Google digitizing 10 million images from the LIFE Photo Archive

Migrant mother Florence Thompson & children photographed by Dorothea Lange.Time Inc. has teamed up with Google to digitize more than 10 million images from the LIFE’s Photo Archive to be made available online utilizing a hosted image service from Google. According to a recent press release “ninety-seven percent of the photographs have never been seen by the public” and the archive contains some of the most iconic images of the 20th century, including works from great photojournalists Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White, Gordon Parks, and W. Eugene Smith. Thius follows an announcement in September where Time Inc. is teaming up with Getty Images to launch a similar photo viewing site at Life.com.
“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.”

As part of the deal all images will be scanned and keyworded in 16 different languages. Millions of images are available today on Google Image Search with all 10 million images to be available in the coming months.  The companies are making them available on Google Image Search free for personal and research purposes while copyright and ownership of all images will remain with Time Inc.

“For 70 years, LIFE has been about one thing, and that’s the power of photography to tell a story,” says Andy Blau, LIFE’s President. “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.” Time Inc. EVP, John Squires adds: “We’re delighted Google recognized the rich value of our photo archive and worked with us to bring it to millions of consumers. Consistent with the launch of the TIME Archive, PEOPLE Archive and the SI Vault, this initiative continues our efforts to build valuable new revenue opportunities from our rich heritage.”

Web:  http://images.google.com/hosted/life - Click here to view the featured image.

Related:  Time Inc. teams up with Getty Images to launch LIFE.com (Sep 24, 2008)

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