Life Magazine photo collection celebrates New York's Golden Age

✯ Day 70 of Vintage 365 ✯

 

 

Journalist Meyer Berger once said "Each man reads his own meaning into New York", and indeed whether you've ever set foot in the city that never sleeps or not, there is a sway and an unmistakable power to New York that makes it standout in a way few cities could ever dream of matching.

It's sometimes asserted that New York's heyday took place during the decades of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and honestly I'm not one to argue with this viewpoint.

Of course the Big Apple shone and suffered, survived and succeeded for many years prior (and for many since), yet there was something almost mystically wonderful about New York during the mid-twentieth century.

If like good ol' Frankie, you're a fan of "New York, New York", than this fascinating Life Magazine collection of 45 different images taken around the city during the 1940s (including the heartwarming photo above of sailor and his gal enjoying a boat ride around Central Park) is sure to capture your imagination.

Comprised of a diverse mix of both black and white and colour everyday life/street scene photos, images of celebrities (spanning the spectrum from FDR to Gene Kelly), and a few shots (such as Alfred Eisenstaed's incredibly famous "V–J Day in Times Square") that have become permanently ingrained in our minds as symbols of both the decade and New York itself.

Beautiful, timeless, insightful and engaging, this wonderful vintage photo slide show is ripe with as many meanings as there were inhabitants of New York during the wild, wonderful, vastly interesting decade that was the 1940s.