February 10, 1937

On campus to photograph the college for Life magazing a few months after publisher Henry Luce’s transformation of the magazine from a humor and light literary journal to a photojournalistic review, Edward Steichen took time to speak with The Miscellany News. “’Life would have been impossible fifteen years ago,’ said Mr. Steichen. But now the movies have made pictorial magazines almost a necessity. People have become used to receiving their information through pictures. ‘Life is good because it is more like the Police Gazette than anything else.’”

Predicting that “everyone will be a photographer in another generation or so,” the world-famous photographer predicted that all photography would be in color in a few years and that it would be within the reach of virtually everyone. “‘Next to actually contacting the thing itself, photography is the best way to get close to a subject or an event objectively,’ said Mr. Steichen. ‘There are many parts of the world, many things in nature, which are not acessible to the average man, but pictures, especially motion pictures, can bring everyone into the room…. Ninety percent of the population of the United States gets its information of moonlight, roses and world events from newspaper pictures and motion pictures.’”

An accompanying photograph of the photographer examining President MacCracken’s image through his camera was entitled, “Steichen Photographing Prexy for Life (According to Steichen, the first picture ever taken of him at work.) The Miscellany News