Reviewed by George Ivanoff

The title of this DVD, Photography as told by Life Magazine photographers, is a little misleading. I was expecting a documentary about the process and art of photography. What I got was a bunch of interviews with photographers about their time working for Life Magazine, discussing everything from the magazine’s politics, to its relationship with its photographers, as well as their views on the photographs that they took. That’s not to say that it’s a bad documentary—it’s not; in fact, it’s a very interesting documentary. But I think the title of the DVD—which differs from the title of the documentary—is odd.

Made in 1985, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Life Magazine, the documentary is actually called Remembering Life. It’s a very simple doco—no intricate camera moves; no flashy graphics; just the photographers reminiscing about the time spent taking photographs for Life, interspersed with the photos they are talking about, as well as some archival footage of the events being discussed. It’s a no-frills documentary that relies upon the subject matter. And what fascinating subject matter—war, poverty, racism, teenage lifestyle, and even the 1950s obsession with bomb shelters. The passion of these photographers is evident, and it is also obvious that they all loved working for Life Magazine, which seemed to afford them a greater creative freedom than other outlets for journalistic photography.

My only complaint about this documentary is the tendency of the camera to linger on close-ups of only a portion of a photo, or to slow pan across a photo, instead of showing the image in its entirety. So many of these amazing images would have benefited from a longer static display—the way they were intended to be viewed within the pages of Life Magazine.

The DVD release itself is rather disappointing. It looks like no effort has gone into cleaning up the documentary. The image quality and sound quality are not pristine. It would have benefited from some time and effort on the restoration front. There are no extras on the DVD, making it a rather meagre offering, as the documentary is barely an hour in length. I was left wanting more.

Photography as Told by Life Magazine Photographers
(1985)

Available through DV1.