Among my accidental magazine collection, are a number of old Life Magazines. There was nothing quite like Life for documenting, well, American Life. (And some other countries too!) First class photography, great articles, and fantastic vintage advertising, there's nothing quite like good old magazines to get a flavor of history and culture.
A few years ago I thought it would be fun to buy each of my siblings a Life Magazine from the week they were born. I was able to find each one (my own rule was that it couldn't be dated before their birth, but either on their birthday or during that following week. Since Life was dated on Mondays, only a few of us lucky people have a Life published on our actual birthday. I'm one of those lucky Monday birth-people! One of these magazines is my own birth issue, but I'm not going to tell you which one!
Although I have a few from the 70s and 80s, I opted to photograph only those from the 30s-50s. I hope you enjoy! (I'd love to hear your Life Magazine stories, if you have any!)
What a great gift idea too.
ReplyDeleteKeep these collections coming. I may not post on all of them, but I do look.
STEPH! WHERE do you keep all of these collections???? They are awesome! Do you have a special "collections" room at home? :-)
ReplyDeleteProbably one of these days I'll post some photos of where I keep my collections. That will be fun!
ReplyDeleteI loved LIFE magazine too....the copies I have deal mostly with the two subjects that interest me most, the war (the BIG war, you remember, it was in all the papers)and the Olymoic Games. Back in 2000, while working on my degree, I took a photography class and had to write a series of papers. One was on a favorite photographer, George Silk, who covered the war as a New Zealand correspondent, and later became one of the top Olympic photographers as well. When I looked him up, I discovered he was still living, so, using the resources available to me as the child of newspaper folk, I found his phone number and called him up for an interview. Unfortunately, he was recovering from a skull fracture and was unable to come to the phone, but I spent about an hour on the phone with his wife, Margery. In the course of our conversation, she asked me where I was from. Since she was in CT, I didn't figure she would know So. Pasadena, CA, so I said, a small town you probably never heard of, outside L.A. So she said WHICH small town, and I told her. Long pause. Then she said, not only have I HEARD of it...I GREW UP THERE! George died two years later, but his work lives on. If you have those WWII copies, or Olympic editions, look him up....his work is stunning.
ReplyDeleteLet that be a lesson to me...ALWAYS PROOFREAD! I DO know how to spell "OlymPic"!
ReplyDeleteMy son would love to live at your house. He'll collect anything and everything. Most recently? Envelopes!
ReplyDelete