Category Archives: Photography (Periodicals)
Then and Now: Aperture
Aperture
n. 1 (1952) – current
The editors’ note of a recent Aperture (n. 217) quotes the magazine’s first issue musing about the relative places of pictures and words. This isn’t the only way #1 and #217 seem to reference each other, despite being almost entirely different publications. It’s remarkable how much the photographic mainstay has developed. Read on for alternating glimpses of issues with 215 iterations between them.
Album
Album
February 1970-January 1971
(12 issues; missing #4 & #8)
Album was published in London from 1970 to 1971. Its editor was Bill Jay.
It was a magazine of photography’s incursions.
Every page is black and white. No ornament, austere blocks of text. The effect is like drawing a curtain, or dimming the lights in a theater, only without the direction dictated by film, leaving you free to wander.
There are no advertisements.
Its concern was the actuality of practice. Old essays followed new talents in a critical space where “art photography” was as ludicrous a term as “art painting,” and what appears easy and available as a technology is, like any artistic practice, much more fugitive and essential.
Duane Michals, Issue #7
Issue #1
from “On Being a Radical Photographer,” an interview with Blankfort, Issue #1
W. Eugene Smith, “Black Man’s Battleground,” Issue #2
from Issue #2
W. Eugene Smith, “Mailbox,” Ku Klux Klan series, Issue #2
from Press Cuttings, Issue #2
from Quotes, Issue #1
Gordon Bennett, “San Francisco,” Issue #11
from Opinions, Issue #1
Bill Brandt, “Friar’s Bay,” Issue #1
from Opinions, Issue #7
Manuel Alvarez Bravo, “Luz restrida,” Issue #9
from John Thomson’s “Illustrations of China and its People,” Issue #9
George N. Barnard, official photographer to Sherman’s Campaign, Issue #7
Harvey Himelfarb, from the Visual Dialogue Foundation portfolio, “Premonitions of a Tyranny of Culture,” Issue #10
Soviet Life
Soviet Life
May 1968-May 1981 (incomplete)
In 1956 the U.S. and Soviet governments agreed to a mutual propaganda plan modeled on Life. From them we got The USSR which became Soviet Life which became Russian Life. From us they got Amerika which became America Illustrated. “Soft” propaganda for a Cold War. Gentle cultural competition. Achievement, progress, beauty, tourism. Soviet Life could celebrate the cosmonauts and the construction of a dam as though ballistics and explosives were signs of society’s liberation. One can just imagine what Amerika looked like.
Somewhat relatedly, the U.S. Information Agency, which seems to have had a hand in all this, also employed Chermayeff & Geismar (which later added & Haviv) for a traveling Russian-language exhibition that showcased American design. Featured among the designer portraits, which can be found in the Milton Glaser Archives, was none other than Milton Glaser.
Find Soviet Life bound in green in the back near the bathrooms.
Intercosmos: Orbits of Cooperation, April 1981
Perhaps the Hardest Part is Waiting, April 1981
Kutaisi, This Wonderful Town, May 1981
The Festival for Everybody, May 1981
Marx and Lincoln, May 1968
Women Take Over Men’s Jobs, May 1981
What is Kreshchatik to the Man on the Street?, July 1968
Blast Saves a City, June 1968
Lid n. 16
Issue 16 of Lid arrived at the SVA Library. This issue, like most, was published with a an array of covers. Ours featured the Misfits on the front cover and Lydia Lunch on the back , both by William Coupon:
Lid
The Visual Arts Library recently added 9 issues of Lid Magazine.
Published by Jason Banker and Dagon James, Lid is a sumptuous black and white photography magazine that features mostly unpublished shots of mostly famous personalities. Or, as Lid has it on its about page:
“Lid Features some of the finest rare and unpublished photographs and art from the world of music, fashion, the fine arts and cinema. Artists the world over open their archives to Lid, offering extensive portfolios not seen in other magazines. Each bi-annual issues of Lid is published in all black and white, on premium paper, and printed as a limited edition for serious collectors and archivists.”
Below are all nine covers of our Lid serious library holdings along with the contents (personalities and photographers/artists) from each, and a very small sampling between the covers. I highly recommend your coming in and seeing more–they do indeed offer scores of intimate and radioactively cool photos and these scans do not do them justice.
(L) Issue #3 : Interpol by Christy Bush(cover), Debbie Harry by David Croland, David Bowie by Leee Black Childers, Iggy Pop by Gerard Malanga, with additional contributions by Stephanie Chernikowski, Jon Levicke, Benita Cassar Torreggiani, and Sam Fogarino
(R) Issue #7: Lou Reed by Dustin Pittman (cover), Kate Moss by Michel Haddi, Veruschka by Franco Rubartelli, Lady Bunny by David Croland, with additional contributions by David Wills, Peter & Alice Gowland, Michael Zagaris, Brigid Berlin, Adam Peters, and Tim Sheaffer
David Bowie in Russia from April 1973. From Issue 3. Photo by Leee Black Childers.
(L) Issue #6: Linda Evangelista by Rose Hartman (cover), Andy Warhol by Steve Schapiro, Barbra Streisand by Steve Schapiro, Maja of The Sounds by James Iha, with additional contributions by Dustin Pittman, Tim Sheaffer, Michael Zagaris, Adam Peters, and Sebastian Piras
(R) #8: Brigid Berlin by Brigid Berlin (cover), Michelle Obama by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Madona by Marina Schiano, Michael Stipe by Jörg Steinmetz, with additional contributions by Gerard Malanga, Erik La Prade, Mauricio & Roger Padilha, Marisa Benson, Michel Haddi, Francois Nars, Ross Clifford, Michael Zagaris, Andrea Splisgar, Dustin Pittman, Adam Peters, and Tim Sheaffer
Robert Rauschenberg by Sebastian Piras. Issue 6.
(L) #12: Elizabeth Taylor (cover), Liv Tyler by David Croland, John Lennon by Jürgern Vollmer, with additional contributions by Dave Brolan, Melissa Gosnell, Bruce Lawrence, Gerard Malanga, Corinne Masucci, Billy Name, Adam Peters, Wolf Suschitzky, Klaus Voormann, David Wills, and Michale Zagaris
(R) #13 George Harrison (cover © Harrison family), Marisa Berenson by Gina Paola, George Harrison by Harry Goodwin, Grace Jones by Kate Simon with additional contributions by Marisa Berenson, Ginette Bone, Blake Boyd, Dave Brolan, Andrew Brucker, Barry Feinstein, Ross Halfin, Olivia Harrison, Gerard Malanga, Daido Moriyama, Billy Name, David Wills, and Baron Wolman
Aldous Huxley, London, 1958. By Wolf Suschitzky. Issue 12.
(L) #11: Andy Warhol by Gretchen Berg (cover), with additional contributions by Dave Brolan, Curtis Knapp, Kymara Lonergan, Gerard Malanga, Daido Moriyama, Billy Name, Jimmy Page, Adam Peters, Kate Simon, David Wills, and Michael Zagaris
(R) #14: Kurt Cobain by Jesse Frohman (cover), with additional contributions by Dave Brolan, Adam Cooper, Megan Cump, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Ross Halfin, Gerard Malanga, Gered Mankowitz, Gillian McCain, Billy Name, Dan Oppenheimer, Adam Peters, Baron Wolman, Michael Zagaris, and Firooz Zahedi
#9: Madonna by Kate Simon (cover), Marilyn Monroe by Frank Powolny, with additional contributions by Gerard Malanga, Billy Name, David Wills, Dustin Pittman, Michael Zagaris, Kate Simon, Brigid Berlin, Hamish Bowles, Adam Peters, Klaus Voormann, Christina Voormann, Benedetta Pignatelli, and Marcus Leatherdale
Marilyn Monroe on her last earthly birthday, June 1, 1962. From a 42 page portfolio curated by David Wills. Issue 9.
SVA Library Picture & Periodicals Collections 