Bill Syken

In its June 27, 1955 issue LIFE gave two magazine pages over to a pet project of one of its staff photographers, Andreas Feininger. For years he had been taking photos of people in masks. Feinginger found inspiration for the project in 1951, when he took ... See more

In recent years Hollywood has made several biographical movies about people who were prominent during LIFE’s original run as a magazine from 1936 to 1972. The trend started with Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Robert Oppenheimer biopic, and continued with... See more

The Carrera Panamerica, also referred to as the Pan American road race, was a five-day, 1,912-mile sprint that began in southern Mexico at Tuxtla Gutierrez and went north to the Texas border. The road course “went up and down mountain grades, past decayin... See more

The May 20, 1957 issue of LIFE featured a story on a bear cub who was living among the humans, and charming them all. The humans named him Teddy. How did this bear cub come to live with people? “Found motherless in a redwood tree six weeks ago, he was ado... See more

If you want proof that there was a hunger for reality programming long before the television even became popular, look no further than the 1941 Ohio State Fair. One of the star attractions at the fair was the Engels family. In their regular life they ran ... See more