Google publishes Life magazine photo archives

Life magazine archives going online, courtesy of Google Images
Life magazine archives going online, courtesy of Google Images

Life magazine has consistently reported on every major historical moment throughout the last century, with Google now publishing the magazines phenomenal photo archive online for all to ogle at their leisure.

Life boasts one of the biggest and best photograph collections in the world, from some of the most successful and critically acclaimed photojournalists of our time.

Initially, 10 million images will be available online by Google, an amazing 97 per cent of which have never been published previously.

Zapruder footage

In addition to the entire works of Life photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili and Nina Leen, Google will also publish the notorious Zapruder footage of the Kennedy assassination.

Google's Director of Product Management, RJ Pittman, said: "We are very excited to bring this amazing collection of photos and etchings form the archives to the internet. With so many never before seen images, this is going to be a real benefit to the public."

The first 20 per cent of the collection went online today, made available on Google Image Search, with the full archive planned to be made available by early 2009.

Google on a mission

Google's press announcement reminds us that the company's "mission [is] to organise all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

"Only a small percentage of these images have ever been published. The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings and prints."

For more, check out Google's blog on the subject.

Adam Hartley