The greatest magazine ever produced was Amiga Power. If it hadn't been, then the greatest magazine ever produced would have been Life Magazine.
Life kicked off on November 23rd, 1936. It could hardly have picked a better time for news. The Great Depression was on, with the almighty dustbowl ravaging the midwest. Spain was wracked by civil war and an Austrian guy who looked like Charles Chaplin was beginning a dreadful social experiment. It's mission statement was to tell stories of what was going on in the world, and it felt that the best way to do this was through pictures.
Remarkably, at first Life practically ignored all this and instead concentrated on a dam called Fort Peck in Montana, photographed by Margaret Bourke-White. But although Life began covering the big events with the onset of WWII, its genius lay in mapping out everyday life both in America and the world through photographs, and the little dramas that occur. It lived by its name. Of course, to most people it was such photographs as the sailor kissing the lady in Time Square on VJ Day, or the busboy craddling a dying Bobby Kennedy that flash in the mind's eye. And perhaps rightly so. But it was so much more. Churchill and Truman thought so highly of the magazine that they serialised their memoirs in its pages. And each issue was visually a treat, printed in glossy pages with that strikingly simple red and white logo. Classy.
Personally I wish I could subscribe to the dear old thing, and have the issues sent every week to my door, from 1936 onward. Sadly, the closest I can get is through the wonderful photobooks they release. Go check one out from your local library. Do it.
And so here's a documentary on the origins and the existence of Life. It's on BBC 4 iPlayer. I'll be watching it tonight, and I suggest you do too.
Because Life is awesome.
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