Both photography and Surrealism were developing rapidly in the 1920s, the formative years of the movement. Surrealism used photography extensively and found creative success in the medium partly because it could harness the power which photography had achieved at this time in the press and in its ubiquity in everyday life. Artistically this decade was a time of frenetic experimentation with the medium and the range of work exhibited in the Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart in 1929 was testament to this, including work from various styles of modernist photography as well as examples of documentary photography and scientific applications . Throughout the 1930s photographs were generally presented in Surrealist journals as independent art works reflecting the surrealist vision.
Surrealist journals do not appear to differ greatly from other journals dealing with art and culture as they too made use of photography, including images from contemporary popular culture. Neither is the use of photographs in Surrealist journals innovative in terms of layout. What was innovative and remarkable about the use of photography in surrealist journals is the strength that the medium achieved in documenting and capturing the surreal. The use of documentary photography integrated into text was the model for the first Surrealist journal, La Révolution Surréaliste (1924 - 1929) where the use of a medium of scientific documentation satisfied the desire of the group to differentiate their publication from those of Dada It also met Breton‟s proposal for an ideal mode of expression for poetic Surrealism, in the First Manifesto of Surrealism
But we, who have made no effort whatsoever to filter, who in our works have made ourselves into simple receptacles of so many echoes, modest recording instruments who are not mesmerized by the drawings we are making, perhaps we serve an even nobler cause. Thus do we render with integrity the ―talent‖ which has been lent to us. You might as well speak
of the talent of this platinum ruler, this mirror, this door, and of the sky, if you like.51
Breton goes on in this section to state that in his opinion Robert Desnos had come closest to the Surrealist truth as he was able to „speak Surrealist at will‟ as ―He reads himself like an open book, and does nothing to retain the pages, which fly away in the windy wake of his life.‖52
The documentary photographic images in La Révolution Surréaliste also have this lack of pretension; their ability to demonstrate that the surreal is essentially a heightened sense of the real is aided by the fact that photographs do seem, or did so at the time ―to have the status of found objects - unpremeditated slices of the world.‖53
Documents (1929 - 1930, fifteen issues), the journal of the „dissident‟ surrealists also made use of documentary photographs. Although photography featured in Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution (1929 - 1933) the role which it played was markedly different to that in the first journal, photographic images were not dispersed throughout the text but displayed at the back of the journal along with reproductions of painting and sculpture. In Minotaure (1933 - 1939) also photographers claimed their place alongside other artists and their work was displayed as self-contained surrealist objects. It was only from the 1940‟s that the movement intermittently adopted the use of documentary photography and returned to a journalistic formula reminiscent of its formative years.
At this time of rapid developments in illustrated magazines, the Surrealists clearly understood the power of the photograph and how it could represent the rhythm of modern life in a manner that was accessible and universal. In the inter war period photography had credibility, there was a concurrence between text and image and photographs were not perceived as intentional. Most of the photographers who were attracted to the Surrealists were formed by the independent press in Paris at a time of great expansion for commercial photography. It is pertinent to this study to consider in what ways the spread of photography and its social and commercial roles impacted upon the artistic and
5
1 Breton, „First Manifesto of Surrealism‟ p 28. 5
2 Breton, „First Manifesto of Surrealism‟ p 29.
editorial decisions within Surrealism. This introductory chapter serves to outline the development of photography in the media in the post World War One period and to examine the career of the photographer at a time when photography was in the service of editors as their „eyes on the world‟ .54
Although traditional illustrated magazines such as L‟Illustration (Paris, 1843) had used photographs as models for artists and engravers to work from, it was in 1880 with the advent of the half-tone process that the press set out definitively on the mechanized reproduction of photographs. This method of printing in relief (half-tone) could be used in conjunction with typesetting and therefore gave photography the opportunity of being disseminated widely, through books and the illustrated press. At the same time engraving techniques were improving and by 1910 the photogravure was adapted to the rotary press. By 1913 rotating photogravure was developing rapidly and facilitated a flush of second generation photographic magazines, inaugurated by Le Miroir (1913). After the war the innovation of photo-telegraphy and developments in the rotogravure process revolutionised magazine production and page layout. Rotogravure replaced rigid typographical metal blocks with transparent film on a cylinder, thus facilitating free design including the manipulation and overlaying of titles, photographs and text.55 It was in France that this technology was first exploited to its full potential with the launch of Vu in 1928, one of the third generation of photo-magazines which also included Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung (1925), Life (1936), Match (1938) and Picture Post (1938).
The daily newspapers that had dominated the market before the First World War were eclipsed in the inter war years by the rise of new daily and weekly journals and illustrated magazines which relied heavily on photographs.56 Suddenly there were endless opportunities for photographers as the burgeoning publicity
54 Steven Heller used this phrase as the title for his article on picture magazines of the
1930‟s in Eye, Vol. 7, no. 26, Autumn 1997, pp 60 — 69.
55 Pierre Albert and Gilles Feyel provide a detailed analysis of changes in the illustrated
press in „Photography and the Media‟, in Frizot, A New History of Photography, pp. 358 - 369.
56 Together Le Petit Journal, Le Petit Parisien, Le Matin and Le Journal accounted for
seventy-five percent of the market in Paris during the pre war era. Charlet, L, Histoire Générale
de la Presse française, tome 3 : De 1871 à 1940 , Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1972, p
industry courted the young avant-garde because they could supply images which suited commercial purposes but were also strikingly innovative and fresh. The level of demand for photographs is illustrated by the fact that in 1928 L ‟ Annuaire de la presse did not mention any photographic agencies but included eighteen the following year.57 Magazines, newspapers, books and advertising all sought originality in their illustrations, as this would set them apart from the competition and arrest the attention of consumers. The vitality of the avant- garde was harnessed to drive mass circulation publications. The career of the photographer in Paris in the period between the two world wars was inextricably linked to commercial photography. In the mid 1920s when photojournalism was just starting, the exposure offered by magazines surpassed all other means of dissemination. Editors supplemented the work of staff photographers with
commissions for freelance practitioners and material from nascent agencies.
Photographers enjoyed a great deal of creative freedom in their commissions at a time when agencies, artistic directors and editors were keen and stock
photography was embryonic. At this time photographers who operated in the commercial market were recognised as successful artists rather than simply as professional photographers, which is how the next wave of young practitioners came to be regarded. The story that Andre Kertész told of his meeting with Sergei Eisenstein in 1929 illustrates how central photo magazines became in the building of a reputation:
When the Russian filmmaker Eisenstein came to Paris I was told, to my surprise, that he wanted to meet me. We met at 10 o‟clock. Where? At the Dôme, of course. And in came this powerful man, and he mentioned to me four photographs of mine from the journal Vu that he had in his scrapbook because he was so touched by them. We got on terribly well. I photographed him sitting on my carpet in the Boulevard de Montparnasse.58
For young photographers a relationship with the commercial sector was important as it provided a source of income as well as exposure but it was also understood as crucial to their development. In Paris magazines were not part of a giant family owned corporation like their German counterparts and consequently
5
7 Bouqueret, La Nouvelle Vision en France, p 191. 5
people such as Lucien Vogel, who launched Vu in 1928, had direct personal control. The world in which photographers worked during this period was small and magazine publishing was dominated by a group of people who actively promoted modern photography both as a fine art and as a commercial tool.
It is clear that from the very beginning modern photography and commerce were bound together, the press developed in parallel with advertising and photography became an essential medium of communication. Photography was a vehicle for the spread of ideas and lifestyle options and it drove the modern publicity industry. Specialist magazines were devoted to the commercial use of the medium, Roger-Louis Dupuis established Vendre in 192359 and Arts et Metiers Graphiques (soon to be known as AGM) was founded in 1927 by the publishers Gallimard, Lucien Vogel and Charles Peignot with a view to produce a luxurious art review and establish a publishing house.60 These three ensured that
photography had a high profile and attracted commercial commissions.
Peignot‟s typefoundry was a mature business and his expertise and forward thinking meant that he would profoundly influence the direction of French typography. He ensured that the editorial staff at AGM included people with experience as well as fresh innovators. The contributors to the review were also leaders in their fields; Peignot was heavily involved in the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) founded after the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925 by practitioners whose aim was to advance Modernism in all applications of design. Adolphe Cassandre and Alexey Brodovitch were regular commentators on graphic art in AGM;
Brodovich was responsible for the highly regarded Trois Quartiers, the magazine of the elite store Madeleine and would become graphic designer for Harpers Bazaar in 1934. Peignot extended his business and opened the Deberny and Peignot photographic studio in 1930 and appointed Maurice Tabard as director.61 Tabard had been an accomplished portrait photographer in North America and on
5
9 Gunther, Thomas Michael „The Spread of Photography: Commissions, advertising,
publishing‟ in Frizot, A New History of Photography, p 561.
60 http://el lie.rit.edu. 121 3/amghist3.htm (Accessed 11/10/07) Rochester Institute of
Technology, NY maintains this web site, which outlines the history of AGM in detail. The web site includes an illustrated database where issues of the review may be browsed.
6
his return to Paris in 1930 worked in the fashion, advertising and portrait industries.
From 1929 AMG focussed on the use of photographs in advertising to such an extent Christian Bouqueret refers to this campaign as their „hobby horse.‟62 Photographie, a special edition of AMG devoted to the medium was published in 1930. It concentrated on international developments and Peignot and Emmanuel Sougez selected the 130 photographs, which were published with the address of the photographer. In 1926 Sougez had created the photographic service of L ‟Illustration, for which he became responsible. Sougez wrote the introduction to Photographie and like many other photographers himself had taken on advertising work enthusiastically. There is no doubt that this luxurious edition would have attracted commercial work for the Deberny & Peignot studio. The special edition Photographie was very successful and was subsequently published annually until 1940. The success of this review encouraged AGM to publish other photographic titles such as Publicité from 1934 to 1939, and Photo- Cine-Graphie from 1933, which in 1935 became La Revue de la Photographie with Peignot as director.63 The cavernous studio of Deberny & Peignot was a marvellous place for young photographers to work and to congregate and discuss their work. Tabard recruited Roger Parry, then aged twenty-three, and encouraged him to nurture a personal style. The studio facilitated learning about new tendencies in photography and graphics as practitioners could browse the press and reviews of the international avant-garde and mingle with artists who frequented the studio; Max Ernst for example was a regular visitor.64
Gaston Gallimard was also actively involved in a range of illustrated magazines, his group financed Voilà, a contemporary and competitor of Vu, which Gallimard edited along with La Nouvelle Revue Française and Détective. It was to Editions Gallimard that Parry presented his illustrated book Banalité in 1930, which would catapult him to the forefront of the photography scene. For young photographers commercial work ensured a steady income but it was the
6
2 Bouqueret, La Nouvelle Vision en France, p 54. 6
3 Bouqueret, La Nouvelle Vision en France, p 163.
publication of books that brought recognition and success. AGM began to publish limited edition books in 1930 and by 1939 had published 46 in total.65 These deluxe publications were promoted in the review; a 1933 article on Brassaï‟s Parisian night photography for instance, coincided with the
publication of his monograph Paris de Nuit. Other crucial individuals in terms of the promotion of modern photography were Jacques Guenne, director of L ‟Art Vivant, his editor Florent Fels and Carlo Rim who edited Jazz and
subsequently Vu for six years from 1930. These influential critics were determined to foreground innovative photography. Fels, along with Vogel played a key role in the selection of work for the 1er Salon de la Photographie Moderne in May and June of 1928 in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, which showcased young photographers and presented retrospectives of Atget and Nadar.66 Exhibitions of commercial photography encouraged the notion that this was a new art form and natural territory for the avant-garde because such images were becoming an integral part of the urban environment and experience. In 1931 La Publicité par la Photographie in Montparnasse secured the participation of Jacques-André Boiffard, Man Ray, Lee Miller, Kértesz, Tabard, Parry, Sougez, Germaine Krull, Florence Henri, René Zuber and Eli Lotar among others; further exhibitions followed in 1934 at Studio St-Jacques and in 1935 at the Galerie de la Pleiade.67 Room 1 of the Film und Foto exhibition in Stuttgart included advertising images alongside press photographs, x-rays, science pictures and experimental works.68
Vogel had considerable experience in the illustrated press before the launch of Vu in 1928. In 1906 he was the artistic director of Fémina and subsequently founded Art et Décoration with his wife, Cosette de Brunhoff. Edward Steichen, who enjoyed a tremendously successful commercial career in America in the 1920s and 30s, produced his first fashion shots for this journal in 1911 when Vogel urged him to produce prints for an extensive thirteen photograph layout of Poiret designs. Vogel edited the elite La Gazette du bon ton from 1912 to 1925 and again emphasised the connections between fashion and art by using modern
65 http://ellie.rit.edu:1213/amghist3.htm (Accessed 11/10/07)
66 See Fels, F. „Le premier salon independent de la photographie‟ in L ‟Art Vivant, no. 4,
June 1928, p 445.
6
68 Foresta, M. Perpetual Motif: The art of Man Ray, New York: Abbeville Press, 1989, p
artists to produce high quality illustrations in limited editions on handmade paper with no accompanying explanatory texts. In 1921 he founded L ‟Illustration des modes which became the celebrated Jardin des modes in 1922. He was appointed to the editorial board of Les Feuillets d‟art by Conde-Nast, the publishers of Vogue and also became a director of French Vogue. In 1930 it was Vogel who had the idea for the AGM special Photographie and it was Vogel who ensured that the most talented of modern photographers were recruited to Vu.
Vu
Vu was a pioneer in journal publishing. Match, the sports supplement of L ‟Intransigeant, was the first magazine in France to be printed on a rotogravure machine and it used photographs on the cover and innovative mis-en-page in 1927, a few months before the launch of Vu. Germany, the source of the
rotogravure technology, is often understood as a model for France and in relation to Vu the absolute model proposed in the literature is the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (BIZ).69 It is clear that there is a relationship between these titles but on inspection the German titles are relatively traditional compared to Vu. In 1929 photographs were sparse in BIZ as there were many pages with text but without photographs. Vu included photographs on all pages; Michel Frizot believes that it has a very distinctive mis-en-page, a complex design in which photography, text and narrative are unified.70 This unity is reinforced in reportage produced by one person. „La Villette Rouge‟ featuring Eli Lotar‟s photographs of the abbatoir is a good example of this, the text is credited to Carlo Rim but the article is credited as a „reportage photographique‟ by Lotar.71 Vu was a pioneer in magazine publishing because of the advanced design process which created a balance between blocks of photographs and exposition.
The stated aims of Vu were to „translate‟ the modern world and to deliver illustrated reportage from around the globe. A photograph could translate the modern world as it participated in the acceleration of modern life whereas text
69 For example see Osman, C. & Phillips, S. „European Visions: Magazine Photography
in Europe between the Wars‟ in Fulton, M. (Ed.) Eyes of Time: Photojournalism in America, Boston: Little Brown, 1988 and Heller, S. „Eyes on the World‟.
7
0 Author in conversation with Michel Frizot, Paris, 17th January, 2007. 7
alone was unable to represent this rhythm. The image was universal and immediate, if there was no time to read, a photograph was capable of delivering information quickly. There was a public appetite for images, the development of information during the War had been via photographs and the publication of images accompanied by text appeared to be spontaneous rather than intentional. In 1925 Moholy Nagy wrote
illustrated books, newspapers, magazines are printed — in millions. The unambiguousness of the real, the truth in the everyday situation is there for all classes. The hygiene of the optical, the health of the visible is
slowly filtering through.72
In fact all of those involved in the process had intentions including the photographer, agency, editor, art director and reader. Context is crucial and the photographs in Vu were manipulated and used to „prove‟ the explanation of the event given in the text.