Punch. After the war he emigrated to the United States, where he edited
documentary picture books.
During the late 1920 s and 1930 s, the impact of German
Bildjournalismushad spread to many of the world’s capitals, but none more
so than Paris.Paris Matchwas arguably the most popular picture magazine,
but the newsweekly VU, founded in 1928 and edited by Lucien Vogel, a
photographer and publisher of La Gazette du Bon Ton and Jardin des Modes,
was the most innovative in terms of the picture essay. Vogel had always
been interested more in politics than in fashion and was fascinated by the
power of photography to document (indeed, comment upon) current
events. The early issues of the magazine had an erratic mix of politics,
sports, culture, and spot news as well as carrying book excerpts about the
adventures of Babar the Elephant by Vogel’s brother-in-law, Jean de
Brunhoff. But in later years photographers like André Kertész, Robert
Capa, and Brassaï provided memorable reportage. Capa’s most famous
photograph, which depicted a Spanish loyalist soldier in midfall who had
been hit by a fascist’s bullet, was originally published in VU.
Vogel believed that graphic design was critical to the success of his
magazine.VU’s logo was designed by French poster artist A. M. Cassandre
while Charles Peignot, proprietor of the Deberny and Peignot Foundry,
consulted on interior typography. A Russian émigré, Irene Lidova, was the
first art director; beginning in 1933 , her layout assistant was another
Russian, Alexander Liberman. He assumed her position a few years later
(and subsequently became the art director of Vogueand the creative director
of all Condé Nast publications until his retirement in 1995 ).
Vogel knew the trick of how to make pictures tell a story. One of
his pioneering efforts was the double-truck spread, for which a strong
photograph was greatly enlarged to mammoth proportions. Pacing photos
from large to small to huge to small again provided impact and surprise.
Vogel had a profound influence on Liberman, who later finely tuned the
journalistic photo essays in VU. He ascribed his ability to freely manipulate
pictures to the fact that “there was no cult of photography at that time.”
He could edit photographs and design layouts without the kind of
interference from egotistic photographers that is often tolerated today. He
further spent long periods ensconced in the darkroom, projecting photos
onto layout sheets, cropping and juxtaposing images. He also played with
photomontage. Eventually,he took responsibility for VU’s covers. Vogel
would often make rough sketches that Liberman would execute via
photomontage (signing them “Alexandre”).
By 1936 , Vogel’s left-wing leanings had a profound effect on VU’s
overall content (essays excoriating the fascists became more frequent), and
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