Google said today it is partnering with LIFE magazine to make more than 10 million images available online from the magazine’s photo archive.
One of the most interesting things about the project is 97 percent of the photographs have never been seen by the public. The collection contains iconic images from the 20th century with works from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, and W.Eugene Smith.
These images can be found by doing a search on Google.com or on Google Image Search. Users can also search through the LIFE Collection.
The LIFE Photo Archive on Google will be one of the largest professional photography collections on the Internet and one of the largest scanning projects ever conducted. Millions of images have been scanned and made available on Google Image Search and all 10 million images will be available in the coming months.
“LIFE will now reach a broader audience and engage them online with the incredible depth and breadth of the LIFE Photo Archive from serious world events, to Hollywood celebrities to whimsical photographs,” said Andy Blau, LIFE’s President.
All keywords were translated into 16 different languages.
“Bringing millions of never-before-seen offline images online aligns with Google’s mission to organize all the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said R.J. Pittman, Director of Product Management at Google.
“The LIFE Photo Archive captures some of the most compelling events, people and places of the past two hundred years. We have enhanced Google Image Search to provide our users with a rich search and browse experience to explore these high quality historical images.”
The LIFE Photo Archive also includes: The Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880’s.
