dedicated to politics, cultural reporting, and fashion
in 1928. Though its content was at times a mixed
bag,Vuwas highly stylish and extremely committed
to Vogel’s leftist principles. Special numbers fol-
lowed the rise of fascist regimes in Italy and Ger-
many as well as radical right-wing French extremist
groups.Vualso dedicated annual issues to fashion
and travel. In addition to photographs purchased
from agencies, Vu commissioned pictures from
Andre ́ Kerte ́sz, Brassaı ̈, Henri Cartier-Bresson,
Maurice Tabard, Robert Capa, and Dr. Erich Solo-
mon. Often,Vupublished pictures whose visual
content and sophistication required little or no writ-
ten text and the publication made extensive use of
these pictures after Alexander Liberman became
associate art director in 1933. Liberman’s innova-
tive use of photomontage distinguishedVu’s covers
and many feature articles.
All of the ideas and practices that had been tested in
the periodicals mentioned above were put into prac-
tice and refined, at what would become the pinnacle
of modern photojournalism—Lifemagazine. Many
of the photographers mentioned above would leave
Europe during the Second World War and publish
their work inLife.Consequently, a photojournalistic
style inspired by the German illustrated press and
stylishness ofVuresulted. Established in 1936 by
Henry Luce of Time Incorporated, Life quickly
became one of the most significant picture weeklies
in publication. The inaugural issue featured a monu-
mental industrial image of Fort Peck Dam in Mon-
tana by Margaret Bourke-White on the cover and
included her photographic essay of the dam’s sur-
rounding shantytown settlements.Lifedemonstrated
that through careful selection, arrangement, and cap-
tioning photographs could narrate a story as effec-
tively as words. Within the first three years of
publication,Life’s readership soared to over 3 mil-
lion, and it was quickly imitated by new publications
such asLook, Picture Post, Paris-Match,andDer
Spiegel.Life’s focus swiftly shifted to war reportage,
and Margaret Bourke-White, Ralph Morse, Carl
Mydans, George Rodger, George Silk, and W.
Eugene Smith were dispatched to the front as Allied
photojournalists. In addition to publishing many of
the twentieth century’s most iconic images,Life’s
photo essays about everyday lives would become
leading examples of photojournalism such as Leo-
nard McCombe’s 1945 article ‘‘Career Girl: The Pri-
vate Life of Gwyned Filling,’’ which chronicled a day
in the life of a young woman in New York City, W.
Eugene Smith’s 1951 essay ‘‘Spanish Village’’ that
documented the peasant village Deleitosa in Spain,
or Bill Eppridge’s 1965 two-part documentary of a
young couple addicted to heroin. Although no longer
a weekly publication,Lifewas re-launched in 2001 by
Time Inc. after a temporary suspension.Fashion Magazines
Fashion magazines were among the first publications
to make persistent use of photographs. In 1909, U.S.
publisher Conde ́Nast boughtVogue, a society maga-
zine founded in 1892, and transformed it into one of
the world’s leading fashion publications published in
three separate editions based in London, New York,
and Paris. In 1913,Voguebegan featuring the incan-
descent photographs of the Pictorialist Baron
Adolph de Meyer that conveyed soft-focus opulence
and the sensation of textures. When Edward Stei-
chen joined the staff as chief photographer at Conde ́
Nast Publications in 1923, he reinvented fashion
photography and set a new standard for celebrity
portraits. Steichen, already considered a master
photographer, brought a sense of straightforward-
ness to fashion photography. He photographed
models in sharp focus using actual surroundings
and, if outdoors, natural light. Steichen’s flair for
arranging and composing his subjects, firm sense of
design, careful use of artificial lighting, and innate
timing would create radiant and compelling imagery
of actors, intellectuals, statesmen, and models. Dur-
ing the 1920s and 1930s, the work of major photo-
graphers—Cecil Beaton, Seeberger Fre`res, Horst P.
Horst, Nikolas Muray, Man Ray, and Charles Shee-
ler—appeared in all editions ofVogue. After 13 years
at Conde ́Nast Publications, Steichen left in 1938.
Fashion photography and fashion magazines
underwent further transformation in the 1930s.
Vogueeditor Carmel Snow shocked Conde ́ Nast
Publications when she left in 1932 to work forHar-
per’s Bazaar.In 1934, Snow would recruit Russian-
born designer Alexey Brodovitch as art director,
and their dynamic collaboration began a revolution
in modern magazine design. Brodovitch’s advanced
layouts made use of photomontage, full-bleed
paging, and tactical sequencing of photographs,
which would provide a new framework for fashion
picture stories or fashion reportage. Hungarian-
born photographer Martin Munkacsi, whose work
had previously appeared in German illustrated
weeklies such as theBerliner Illustrierte Zeitung,
would be the first to employ candid techniques in
fashion photography in his images of a bathing suit
model running on the beach for the December 1934
issue ofHarper’s Bazaar.
Voguemade a comeback in the 1940s under the
direction of Alexander Liberman, who was pre-
viously the art director atVu.Responsive to a societyPERIODICALS: HISTORICAL