Haven’t gotten around to scanning and digitally archiving some of your old photos, even though you know it’s the right thing to do (or, at least that’s what certain magazine editors and other industry pundits keep telling you)? Well, stop making excuses—after all, if LIFE magazine can manage to scan and upload 10 million of their most personal images, surely you can clean out that snapshot-laden shoebox sitting in your hall closet.

In what is being touted as one of the largest professional photography collections on the Web, LIFE is making available its photo archive through a new hosted image service from search-engine behemoth Google. Even more amazing than the sheer bulk of the project itself is that 97 percent of the images have never been seen by the public.

Viewers can check out handsomely mustached Civil War hotties on display in the 1860s section; browse through iconic photographs of Pablo Picasso, Franklin Roosevelt, and Marilyn Monroe; and travel back in time to see photo documentation of the 1930s oil boom, Vietnam War, or the World’s Fair. And web surfers trolling for photos can hail from all walks of life from all over the planet: the search keywords have been translated into 16 different languages.

Plus, if you’re in the market for some high-end artwork (if only to impress your high-falutin’ friends), you’ll also be able to purchase fine-art photographic prints through Qoop.com, an online sales portal.

LIFE also announces the most comprehensive offering to date to purchase fine art photographic prints online. The general public will now have access to buy LIFE’s famous photography through QOOP.com, a leader in online art sales.

The project is far from complete—at last count, LIFE had only posted a few million of its archived photos (the staff hope to have all 10 million up in the next few months). But it’s yet another masterful melding of art and technology, joining two powerhouses in their respective industries. Photos are meant to be shared, and what better way to share them globally than by tapping into the Google machine?

Now get to work on that shoebox of yours.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 17th, 2008 at 10:51 pm and is filed under Jennifer Gidman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.