McElheny, Victor K.Insisting on the Impossible: The Life of
Edwin Land. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 1998.
Sullivan, Constance, ed. Legacy of Light. New York:
Knopf, 1987.
Wensberg, Peter C.Land’s Polaroid: A Company and the
Man Who Invented It. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
Wurman, Richard Saul.Polaroid Access: Fifty Years. Los
Angeles: Access Press, 1989.POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY
Popular Photography(or Pop Photo, as the maga-
zine is casually referred to) has long been considered
the most widely circulated photographic publication
in the world; its circulation hit a peak of 865,000 in
1979, and in 1999 its circulation stood at 453,000. By
circulation alone, the magazine can justify its procla-
mation on the cover as the ‘‘world’s largest imaging
magazine.’’ The magazine began publishing in May
1937, at a time when the popularity of the new 35
mm cameras was growing and two years following
the introduction of Kodachrome color film by the
Eastman Kodak Company. Since its inception, each
monthly issue of Pop Photo has featured articles and
tests on the latest photographic equipment and port-
folios of important photographers.
Popular Photographyhad been published by the
Ziff-Davis Publishing Company until 1985 when
the magazine was sold, first to CBS Magazines, a
division of CBS, Inc., and then to Diamondis Com-
munications, Inc., a subsidiary of Hachette Publi-
cations, Inc. Pop Photo is currently published by
Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, Inc., which also
publishes American Photo. Pop Photo’s publishing
rival of many years, Modern Photography, was
acquired by Diamondis Communications, Inc. in
1986 and merged into Popular Photography in
- Today, the Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, and
Managing Editor of Popular Photography are for-
mer Modern staffers.
In his foreword toThe Best of Popular Photo-
graphy, published in 1979, celebrating the first 40
years of the magazine, then Editorial Director
Arthur Goldsmith stated thatPopular Photography
‘‘has been an informal teaching institution, a
paperback university for anybody interested in the
craft of photography’’ (xi). From its onset, Popular
Photography reported on innovative photogra-
phers and technical advances in the field. And
from its onset, the world of photography that Pop
Photo focused on was fraught with change. The
magazine reported on the rise of what would later
be labeled photojournalism, and many articles/
photo essays in its first years of publication dealt
World War II and images of wartime America
(though with the rise of television, the interest in
print photojournalism waned). After the war, the
impact of photography on advertising was a major
editorial trend in the magazine. As the country
entered the prosperous 1950s, photography was
becoming more than a hobby for many, andPop-
ular Photography(along withModern Photography
andU.S. Camera) was an important showcase for
new photographic talent. Through the mid-1960s,
and up to the current issue, countless articles on
equipment and picture-taking techniques have been
helping educate readers on selecting cameras and
accessories and taking better photos, with the mis-
sion to cover sports, culture, nature, portraiture,
performance photography, and family photogra-
phy as well as highlight the achievements of the
master photographers.
Publishing highlights fromPopular Photography’s
past include articles/portfolios on Alfred Eisenstaedt
(1937); W. Eugene Smith (1943); Alfred Steiglitz
(1946); David Douglas Duncan (1951); A memorial
tribute to Robert Capa by John Steinbeck (1954);
Henri Cartier-Bresson (1967); Paul Strand (1972);
Andre ́Kerte ́sz (1974). And to further stimulate the
readers’ interest in the aesthetics of photographs,
Popular Photography, through 1986, published a
yearlyPhotography Annual, which featured portfolios
of rising and major talents in the photography-world.
The current generation of Pop Photo readers
would claim, as previous generations have, that
the success ofPopular Photographyis in its equip-
ment reviews and how-to photographic advice. But
the magazine appeals to all areas that might be of
interest to the picture-taking public. Each year the
magazine devotes its December issue to in-depth
reports on the year’s top cameras and lenses, andPOLAROID CORPORATION