Advances in technology in the first half of the twentieth century led to the creation of "newsfeed," a constant stream of, first text, and then photographic images, which could be fed simultaneously to newspapers around the country and around the world. Once the technology had arrived.

Picture Machine explores the impact of photography and the news wire services on American culture, examining the historical, social, and cultural significance of the rise of the news-photo agencies, the images they created, and how these both reflected and shaped the American identity. Advances in technology in the first half of the twentieth century led to the creation of "newsfeed," a constant stream of, first text, and then photographic images, which could be fed simultaneously to newspapers around the country and around the world. Once the technology had arrived, the public's insatiable demand for images causedboth increased competition among the originating news providers, as well as newspapers that were all vying to be the first to publish images of breaking stories. This achieYement brought about the countrywide dissemination of images that are integral to the shared experience of how we see ourselves as a country.When events around the country did not prove to be newsworthy, the wire services still needed to distribute images or "news" for sale to clients. It is often these photographs, created on "off,' days, which are now among the most interesting--not only because they illustrate what images were chosen to circulate when the news did not dictate the selection, but also because they create a complete record of American life, covering sports, crime, celebrities, soldiers, politicians, mobsters,disasters, and socialites to the everyday people living their lives.Using photographs culled from the United Press International (now part of Bettmann Archive at Corbis), the largest consolidated archive of news wire photography, and the captions that ran with the photographs when they were originally published, Picture Machine is a fascinating look at the symbiotic nature of the photojournalistic process, and how news photographs continue to shape, and be shaped by, the culture decades after their creation.

MAKING AMERICAN IMAGES

WILLIAM HANNIGAN

EYE NEWS: A SHORT HISTORY OF PICTURE NEWS

IN AMERICA

KEN JOHNSTON

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