Life Magazine

Time Inc. is shutting down Life magazine again, a brand it had resuscitated in late 2004 as a newspaper supplement. Time Inc. said in a statement Monday that it would keep the Life brand going on the Internet, where it will launch a website with photos from its massive image collection, and by publishing books. Life had been carried in The Times and 102 other newspapers. Time Inc. cited the "decline in the newspaper business" and poor advertising outlook as factors in its decision. Time Inc.

Dean Zanuck, 37, a third-generation scion of the Hollywood producing dynasty, strikes out on his own with the quirky "Get Low," the first film from his new company, Zanuck Independent. Directed by first-time feature film director Aaron Schneider, who won an Oscar for his short "Two Soldiers," the movie opens Friday in L.A. and New York. How did "Get Low" come about? It came about a decade ago. My wife was showing houses to a young lit manager and I got to know him, and he told me this story he was working on with his writer client.

Time Inc. said it would bring back one of its most storied brands, Life, as a weekend magazine inserted into daily newspapers starting in October. Life will appear in newspapers Fridays, rather than Sundays, avoiding direct competition with its two main rivals, Parade and Gannett Co.'s USA Weekend. Time Inc., the magazine publishing unit of Time Warner Inc., said Life would appear in 50 newspapers at launch, including the Los Angeles Times.

It's one of the most iconic images to emerge from World War II. Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt's photograph of an anonymous young sailor in a dark-blue uniform dipping a white-uniformed nurse backward while giving her a long kiss in the middle of Times Square on Aug. 14, 1945, symbolized the euphoria surrounding the news that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was finally over. Edith Shain, a retired Los Angeles elementary school teacher who claimed to be the mystery nurse in the photo seen by millions around the world, died of cancer Sunday at her home in Los Angeles, said her son, Michael.

THERE was a sad inevitability to Time Inc.'s announcement that Life magazine will cease publication. The first American newsmagazine built around photojournalism has lingered in a kind of half-life for the last three years as a weekly color supplement distributed by subscribing to newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. That was the third incarnation the title had undergone since it stopped independent weekly publication in 1972 to be followed by occasional and, then, monthly issues.

Allan Grant, a Life magazine photographer who got the last photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe weeks before her death and the first pictures of Marina Oswald just hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has died. He was 88. Grant died Feb. 1 of Parkinson's-related pneumonia at his home in Brentwood, according to his wife, Karin.

Carol Eyerman, 85, an artist and photographer whose work appeared in Life magazine. Her photographic career encompassed a variety of assignments for Life, including pictures of the week and photo essays on illustrator Charles Dana Gibson and women factory workers. She also photographed 23 covers for Sunset magazine. She was a native of Denver who grew up in Tacoma, Wash., before moving to Santa Monica in 1947 with her husband, J.R. Eyerman. On Dec. 29 in Santa Monica.

Rex Hardy, one of the elite group of photographers hired by Life magazine in 1936 for its first year of publication, has died. He was 88. Hardy, who flew as a pilot during World War II and stayed in aviation after the war, died of natural causes April 7 in Monterey, Calif., said his son, Tom.

Richard O. Pollard, 81, award-winning retired director of photography for Life magazine. From 1961 to 1972 Pollard headed a staff of 40 staff and 60 free-lance photographers around the world with an annual operating budget of $3 million. Before taking over all photographic responsibility for the magazine, he had been bureau chief for Life in London, and for Time Inc. in San Francisco, where Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated magazines also fell under his purview.

Jerome S. Hardy, 74, former publisher of Life magazine and creator of Time-Life books. Hardy was hired by Time Inc. in 1959 to create its first book division. Five years later Time-Life emerged as the one of the nation's leading book publishers. In 1964, while vice president of Time Inc., Hardy became publisher of Life. He held that post until 1970, when he joined the Dreyfus Corp. investment firm as executive vice president.

Charles Moore, a photojournalist who both chronicled and helped alter the course of history through extraordinary photographs that reflected the brutal reality of the civil rights movement in the South, has died. He was 79. Moore died Thursday of natural causes at a nursing home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., said his daughter Michelle Moore Peel. From 1958 to 1965, he trained his lens on the unfolding drama of civil rights as a news photographer for the Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser and Life magazine.

Dennis Stock, a photographer best known for his iconic Life magazine photo of film legend James Dean walking through a rainy Times Square in a dark overcoat, has died. He was 81. Stock, who was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer a few weeks ago and developed pneumonia in recent days, died Monday night at a hospital in Sarasota, Fla., said Mark Lubell of Magnum Photos. "His singular most iconic image would definitely be his James Dean walking down Times Square with a cigarette in his mouth, because James Dean became an icon of a generation and that image represented so much to that generation," said Lubell, director of Magnum, a photographic cooperative that Stock joined in 1951.

Re "Pakistan's displaced yearn for home," June 25 Recently I've been noticing the photographs sent from Pakistan by photographer Carolyn Cole. In many respects they remind me of the pictures from some of the great war journalists of World War II. At that time, newspaper photos and especially Life magazine were almost the only way to convey to the home front what the war was like for the average soldier. Cole's photography conveys, even more than words, the agony of war. Richard Sherwood Encinitas

Just when there seemed to be nothing more to say about "The Americans" -- Robert Frank's groundbreaking work has, after all, been celebrated, analyzed and imitated for half a century -- a show at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is offering something fresh: an in-depth look at the creation of what may be the most influential photography book published since World War II. Running through Aug. 23, "Looking In: Robert Frank's 'The Americans' "...

Allan Grant, a Life magazine photographer who got the last photo shoot with Marilyn Monroe weeks before her death and the first pictures of Marina Oswald just hours after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, has died. He was 88. Grant died Feb. 1 of Parkinson's-related pneumonia at his home in Brentwood, according to his wife, Karin.

I mourn the passing of the Life magazine I knew in the middle decades of the last century. I contest, however, that its death was, as Tim Rutten supposed, inevitable ["Life as We Knew It," March 28]. Notwithstanding the ubiquity of digital cameras and photo-capable cellphones, I cannot imagine that "popular tastes in media" have changed so much that a well-edited collection of dramatic and insightful photographs is no longer worth publishing. I blame the editors of Life for killing it, and offer as evidence their "Picture of the Week."

George Silk, a veteran Life magazine photojournalist who recorded World War II combat, including action in New Guinea and Europe's Battle of the Bulge, and later adapted the racetrack photo finish camera to picture athletes in motion, has died. He was 87. Silk died Saturday in a Norwalk, Conn., hospital of congestive heart failure after several years of declining health.

Thomas Griffith, 86, a former senior staff editor and writer at Time magazine, died Saturday in New York City from head injuries suffered in a fall. Born in Tacoma, Wash., Griffith received a degree in journalism from the University of Washington and began his career as a police reporter for the Seattle Times in 1936. He joined Time as a writer in 1943 and rose to senior staff editor in 1963.

THERE was a sad inevitability to Time Inc.'s announcement that Life magazine will cease publication. The first American newsmagazine built around photojournalism has lingered in a kind of half-life for the last three years as a weekly color supplement distributed by subscribing to newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times. That was the third incarnation the title had undergone since it stopped independent weekly publication in 1972 to be followed by occasional and, then, monthly issues.

Time Inc. is shutting down Life magazine again, a brand it had resuscitated in late 2004 as a newspaper supplement. Time Inc. said in a statement Monday that it would keep the Life brand going on the Internet, where it will launch a website with photos from its massive image collection, and by publishing books. Life had been carried in The Times and 102 other newspapers. Time Inc. cited the "decline in the newspaper business" and poor advertising outlook as factors in its decision. Time Inc.