I received an inspiring gift from a friend the other day that I thought I’d share with you here. Chew on it over the weekend. Hopefully this resonates with the creative part in you as it did with me. I made me want to make stuff even more and share it with the world. It is a confidential prospectus for a new magazine:
THE PURPOSE: To see life; to see the world; to eyewitness great events; to watch the faces of the poor and the gestures of the proud; to see strange things – machines, armies, multitudes, shadows in the jungle and on the moon; to see our work – our paintings, towers and discoveries; to see things thousands of miles away, things hidden behind walls and within rooms, things dangerous to come to: the women that men love and many children; to see and to take pleasure in seeing; to see and be amazed; to see and be instructed; Thus to see, and to be shown, is now the will and new expectancy of half of humankind. To see, and to show, is the mission now undertaken by a new kind of publication, THE SHOW-BOOK OF THE WORLD, hereinafter described…
This new magazine? LIFE. This is the opening paragraph from Henry R. Luce’s 1936 original, confidential prospectus for what became LIFE Magazine. I couldn’t help but be wildly inspired by the concept. It’s a passionately written piece on the power and potential of photography, as well as a wonderful slice of history.
We all know the plight of magazines, but this gave me hope for their new era, whatever it might look like. Just think about how much more wildly capable we are today to actually deliver on this purpose and this promise. We have the internet. We have devices, screens and even still papers in places where there are no screens or fiber channel chords-to share now more than ever before. More than ever before we have our cameras with us day everyday and the means to digitally pipe this information around the world in a millisecond. The rest of this prospectus is worth a read. Link for download is after the jump.
A downloadable pdf of the original LIFE Magazine prospectus is here.
Enjoy and share. Have a great holiday weekend.
*note that I inserted gender neutral rhetoric in two places. Reference the original on the pdf if you care….
Thanks @johnnyvulkan for the gift.
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Very good blog! Do you have any hints for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own website soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you suggest starting with a free platform like WordPress or go
for a paid option? There are so many choices out
there that I’m completely overwhelmed ..
Any tips? Thank you!
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Some really excellent info , Gladiola I observed this. “Without discipline, there’s no life at all.” by Katharine Hepburn.