traveled as a war photographer with the Red Army for 4 years and fought by their side in many battles. The flag that was raised above the Reichstag was made by his father, who was a tailor by trade, from 3 red table clothes! The image of the flag raised over the Reichstag become one of the most symbolic and memorable images of the entire war and has come to perfectly encapsulate the end of the Nazi reign over Europe.
Dali Atomicus by Phillipe Halsman, 1948.
Taken in 1948 by the experimental photographer Phillipe Halsman the image encapsulates the surrealism of Salvador Dali who revolutionized the art world during his highly acclaimed career and by drawing on his own dreams and deep understanding of human psychology he created artwork that mesmerized his audience.
To achieve the results he wanted Halsman suspended the easel, chair and other furniture in the air with thin wires and then had his assistants throw 3 cats and a bucket of water across the set while Salvador Dali leapt up into the air! It is said that the photograph took a total of 26 attempts to get right! Halsman’s original idea for the photograph was to explode a duck using dynamite while Dali leapt into the air however in the end they settled for throwing 3 cats and a bucket of water instead!
This was one of Halsman’s earliest attempts at what he called ‘Jumpology’, a technique he went on to use often, whereby the subject of his photography would jump in the air for the photo. His reasoning was that while a person was jumping their true character would come out in a way that it never would during a posed picture! Halsman and Dali were both surrealists and this kind of experimental artistic photography went on to inspire not only the advertising and marketing industries of the later half of the 20th Century, but also artists and creators of all kinds!
The Pillars of Creation, NASA, 1995.
Since the dawn of time mankind has looked up to the stars and imagined what the Creator of all the heavens might be. In 1990 NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit around the Earth and after repairing an engineering fault in 1993, the telescope took a photograph of the universe that was so clear we were able to see the Eagle Nebula around 6,500-7000 Light Years away from Earth!
The image is known as the Pillars of Creation because these huge clouds of gas and dust are in the process of creating new stars while at the same time being eroded away by the light of nearby, newly created stars! The pillars, known as elephant trunks, are molecular clouds made of interstellar matter and are an incredible 30 Trillion miles high!
This is one of the most famous images from Astrophotography, a field of photography that our ancestors could only have dreamed of! As a result of the incredible engineering and craftsmanship of NASA technicians the Hubble telescope began to open up our understanding of the universe and exposed mankind to the profound enormity that we find our tiny blue planet in the midst of.
Photography both Defines and Guides our Understanding as the World and Photography has the amazing power to be both the witness of ourselves and the teacher of us all as we evolve together as a culture. From recording the last vestiges of a dying civilization to enlightening us through discovery, the photographic record has grown to become of our society’s most valuable archives.
Which is your favorite photo of all time?
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