On November 23, 1936, publisher Henry Luce released the first modern issue of Life magazine as a picture-centered news weekly. The new Life emphasized photojournalism, using large images to tell stories about politics, war, culture, and everyday life. Its debut came during the Great Depression, offering visual coverage of domestic and international events to a mass audience. Life’s photographers produced some of the most memorable images of the twentieth century, from World War II battlefields to space exploration and social movements. The magazine helped define how Americans saw the wider world before the rise of television. Its format influenced later news and photography publications.
