Life generally refers to three American magazines:

A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name.

A weekly news magazine launched by Luce in 1936, with a strong emphasis on photojournalism. Life was published until 1972; as an intermittent "special" until 1978; and as a monthly from 1978 to 2000.

A weekly newspaper supplement published by Time Inc. from 2004 to 2007 and included in some American newspapers.

The Life founded in 1883 was similar to Puck and was published for 53 years as a general-interest light entertainment magazine, heavy on illustrations, jokes and social commentary. It featured some of the greatest writers, editors and cartoonists of its era, including Charles Dana Gibson, Norman Rockwell and Harry Oliver. During its later years, this magazine offered brief capsule reviews (similar to those in The New Yorker) of plays and movies currently running in New York City, but with the innovative touch of a colored typographic bullet appended to each review, resembling a traffic light: green for a positive review, red for a negative one, amber for mixed notices.

The Luce Life was the first all-photographic American news magazine, and it dominated the market for more than 40 years. The magazine sold more than 13.5 million copies a week at one point and was so popular that President Harry S. Truman, Sir Winston Churchill and General Douglas MacArthur all serialized their memoirs in its pages.

Perhaps one of the best-known pictures printed in the magazine was Alfred Eisenstaedt’s photograph of a nurse in a sailor’s arms, snapped on August 27, 1945, as they celebrated VJ Day in New York City. The magazine's place in the history of photojournalism is considered its most important contribution to publishing. Luce purchased the rights to the name from the publishers of the first Life but sold its subscription list and features to another magazine; there was no editorial continuity between the two publications.

Life was wildly successful for two generations before its prestige was diminished by economics and changing tastes. Since 1972, Life has twice ceased publication and resumed in a different form, before ceasing once again with the issue dated April 20, 2007. The brand name continues on the Internet and in occasional special issues.

Early history

Life was born January 4, 1883, in a New York City artist's studio at 1155 Broadway as a partnership between John Ames Mitchell and Andrew Miller. Mitchell would hold a seventy-five percent interest in the magazine with the remainder by Miller. Both men would retain their holdings until their deaths. . Miller served as Secretary-Treasurer of the magazine and was very successful managing the business side of the operation. Mitchell, a 37-year old illustrator who used a $10,000 inheritance to invest in the weekly magazine, served as its publisher. Mitchell created the first Life nameplate with cupids as mascots; he later drew its masthead of a knight leveling his lance at the posterior of a fleeing devil. Mitchell took advantage of a revolutionary new printing process using zinc-coated plates, which improved the reproduction of his illustrations and artwork. This edge helped because Life faced stiff competition from the bestselling humor magazines Judge and Puck, which were already established and successful. Edward Sandford Martin was brought on as Life’s first literary editor; the recent Harvard graduate was a founder of the Harvard Lampoon.

The motto of the first issue of Life was, “While there’s Life, there's hope.” The new magazine set forth its principles and policies to its readers: “We wish to have some fun in this paper... We shall try to domesticate as much as possible of the casual cheerfulness that is drifting about in an unfriendly world... We shall have something to say about religion, about politics, fashion, society, literature, the stage, the stock exchange, and the police station, and we will speak out what is in our mind as fairly, as truthfully, and as decently as we know how.”

The magazine was a success and soon attracted the industry’s leading contributors. Among the most important was Charles Dana Gibson. Three years after the magazine was founded, the Massachusetts native sold Life his first contribution for $4: a dog outside his kennel howling at the moon. Encouraged by a publisher who was also an artist, Gibson was joined in Life’s early days by such well-known illustrators as Palmer Cox (creator of the Brownie), A. B. Frost, Oliver Herford, and E. W. Kemble. Life attracted an impressive literary roster too: John Kendrick Bangs, James Whitcomb Riley, and Brander Matthews all wrote for the magazine at the turn of the century.

However, Life also had its dark side. Mitchell was sometimes accused of outright anti-Semitism. When the magazine blamed the theatrical team of Klaw & Erlanger for Chicago’s grisly Iroquois Theater Fire in 1903, a national uproar ensued. Life’s drama critic, James Stetson Metcalfe, was barred from the 47 Manhattan theatres controlled by the so-called Theatrical Syndicate. His magazine hit back with terrible cartoons of grotesque Jews with enormous noses.

Life became a place that discovered new talent; this was particularly true among illustrators. In 1908 Robert Ripley published his first cartoon in Life, 20 years before his Believe It or Not! fame. Norman Rockwell’s first cover for Life, "Tain’t You", was published May 10, 1917. Rockwell's paintings were featured on Life’s cover 28 times between 1917 and 1924. Rea Irvin, the first art director of The New Yorker and creator of Eustace Tilley, got his start drawing covers for Life.

Just as pictures would later become Life’s most compelling feature, Charles Dana Gibson dreamed up its most celebrated figure. His creation, the Gibson Girl, was a tall, regal beauty. After her early Life appearances in the 1890s, the Gibson Girl became the nation’s feminine ideal. The Gibson Girl was a publishing sensation and earned a place in fashion history.

This version of Life took sides in politics and international affairs, and published fiery pro-American editorials. Mitchell and Gibson were incensed when Germany attacked Belgium; in 1914 they undertook a campaign to push America into the war. Mitchell’s seven years spent at Paris art schools made him partial to the French; there wasn’t a shred of unbiased coverage of the war. Gibson drew the Kaiser as a bloody madman, insulting Uncle Sam, sneering at crippled soldiers, and even shooting Red Cross nurses. Mitchell lived just long enough to see Life’s crusade result in the U. S. declaration of war in 1917.

Following Mitchell’s death in 1918, Gibson bought the magazine for $1 million. But the world was a different place for Gibson’s publication. It was not the Gay Nineties where family-style humor prevailed and the chaste Gibson Girls wore floor-length dresses. World War I had spurred changing tastes among the magazine-reading public. Life’s brand of fun, clean, cultivated, humor began to pale before the new variety: crude, sexy, and cynical. Life struggled to compete on newsstands with such risqué rivals.

thumbnail|150px|left|1922 cover, "The Flapper" by F. X. Leyendecker In 1920 Gibson tapped former Vanity Fair staffer Robert E. Sherwood to be editor. A World War I veteran and member of the Algonquin Round Table, Sherwood tried to inject sophisticated humor onto the pages. Life published Ivy League jokes, cartoons, flapper sayings and all-burlesque issues. Beginning in 1920 Life undertook a crusade against Prohibition. It also tapped the humorous writings of Frank Sullivan, Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, Franklin P. Adams and Corey Ford. Among the illustrators and cartoonists were Ralph Barton, Percy Crosby, Don Herold, Ellison Hoover, H. T. Webster, Art Young and John Held Jr.

Despite such all-star talents on staff, Life had passed its prime, and was sliding toward financial ruin. The New Yorker, debuting in February 1925, copied many of the features and styles of Life; it even raided its editorial and art departments. Another blow to Life’s circulation came from raunchy humor periodicals such as Ballyhoo and Hooey, which ran what can be termed outhouse gags. Esquire joined Life’s competitors in 1933. A little more than three years after purchasing Life, Gibson quit and turned the decaying property over to Publisher Clair Maxwell and Treasurer Henry Richter. Gibson retired to Maine to paint and lost active interest in the magazine, which he left deeply in the red.

Life had 250,000 readers in 1920[source?]. But as the Jazz Age rolled into the Great Depression, the magazine lost money and subscribers. By the time Maxwell and Editor George Eggleston took over, Life had switched from publishing weekly to monthly. The two men went to work revamping its editorial style to meet the times, and in the process it did win new readers. Life struggled to make a profit in the 1930s when Henry Luce pursued purchasing it.

Announcing the death of Life, Maxwell declared: “We cannot claim, like Mr. Gene Tunney, that we resigned our championship undefeated in our prime. But at least we hope to retire gracefully from a world still friendly.”

For Life’s final issue in its original format, 80 year-old Edward Sandford Martin was recalled from editorial retirement to compose its obituary. He wrote, “That Life should be passing into the hands of new owners and directors is of the liveliest interest to the sole survivor of the little group that saw it born in January 1883... As for me, I wish it all good fortune; grace, mercy and peace and usefulness to a distracted world that does not know which way to turn nor what will happen to it next. A wonderful time for a new voice to make a noise that needs to be heard!”

The photojournalism magazine

In 1936 publisher Henry Luce paid $92,000 to the owners of Life magazine because he sought the name for Time Inc. Wanting only the old Life’s name in the sale, Time Inc. sold Life’s subscription list, features, and goodwill to Judge. Convinced that pictures could tell a story instead of just illustrating text, Luce launched Life on November 23, 1936. The third magazine published by Luce, after Time in 1923 and Fortune in 1930, Life gave birth to the photo magazine in the U.S., giving as much space and importance to pictures as to words. The first issue of Life, which sold for ten cents (approximately USD $1.48 in 2007, see Cost of Living Calculator) featured five pages of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s pictures.

When the first issue of Life magazine appeared on the newsstands, the U.S. was in the midst of the Great Depression and the world was headed toward war. Adolf Hitler was firmly in power in Germany. In Spain, General Francisco Franco’s rebel army was at the gates of Madrid; German Luftwaffe pilots and bomber crews, calling themselves the Condor Legion, were honing their skills as Franco’s air arm. Italy under Benito Mussolini annexed Ethiopia. Luce ignored tense world affairs when the new Life was unveiled: the first issue depicted the Fort Peck Dam in Montana photographed by Margaret Bourke-White. The format of Life in 1936 was an instant classic: the text was condensed into captions for 50 pages of pictures. The magazine was printed on heavily coated paper that cost readers only a dime. The magazine’s circulation skyrocketed beyond the company’s predictions, going from 380,000 copies of the first issue to more than one million a week four months later. It spawned many imitators, such as Look, which was founded just a year later in 1937, and folded in 1971.

Life got its own building at 19 West 31st Street, a Beaux-Arts architecture jewel built in 1894 and considered of "outstanding significance" by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission. Later it moved editorial offices to 9 Rockefeller Plaza.

Success

Luce pulled a stringer for Time, Edward K. Thompson, to become assistant picture editor in 1937. From 1949–1961 he was the managing editor and editor in chief, until his retirement in 1970. His influence was significant during the magazine’s heyday - roughly from 1936 until the mid-1960s. Thompson was known for the free rein he gave his editors, particularly a “trio of formidable and colorful women: Sally Kirkland, fashion editor; Mary Letherbee, movie editor; and Mary Hamman, modern living editor."

The magazine became archly conservative, and attacked organized labor and trade unions. In August 1942, writing of labor unrest, Life concluded: "The morale situation is perhaps the worst in the U. S. …It is time for the rest of the country to sit up and take notice. For Detroit can either blow up Hitler or it can blow up the U. S." Detroit’s Mayor Edward J. Jeffries was outraged: "I'll match Detroit's patriotism against any other city's in the country. The whole story in Life is scurrilous. …I’d just call it a yellow magazine and let it go at that." Martin R. Bradley, a U. S. Collector of Customs, was ordered to tear out of the August 17 issue five pages containing an article captioned "Detroit is Dynamite" before permitting copies of the magazine to cross the international border to Canada.

When the U. S. entered the war in 1941, so did Life. By 1944 not all of Time and Life's forty war correspondents were men; six were newswomen: Mary Welsh Hemingway, Margaret Bourke-White, Lael Tucker, Peggy Durdin, Shelley Smith Mydans, Annalee Jacoby, and Jacqueline Saix, an Englishwoman whose name is usually omitted (she and Welsh are the only women listed in Time's publisher's letter, May 8, 1944, as being part of the magazine's team) reported on the war for the company.

Life was pro-American and backed the war effort each week. In July 1942, Life launched its first art contest for soldiers and drew more than 1,500 entries, submitted by all ranks. Judges sorted out the best and awarded $1,000 in prizes. Life picked sixteen for reproduction in the magazine. Washington’s National Gallery agreed to put 117 on exhibition that summer. Life, in its patriotism, also supported the military's efforts to document the war with artists. When Congress forbid the Military from using government money to fund artists in the field, Life privatized much of the programs hiring some of the same artists who were fired by the Military. Many works created by the Life artists were turned over to the DOD and its art programs, such as the United States Army Art Program, on December 7, 1960.

The magazine employed the distinguished war photographer Robert Capa. A veteran of Collier's magazine, Capa was among the first wave of the D-Day invasion in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. A notorious controversy at the Life photography darkroom ensued after a mishap ruined dozens of Capa's photos that were taken during the beach landing; the magazine claimed in its captions that the photos were fuzzy because Capa's hands were shaking. He denied it; he later poked fun at Life by titling his memoir Slightly Out of Focus. In 1954, Capa was killed while working for the magazine while covering the First Indochina War after stepping on a landmine. LIFE photographer Bob Landry also went in with the first wave at D-Day, "but all of Landry's film was lost, and his shoes to boot."

Each week during World War II the magazine brought the war home to Americans; it had photographers in all theaters of war, from the Pacific to Europe. The magazine was so iconic that it was imitated in enemy propaganda using contrasting images of Life and Death.

In May 1950 the council of ministers in Cairo banned Life from Egypt, forever. All issues on sale were confiscated. No reason was given, but Egyptian officials expressed indignation over the April 10, 1950, story about King Farouk of Egypt, entitled the "Problem King of Egypt". The government considered it insulting to the country.

Life in the 1950s earned a measure of respect by commissioning work from top authors. After Life's publication in 1952 of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea, the magazine contracted with the author for a 4,000-word piece on bullfighting. Hemingway sent the editors a 10,000-word article, following his last visit to Spain in 1959 to cover a series of contests between two top matadors. The article was republished in 1985 as the novella The Dangerous Summer.

In February 1953, just a few weeks after leaving office, President Harry S. Truman announced that Life magazine would handle all rights to his memoirs. Truman said it was his belief that by 1954 he would be able to speak more fully on subjects pertaining to the role his administration played in world affairs. Truman observed that Life editors had presented other memoirs with great dignity; he added that Life also made the best offer.

Dorothy Dandridge was the first African American woman to appear on the cover of the magazine in November 1954.

In 1957, R. Gordon Wasson, the vice president of J.P.Morgan, published an article in Life extolling the virtues of magic mushrooms. This prompted Albert Hoffman to isolate psilocybin in 1958 for distribution by Sandoz alongside LSD in the U.S., further raising interest in LSD in the mass media. Following Wasson's report, Timothy Leary visited Mexico to experience the mushrooms.

Life's motto became, "To see Life; see the world." In the post-war years it published some of the most memorable images of events in the United States and the world. It also produced many popular science serials such as The World We Live In and The Epic of Man in the early 1950s. The magazine continued to showcase the work of notable illustrators, including Alton S. Tobey, whose many contributions included the cover for a 1958 series of articles on the history of the Russian Revolution.

The magazine was losing readers as the 1950s drew to a close. In May 1959 it announced plans to reduce its regular newsstand price to 19 cents a copy from 25 cents. With the increase in television sales and viewership, interest in news magazines was waning. Life would need to reinvent itself.

The Sixties and the end of an era

In the 1960s the magazine was filled with color photos of movie stars, President John F. Kennedy and his family, the war in Vietnam, and the Apollo program. Typical of the magazine’s editorial focus was a long 1964 feature on actress Elizabeth Taylor and her relationship to actor Richard Burton. Reporter Richard Meryman Jr. traveled with Taylor to New York, California, and Paris. Life ran a 6,000-word first-person article on the screen star. “I’m not a ‘sex queen’ or a ‘sex symbol,’ “ Taylor said. “I don’t think I want to be one. Sex symbol kind of suggests bathrooms in hotels or something. I do know I’m a movie star and I like being a woman, and I think sex is absolutely gorgeous. But as far as a sex goddess, I don’t worry myself that way... Richard is a very sexy man. He’s got that sort of jungle essence that one can sense... When we look at each other, it’s like our eyes have fingers and they grab ahold... I think I ended up being the scarlet woman because of my rather puritanical up bringing and beliefs. I couldn’t just have a romance. It had to be a marriage.”

In the 1960s, the magazine’s photographs featured those by Gordon Parks. “The camera is my weapon against the things I dislike about the universe and how I show the beautiful things about the universe,” Parks recalled in 2000. “I didn’t care about Life magazine. I cared about the people,” he said.

On March 25, 1966, Life had the drug LSD, which was still not criminalized, as its cover story.

In March 1967 Life won the 1967 National Magazine Award, chosen by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. The prestigious award paid tribute to the stunning photos coming out of the war in Southeast Asia, such as Henri Huet’s riveting series of a wounded medic that were published in January 1966. Increasingly, the photos that Life was printing of the war in Vietnam were searing images of death and loss. However, despite the accolades the magazine continued to win, and publishing American’s mission to the moon in 1969, circulation was lagging. It was announced in January 1971 that Life would reduce its circulation from 8.5 million to 7 million in an effort to offset shrinking advertising revenues. Exactly one year later, Life cut its circulation from 7 million to 5.5 million beginning with the January 14, 1972, issue, publisher Gary Valk announced. Life was reportedly not losing money, but its costs were rising faster than its profits. Life lost credibility with many readers when it supported Clifford Irving, whose fraudulent autobiography of Howard Hughes was revealed as a hoax in January 1972. The magazine had purchased serialization rights to Irving's manuscript.

Industry figures showed that some 96 percent of Life's circulation went to mail subscribers, with only 4 percent coming from the more profitable newsstand sales. Valk was at the helm as publisher when hundreds lost their jobs. The end came when the weekly Life magazine shut down on December 8, 1972.

From 1972 to 1978, Time Inc. published ten Life Special Reports on such themes as “The Spirit of Israel”, “Remarkable American Women” and “The Year in Pictures”. With a minimum of promotion, those issues sold between 500,000 and 1 million copies at cover prices of up to $2.

As a monthly (1978–2000)

In 1978, Life re-emerged as a monthly, and with this resurrection came a new, modified logo. Although still the familiar red rectangle with the white type, the new version was larger, and the lettering was closer together and the box surrounding it was smaller. (This "new" larger logo would be used on every issue until July 1993.)

Life continued for the next 22 years as a moderately successful general interest news features magazine. In 1986, it decided to mark its 50th anniversary under the Time Inc. umbrella with a special issue showing every Life cover starting from 1936, which of course included the issues that were published during the six-year hiatus in the 1970s. The circulation in this era hovered around the 1.5 million-circulation mark. The cover price in 1986 was $2.50. The publisher at the time was Charles Whittingham; the editor was Philip Kunhardt. Life also got to go back to war in 1991, and it did so just like in the 1940s. Four issues of this weekly Life in Time of War were published during the first Gulf War.

Hard times came to the magazine once again, and in February 1993 Life announced the magazine would be printed on smaller pages starting with its July issue. This issue would also mark the return of the original Life logo.

Also at this time, Life slashed advertising prices 35 percent in a bid to make the monthly publication more appealing to advertisers. The magazine reduced its circulation guarantee for advertisers by 12 percent in July 1993 to 1.5 million copies from the current 1.7 million. The publishers in this era were Nora McAniff and Edward McCarrick; Daniel Okrent was the editor. Life for the first time was the same trim size as its longtime Time Inc. sister publication, Fortune.

The magazine was back in the national consciousness upon the death in August 1995 of Alfred Eisenstaedt, the Life photographer whose pictures constitute some of the most enduring images of the 20th century. Eisenstaedt’s photographs of the famous and infamous — Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway, the Kennedys, Sophia Loren — won him worldwide renown and 87 Life covers.

In 1999 the magazine was suffering financially, but still made news by compiling lists to round out the 20th Century. Life editors ranked its 100 Most Important Events of the Millennium. This list has been criticized for being overly focused on Western achievements. The Chinese, for example, had invented type four centuries before Gutenberg, but with thousands of ideograms, found its use impractical. Life also published a list of the 100 Most Important People of the Millennium. This list, too, was criticized for focusing on the West. Also, Thomas Edison's number one ranking was challenged since there were others whose inventions (the combustion engine, the automobile, electricity-making machines, for example) had greater impact than Edison's. The top 100 most important people list was further criticized for mixing world-famous names, such as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, and Leonardo da Vinci, with numerous Americans largely unknown outside of the United States (18 Americans compared to 13 Italians and French, 12 English).

It appeared that the money-losing magazine was just hanging on to make it into the 21st century, and it almost did. In March 2000, Time Inc. announced it would cease regular publication of Life with the May issue, seven months before the century's end. “It’s a sad day for us here,” Don Logan, chairman and chief executive of Time Inc., told CNNfn.com. “It was still in the black,” he said, noting that Life was increasingly spending more to maintain its monthly circulation level of approximately 1.5 million. “Life was a general interest magazine and since its reincarnation, it had always struggled to find its identity, to find its position in the marketplace,” Logan said. The magazine also farewelled its core subject: in 1936 its first issue featured a baby named George Story with the headline "Life Begins" and over the years it updated its readers about the course of his life as he married, had children and pursued a career as a journalist. When Time announced its closure in March, George soon then died from heart failure on June 4, 2000. The final issue of Life was appropriately titled "A Life Ends".

For Life subscribers, remaining subscriptions were honored with other Time Inc. magazines, such as Time. And in January 2001, these subscribers received a special, Life-sized format of "The Year in Pictures" edition of Time magazine, which was in reality a Life issue disguised under a Time logo on the front. (Newsstand copies of this edition were actually published under the Life imprint.)

While citing poor advertising sales and a rough climate for selling magazine subscriptions, Time Inc. executives said a key reason for closing the title in 2000 was to divert resources to the company’s other magazine launches that year, such as Real Simple. Later that year, its parent company, Time Warner, struck a deal with the Tribune Company for Times Mirror magazines that included Golf, Ski, Skiing, Field & Stream, and Yachting. Life was not around when AOL and Time Warner announced their $183 billion merger, the largest corporate merger in history, which was finalized in January 2001.

Life was absent from the U.S. market for only a few months, when it began publishing special newsstand "megazine" issues on topics such as 9/11 and the Holy Land in 2001. These issues, which were printed on thicker paper, were more like softcover books than magazines.

As a newspaper supplement (2004–07)

Beginning in October 2004, it was revived for a second time. Life resumed weekly publication as a free supplement to U.S. newspapers. Life went into competition for the first time with the two industry heavyweights, Parade and USA Weekend. At its launch, it was distributed with more than 60 newspapers with a combined circulation of approximately 12 million. Among the newspapers to carry Life: the Washington Post, New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Time Inc. made deals with several major newspaper publishers to carry the Life supplement, including Knight Ridder and the McClatchy Company.

This version of Life retained its trademark logo but sported a new cover motto, “America’s Weekend Magazine.” It measured 9½ x 11½ inches and was printed on glossy paper in full-color. On September 15, 2006, Life was just 20 pages. The editorial content contained one full-page photo, of actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and one three-page, seven-photo essay, of Kaiju Big Battel.

This era of Life lasted less than three years. On March 26, 2007, Time Inc. announced that it would fold the magazine as of April 20, 2007, although it would keep the web site.

Partnership with Google

On November 18, 2008, Google began hosting an archive of the magazine's photographs, as part of a joint effort with Life. Many images in this archive were never published in the magazine. The archive is accessible through Google image search (see LIFE photo archive hosted by Google). Also, the full archive of the issues of the main run (1936–1972) is available through Google Book Search (see Google Books).

Online Presence

LIFE.com launched March 31, 2009. The site, a joint venture between Getty Images and Life magazine, offers millions of photographs from their combined collections. LIFE.com also maintains Tumblr and Twitter accounts.

Contributors

Well-known contributors since 1936 have included:

Andreas Feininger (photojournalist)

Berry Berenson (photojournalist)

Margaret Bourke-White (photojournalist)

Larry Burrows (photojournalist)

Robert Capa (photojournalist)

Brad Darrach (film critic)

Wheeler Winston Dixon (film critic)

Alfred Eisenstaedt (photojournalist)

Bill Eppridge (photojournalist)

Clay Felker (sportswriter, founder of ''New York Magazine)

Ron Galella, (photojournalist)

Bob Gomel (photojournalist)

Allan Grant (photojournalist)

Philippe Halsman (photographer)

Dora Jane Hamblin (correspondent)

Dirck Halstead (photojournalist)

Mary Hamman (modern living editor)

Bernard Hoffman (photojournalist)

Henri Huet (photojournalist)

Sally Kirkland (fashion editor)

Will Lang Jr. (Bureau Head / Chief Regional Bureau Director)

Dorothea Lange

Mary Leatherbee (movie editor)

Henry Luce (publisher, editor-in-chief, 1936–1964)

Hansel Mieth (photojournalist)

Lee Miller (photojournalist)

Gjon Mili (photojournalist)

Ralph Morse (photojournalist)

Carl Mydans (photojournalist)

Gordon Parks (photojournalist)

John Phillips (photojournalist)

Paul Schutzer (photojournalist)

Mark Shaw (photographer)

Art Shay (photojournalist)

George Silk (photojournalist)

W. Eugene Smith (photojournalist)

David Snell writer and cartoonist

Peter Stackpole (photojournalist)

Edward Steichen (portrait photographer)

Pete Souza (photojournalist)

Karina Taira (fashion photographer)

Edward K. Thompson (managing editor 1949–1961; editor in chief 1961–1970)

Thomas Thompson (novelist)

John Vachon (photojournalist)

Jeff Vespa (photojournalist and editor at large)

James Watters (film critic)

André Weinfeld (portrait photographer)

James M. Whitmore (photojournalist)

Tony Zappone (photojournalist, Europe edition)

John G. Zimmerman (photojournalist)

See also

List of defunct American periodicals

References

External links

Life.com official site

Full Life magazine issues from 1936 thru 1972

Le magazine Life, la chronique de l'Amérique

Life photo archive hosted by Google

Life covers at CoverBrowser

Magazine Data File: Life (1883)

Online archive of the covers from LIFE, the humor magazine (1883–1936)

Index to Life Issues with Swing Dance Content

The Year 1947 in Life Magazine

LIFE Magazine Covers Timeline

Photo of a young girl yawning at former President George W. Bush that was included their "2009 Pictures of the Year"

Category:American news magazines Category:American weekly magazines Category:Defunct magazines of the United States Category:Photojournalism publications Category:Publications established in 1936 Category:Weekly magazines Category:Worth Bingham Prize recipients

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name	Justin Bieber
background	solo_singer
birth name	Justin Drew Bieber
birth date	March 01, 1994
birth place	London, Ontario, Canada
origin	Stratford, Ontario, Canada
instrument	Vocals, guitar, piano, percussion, trumpet
genre	Pop, R&B;, teen pop
occupation	Singer, musician, actor
years active	2009–present
label	Island, RBMG
associated acts	Usher
website	justinbiebermusic.com }}

Justin Drew Bieber ( , born March 1, 1994) is a Canadian pop/R&B; singer, songwriter and actor. Bieber was discovered in 2008 by Scooter Braun, who came across Bieber's videos on YouTube and later became his manager. Braun arranged for him to meet with Usher in Atlanta, Georgia, and Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher, and then to a recording contract with Island Records offered by L.A. Reid. Bieber's debut single, "One Time", was released in 2009 and peaked in the top ten in Canada and charted in the top thirty in several international markets. His debut album, the seven-track EP My World, followed in November 2009, and was soon certified platinum in the United States (it was later reissued with two bonus tracks). He became the first artist to have seven songs from a debut album chart on the Billboard Hot 100.

Bieber's first full-length studio album, My World 2.0, was released in March 2010. It debuted at number one or within the top ten in several countries and was certified platinum in the United States. It was preceded by the worldwide top-ten single, "Baby". The music video of "Baby" is currently ranked as the most viewed and most discussed YouTube video. Bieber followed-up the release of his debut album with his first headlining tour, the My World Tour, the remix albums My Worlds Acoustic and Never Say Never – The Remixes, and the 3D biopic-concert film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never – which had an opening weekend gross that nearly matched the record for the biggest opening weekend for a concert-film. Bieber released his second studio album, Under the Mistletoe in November 2011, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Bieber has received numerous awards, including Artist of the Year at the 2010 American Music Awards — and has been nominated for numerous awards, including Best New Artist and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards.

Life and career

1994–2007: Childhood and youth

Bieber was born on March 1, 1994, in London, Ontario, and was raised in Stratford, Ontario. Bieber's mother, Patricia Lynn "Pattie" Mallette, was 18 years old when she became pregnant with her son. Mallette, originally from Stratford, raised her son with the help of her parents, Bruce and Diane. Mallette worked a series of low-paying office jobs, raising Bieber as a single mother in low-income housing. Bieber has maintained contact with his father, Jeremy Jack Bieber, who married another woman and had two children. Bieber's paternal great-grandfather was a German immigrant to Canada. His mother's ancestry is French Canadian. Bieber attended French immersion school at Stratford school Jean Sauve.

During his childhood, Bieber was interested in hockey, soccer, and chess; he often kept his musical aspirations to himself. As he grew up, Bieber taught himself to play the piano, drums, guitar, and trumpet. In early 2007, when he was twelve, Bieber sang Ne-Yo's "So Sick" for a local singing competition in Stratford and placed second. Mallette posted a video of the performance on YouTube for their family and friends to see. She continued to upload videos of Bieber singing covers of various R&B; songs, and Bieber's popularity on the site grew. Chris Hicks, Bieber's A&R; at Island/Def Jam, explained the young artist's huge online following to HitQuarters by saying:

"He was doing something different. He was an attractive white kid singing very soulful R&B; hits. That set him apart immediately from anyone in his range because no one was covering or singing these kind of records. But equally important was that you believed in these songs – it was real. And you wanted to hear more."

2008–10: Discovery, My Worlds, and subsequent releases

While searching for videos of a different singer, Scooter Braun, a former marketing executive of So So Def, clicked on one of Bieber's 2007 videos by accident. Impressed, Braun tracked down the theater Bieber was performing in, located Bieber's school, and finally contacted Mallette. Mallette was reluctant because of Braun's Jewish religion; she remembered praying, "God, I gave him to you. You could send me a Christian man, a Christian label! ... you don’t want this Jewish kid to be Justin’s man, do you?" However, after praying with her church elders and receiving their encouragement, she permitted Braun to fly Bieber, then 13, to Atlanta, Georgia, to record demo tapes. A week after arriving, Bieber sang for R&B; singer/songwriter Usher. Bieber was soon signed to Raymond Braun Media Group (RBMG), a joint venture between Braun and Usher. Justin Timberlake was also reportedly in the running to sign Bieber, but lost the bidding war to Usher. Usher then sought assistance in finding a label home for the artist from then manager Chris Hicks, who helped engineer an audition with his contact Antonio L.A. Reid of Island Def Jam Music Group. Reid signed Bieber to Island Records in October 2008 (resulting in a joint venture between RBMG and Island Records) and appointed Hicks as executive Vice-President of Def Jam where he would be able manage Bieber's career at the label. At that point, Bieber and his mother moved to Atlanta temporarily, also the home of Usher and Braun, to record and get counseling from Braun. Braun became Bieber's manager.

Bieber's first single, "One Time", was released to radio while Bieber was still recording his debut album. The song reached number 12 on the Canadian Hot 100 during its first week of release in July 2009, and later peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. During fall 2009 it had success in international markets. The song was certified Platinum in Canada and the US and Gold in Australia and New Zealand. Bieber's first release, an extended play entitled My World, was released on November 17, 2009. The album's second single, "One Less Lonely Girl", and two promo singles, "Love Me", and "Favorite Girl", were released exclusively on the iTunes store and charted within the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100. "One Less Lonely Girl" was later also released to radio and peaked within the top fifteen in Canada and the US, being certified Gold in the latter. My World was eventually certified Platinum in the US and Double Platinum in both Canada and the UK. To promote the album, Bieber performed on several live shows such as mtvU's VMA 09 Tour, European program The Dome, YTV's The Next Star, The Today Show, The Wendy Williams Show, Lopez Tonight, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, It's On with Alexa Chung, Good Morning America, Chelsea Lately, and BET's 106 & Park with Rihanna. Bieber also guest starred in an episode of True Jackson, VP in late 2009.

Bieber performed Stevie Wonder's "Someday at Christmas" for U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama at the White House for Christmas in Washington, which was broadcast on December 20, 2009, on U.S. television broadcaster TNT. Bieber was also one of the performers at Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest on December 31, 2009. Bieber was a presenter at the 52nd Grammy Awards on January 31, 2010. He was invited to be a vocalist for the remake of We Are The World (a song written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie) for its 25th anniversary to benefit Haiti after the earthquake. Bieber sings the opening line, which was sung by Lionel Richie in the original version. On March 12, 2010, a version of K'naan's "Wavin' Flag" recorded by a collective of Canadian musicians known as Young Artists for Haiti was released. Bieber is featured in the song, performing the closing lines.

"Baby", the lead single from his debut album, My World 2.0, which features Ludacris, was released in January 2010 and became his biggest hit thus far, charting at number five in the U.S. and reaching the top ten in seven other countries. Two promo singles "Never Let You Go", and "U Smile" were top thirty hits on the U.S. Hot 100, and top twenty hits in Canada. According to review aggregator Metacritic, the album has received "generally favorable reviews". It debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200, making Bieber the youngest solo male act to top the chart since Stevie Wonder in 1963. My World 2.0 also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, Irish Albums Chart, and Australian Albums Chart, and the New Zealand Albums Chart and reached the top ten of fifteen other countries. To promote the album, Bieber appeared on several live programs including The View, the 2010 Kids Choice Awards, Nightline, The Late Show with David Letterman, The Dome and 106 and Park. Bieber collaborated with Sean Kingston on his single "Eenie Meenie" which also appeared on Bieber's debut album. The song reached the top ten in the United Kingdom and Australia, and the top-twenty of most other markets. thumb|left|Bieber performing at the Conseco Fieldhouse, in August 2010 On April 10, 2010, Bieber was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. On July 4, 2010, Bieber performed at the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular in New York City. The second single from My World 2.0, "Somebody to Love", was released in April 2010, and a remix was released featuring Bieber's mentor Usher. The single reached number ten in Canada, number fifteen in the United States, and the top twenty in multiple international countries.

On June 23, 2010, Bieber went on his first official headlining tour, the My World Tour, starting in Hartford, Connecticut, to promote My World and My World 2.0. In July 2010, it was reported that Bieber was the most searched for celebrity on the Internet. That same month his music video, "Baby", surpassed Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" to become the most viewed, and most disliked YouTube video ever. In September 2010, it was reported that Bieber accounted for three percent of all traffic on Twitter, according to an employee of the social-networking site.

Bieber began recording his second album in July 2010 in New York City. At this point, because of puberty, his voice was deeper than it was when he recorded his first album. In April 2010, the singer discussing his vocals remarked, "It cracks. Like every teenage boy, I'm dealing with it and I have the best vocal coach in the world. [...] Some of the notes I hit on "Baby" I can't hit anymore. We have to lower the key when I sing live." British singer/songwriter Taio Cruz confirmed in July 2010 that he is writing songs for Bieber's next album. Hip hop producer Dr. Dre produced two songs with Bieber in July 2010 but it is unknown if they were made for the album, which is currently due for a 2011 release. Bieber guest-starred in the season premiere of the CBS crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, aired on September 23, 2010. He played a "troubled teen who is faced with a difficult decision regarding his only brother". Bieber was also in a subsequent episode which aired on February 17, 2011, in which his character is killed. Bieber performed a medley of "U Smile", "Baby", and "Somebody to Love" and briefly played the drums at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards on September 12, 2010. Bieber announced in October 2010 that he would release an acoustic album, called My Worlds Acoustic. It was released on Black Friday in the United States and featured acoustic versions of songs from his previous albums, and accompanied the release of a completely new song titled "Pray".

2011–present: Never Say Never film, Under the Mistletoe and Believe

A 3-D part-biopic, part-concert film starring Bieber entitled Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, was released February 11, 2011, directed by Step Up 3D director Jon Chu. It topped the box office with an estimated grossing of $12.4 million on its opening day from 3,105 theaters. It grossed $30.3 million for the weekend and was narrowly beaten by the romantic comedy Just Go With It, which grossed $31 million. Never Say Never is said to have exceeded industry expectations, nearly matching the $31.1 million grossed by Miley Cyrus's 2008 3-D concert film, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, which holds the record for the top debut for a music-documentary. The film is accompanied by his second remix album, Never Say Never – The Remixes, released February 14, 2011, and features remixes of songs from his debut album, with guest appearances from Miley Cyrus, Chris Brown, and Kanye West, among others.

On February 27, 2011, Bieber attended the 2011 Vanity Fair Oscar Party with American actress and singer Selena Gomez, confirming several months of media speculation about a romantic relationship between the pair. The relationship has since continued to garner significant media attention.

In June 2011, Bieber was ranked number 2 on the Forbes list of Best-Paid Celebrities under 30. He is the youngest star and 1 of 7 musicians on the list raking in with $53 million earned in a 12 month period. On November 1, 2011, Bieber released Under the Mistletoe, his second studio album. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 210,000 copies in its first week of release. Bieber is currently recording his third studio album entitled Believe. Kanye West and Drake are confirmed to be featured on the album.

Image

The Observer newspaper in the UK published a report indicating that Justin Bieber is more influential in the social networking sphere than Barack Obama or The Dalai Lama. According to Jan Hoffman of The New York Times, part of Bieber's appeal stems from his YouTube channel. Long before he released his EP, My World, in mid-November, the YouTube videos attracted millions of views. Braun recognized the appeal. Prior to flying him to Atlanta, Braun wanted to "build him up more on YouTube first" and had Bieber record more home videos for the channel. "I said: 'Justin, sing like there’s no one in the room. But let's not use expensive cameras.' We'll give it to kids, let them do the work, so that they feel like it's theirs", recalled Braun. Bieber continues to upload videos to the same channel and has opened a Twitter account, from which he interacts with fans regularly; his account was reported in November 2010 to have over 6 million followers. Since then he has been consistently gaining followers at an average of 24,000 per day. The accounts also serve marketing purposes; for example, Bieber's music video for "One Time" only began selling quickly after it was uploaded to YouTube. Usher comments that while he and Bieber were both signed at the same age, "I had the chance to ramp up my success, where this has happened to Bieber abruptly." As a result, Usher, Braun, Bieber's bodyguard Kenny, and other adults surrounding Bieber constantly coach him on handling fame and his public image. After signing Bieber, Usher appointed one of his former assistants, Ryan Good, to be Bieber's road manager and stylist. Good, once nicknamed Bieber's "swagger coach", created a "streetwise look" for the singer which consisted of baseball caps, hoodies, dog chains and flashy sneakers. Amy Kaufman of The Los Angeles Times comments, "Though a product of a middle-class suburban upbringing in Stratford, Ontario, Bieber's manner of dress and speech ("Wassup man, how you doin'?" or "It's like, you know, whateva' ") suggest he's mimicking his favorite rappers."

Bieber is often featured in teen magazines such as Tiger Beat, and has been labeled as a "teen hearthrob". Bieber has released a collection of nail varnishes to raise awareness for charity. Wax statues of Bieber are on display at Madame Tussauds wax museums in New York, Amsterdam and London. His change of hairstyle in 2010, and the consequent alterations to Bieber products, led to it being called 'the most expensive musical haircut of all time; one company spent $100,000 to fix its dolls for the 2011 Christmas season.

Personal views

Bieber is a Christian, and said he has a relationship with Jesus, talks to him and that "he's the reason I'm here".

Bieber's comments in a February 2011 profile in Rolling Stone sparked controversy. Asked whether a person should wait until marriage to have sex, Bieber responded, "I don't think you should have sex with anyone unless you love them." Asked about his opinion on abortion, Bieber said he does not "believe in abortion" and that it is "like killing a baby". When asked about abortion in cases of rape, he said, "Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason. I don't know how that would be a reason. I guess I haven't been in that position, so I wouldn't be able to judge that." In the same interview, Bieber talked about homosexuality, stating that "It's everyone's own decision to do that. It doesn’t affect me and shouldn't affect anyone else", and Rolling Stone commented, "It is not clear whether he intended to label homosexuality as a lifestyle choice." However, Bieber has also contributed to the It Gets Better Project, a project started in response to the suicide of Billy Lucas, a teenager who was the target of anti-gay bullying.

Bieber has said he is not interested in obtaining United States citizenship, praising Canada as being "the best country in the world", citing its health care system as an example.

Criticism

Bieber has been criticized for looking and sounding younger than his age, his teen-pop music, image, and frequent media attention. He has been a frequent target of Internet bloggers and message board posters, notably by users of Internet message board 4chan and users of YouTube. Nick Collins of The Daily Telegraph speculated that "Bieber's character also appears to strike a particularly sour note with his Internet critics, with many remarks commenting on his youthful appearance, his teen-pop songs, his image as a heart-throb to young teenage girls and his manner of speech".

Discography

My World 2.0 (2010)

Under the Mistletoe (2011)

Believe (2012)

Tour

2009: Urban Behavior Tour

2010–2011: My World Tour

Filmography

rowspan="4"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Himself

Year !! Title !! Role !! Notes
rowspan="2"	2009	True Jackson, VP	>rowspan="3"| Guest star
My Date With...
	Silent Library (MTV series)>Silent Library
School Gyrls (film)	School Gyrls	Cameo
Saturday Night Live
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Jason McCann
Hubworld	Guest star
The X Factor (UK)	Performer
rowspan="9"	2011	|	Guest star
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Jason McCann
Khloé & Lamar	|Episode:The Father In Law (uncredited) Himself playing the NBA Celebrity All Star Game
Saturday Night Live
Justin Bieber: Never Say Never	Himself
Dancing With The Stars	Guest star
So Random!	Himself
Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade	Guest star
The X Factor (UK)	Performer

Awards and nominations

References

Further reading

External links

Category:1994 births Category:Canadian child singers Category:Canadian Christians Category:Canadian dance musicians Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian Internet personalities Category:Canadian male singers Category:Canadian people of French descent Category:Canadian people of German descent Category:Canadian pop singers Category:Canadian rhythm and blues singers Category:Child pop musicians Category:Hip hop singers Category:Island Records artists Category:Musicians from Ontario Category:People from Stratford, Ontario Category:Living people

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