form of notes tucked into Gardner Cowles’ papers—
andwasaprimerforsubsequentpositionswithQuick,
another Cowles publication, and her own brainchild,
Flairmagazine, a short-lived but influential art, cul-
ture, and lifestyle magazine, featuring innovative
design and formatting, sophisticated layouts, and a
more fluid organizational structure attributable to
Fleur’s interest in Surrealism.
Appeals to female readers and the presence of Fleur
in a prominent position did not necessarily bridge the
gender gap of the era. In an interview with the Amer-
ican Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), Char-
lotte Brooks, a veteranLookphotographer, described
the mixed blessing of being the only woman photo-
grapher on staff for the duration of her 20-year tenure
atLook. Brooks described a definitively discrimina-
tory work environment, where she was paid less than
her male counterparts and assigned to a restricted
slate of stories deemed appropriate for women. At
the same time, Brooks enjoyed tremendous profes-
sional opportunities. As she explained:
I think it had to do in part with the nature of the assign-
ments. Although I enjoyed everything, the other people
used to hate ‘‘All-American Cities’’ and ‘‘What is a
Teacher?’’ But I had a marvelous time; I loved all of it.
The people involved were interesting people, and it was
always so wonderful to be able to go out as Miss Look. I
think I got a little bit of a head about that. You were not
yourself at all, nobody would know your name, but you
represented a powerful organization and it had some
meaning.
(American Society of Media Photographers, Charlotte
Brooks interview, October 4, 2004)
In general,Lookphotographers, many of whom
remained at the magazine until its final days in 1971,
enjoyed a considerable degree of creative freedom as
the result ofLook’s production methods. Images were
processed as ‘‘jobs’’rather than ‘‘assignments,’’which
meant that photographs that were not selected for a
specific story might still be used at a later date. This
procedure, in addition toLook’s photographic for-
mat, afforded its photographers considerable license
and authorship in their work, as most were collabora-
tions between photojournalist and writer.Lookpro-
vided steady employment for many professional
photographers, offered unprecedented opportunity
for young artists, and launched the careers of several
notable photographers, among them Stanley Tretick,
made famous for his photographs of John F.Ken-
nedy, and fashion photographer Douglas Kirkland,
whose portraits included such luminaries as Marilyn
Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, and Elizabeth Taylor.
JenniferSchneider
Seealso:Farm Security Administration; Lee, Rus-
sell; Life Magazine; Office of War Information;
Rothstein, ArthurFurther Reading
Cooperman, Gary S.A Historical Study of Look Magazine
and Its Concept of Photojournalism. Columbia, MO:
University of Missouri-Columbia, 1966.
Cowles, Gardner.Mike Looks Back: The Memoirs of Gard-
ner Cowles, Founder of Look Magazine. New York: G.
Cowles, 1985.
Cowles Communications.Records of the Look Years. New
York: Cowles Communications, 1973.
Kozol, Wendy.Life’s America: Family and Nation in Post-
war Photojournalism. Philadelphia: Temple University
Press, 1994.
Leonard, George Burr.Walking on the Edge of the World.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Schonauer, David. ‘‘Lost Shots.’’American Photo10 (Nov/
Dec 1999): 20.
Rothstein, Arthur.Photojournalism: Pictures for Magazines
and Newspapers. New York: American Photographic
Book Pub. Co., 1956.1
A History of Technology, Vol. III. Ed. Charles Singer et al.
Oxford University Press: New York, 1958.URS LU
̈
THI
Swiss
Born in 1947, Urs Lu ̈thi belongs to the generation
of European artists whose aesthetic programs were
decidedly influenced by the challenge to traditional
thinking about artistic production and distribution
that came to a head in the events and aftermath of- In particular, the artistic practices of this
generation were fueled by Harold Szeeman’s influ-
ential 1969 exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bern,When
LU ̈THI, URS