Google is hosting an incredible collection of quality, high resolution photos from the LIFE Magazine archives, dating back to the 1750s. It is estimated that once the archive is digitized, nearly 10 million images will be available. Among these works are photographs related to film and television.
To access this archive, you can visit http://images.google.com/hosted/life or click the image below:
Also, you can add “source:life” following any kewords in a standard Google search and find any results.
Each result shows the description, date taken, photographer, size (in pixels and inches), and related images.
The full announcement can be found on Google Blog (LINK):
LIFE Photo Archive available on Google Image Search
11/18/2008 08:17:00 AMThe Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880s; and the entire works left to the collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen. These are just some of the things you’ll see in Google Image Search today.
We’re excited to announce the availability of never-before-seen images from the LIFE photo archive. This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organize all the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. This collection of newly-digitized images includes photos and etchings produced and owned by LIFE dating all the way back to the 1750s.
Only a very 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. We’re digitizing them so that everyone can easily experience these fascinating moments in time. Today about 20 percent of the collection is online; during the next few months, we will be adding the entire LIFE archive – about 10 million photos.
It has been a thrill for us to explore this archive, filled with images captured by LIFE’s famous photographers. See masters like Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White documenting pivotal world events, capturing the evolution of lifestyles and fashions, and opening windows into the lives of celebrities and everyday people.
Once you are in the archive, you’ll also notice that you can access a rich full-size, full-screen version of each image simply by clicking on the picture itself in the landing page. If you decide you really like one of these images, high-quality framed prints can be purchased from LIFE at the click of a button. Think of the holiday gift possibilities! It doesn’t get much easier than that.
So please take a look for yourself and experience these great photos. Your exploration will be limited only by your imagination and your desire to keep on clicking. Be sure to check back often as more photos from the LIFE archive will be added regularly to Google Image Search. We hope that you enjoy them as much as we do!
There are some amazing collections of images. Below are some examples… (click on each image to be redirected to the high resolution page on the LIFE archive):
Alfred Hitchcock directing Shadow of a Doubt
Audrey Hepburn
New James Bond Audition Finalists
Gregory Peck
Viven Leigh, Gone with the Wind
Orson Welles on set rehearsals for Citizen Kane
King Kong
Unidentified Science Fiction Movie
Hollywood Actress Pier Angeli on MGM Movie Set
2001: A Space Odyssey
Quentin Tarantino
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Special thanks to Mike (Sith Sheriff Brody) on the RPF for writing about the substantive 2001: A Space Odyssey archive, which alerted me to the resource.
Jason De Bord