On this day in 1972 Life magazine ceased publication. The hugely influential weekly “picture” magazine was famed for its exceptional photojournalism, and counted some of the greatest image-makers of the day among its stock. These included Margaret Bourke-White, who was the first accredited female photographer to collaborate with the US military; Alfred Eisenstaedt, whose image of a sailor and a nurse kissing on V-Day is the stuff of legend; and John Dominis, who captured the moment that Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists during the 1968 Olympics. Although the magazine continued to run special issues and was resurrected as a monthly from 1978 to 2000, its original run is considered to be the paragon of twentieth-century social realism.
