Modern Look: Photography and the American Magazine

New York and New Haven, CT: Jewish Museum: Yale University Press, 2020. Pictorial boards, 184 pages, illustrations (some colour); 32 cm. Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, May 1, 2020 to September 13, 2020. Firm binding, clean inside copy. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by arrangement. Profusely illustrated. "This dynamic study examines the intersection of modernist photography and American commercial graphic design between 1930 and 1960. Avant-garde strategies in photography and design reached the United States via European emigres, including Bauhaus artists forced out of Nazi Germany. The unmistakable aesthetic made popular by such magazines as Harper's Bazaar and Vogue-whose art directors, Alexey Brodovitch and Alexander Liberman, were both immigrants and accomplished photographers-emerged from a distinctly American combination of innovation, inclusiveness, and pragmatism. Beautifully illustrated with more than 150 revolutionary photographs, layouts, and cover designs, 'Modern Look' considers the connections and mutual influences of such designers and photographers as Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Herbert Bayer, Robert Frank, Lisette Model, Gordon Parks, Irving Penn, Cipe Pineles, and Paul Rand. Essays draw a lineage from European experimental design to innovative work in American magazine design at mid-century and offer insights into the role of gender in fashion photography and political activism in the mass media." - Publisher. CONTENTS: Foreword, by Claudia Gold; Modern look: photography, innovation, and the American magazine, by Mason Klein; 'In our lives we were whole': Gordon Parks, picture magazines, and the struggle for identity, by Maurice Berger; Propriety and provocation: women, emigres, and outliers in American magazines at mid-century, by Leslie Camhi; Astonish me! Photography, graphic design, and mid-century visual culture, by Marvin Heiferman.. 1st. Hardcover. Fine. Folio. Collectible.