Without a doubt, LIFE magazine, which was to become the ultimate archive of the finest iconic photojournalism, defined the American experience to its worldwide reader­ship. The amazing popularity of America’s first picture magazine was based on its editorial and photographic in-depth emphasis on every aspect of life in America. The words of Norman Rockwell, the beloved artist and illustrator of America, could have been those of Henry R. Luce, the founding editor and publisher of LIFE: “Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed. My fundamental purpose is to interpret the typical American. I am a story teller.”

The exhibition ”LIFE Across America”, curated from the LIFE archive, captures the flavor, strength, and optimism of 20th-century America. Together, the exhibited photographs accentuate both the diversity and the cohesiveness that define the country. A seminal part of Leica Gallery's historical journey across America will be Michael Putnam’s American Movie Theaters in the Oskar Barnack Room.