Blogs and Stories
One Reason Magazines Are Suffering: Their Covers
One of the more striking covers of the current campaign was last week’s Time, which contrasted photographs of Obama, Lincoln, FDR, and McCain for the cover story, “Does Temperament Matter?” This cover, a well-selected picture choice, provided fascinating visual fodder as the facial features of the matched pairs revealed eerie similarities, particularly between Obama and Lincoln.
November’s Vanity Fair cover, while a sexy photograph, is a deliberate re-creation of the famous 1941 Bob Landry shot of Rita Hayworth that ran inside Life (too risqué for the cover) and went on to become the No. 2 best selling pin-up of World War II (after the famous Betty Grable shot). The current Amy Adams version, shot by Mert & Marcus, is certainly well done, but seen alongside all the other magazine cover re-creations on the newsstand, one could be forgiven for not knowing what year it is.
Meanwhile, The New York Post reports on a story published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin: A study of 40 years of Playboy covers found that the worse the economy, the older, heavier, and more self-sufficient looking the cover model. Subconsciously, the worried Playboy reader is looking for “a more-able woman to take care of them,” according to Terry Pettijohn, who conducted the study. You be the judge of November’s characteristics.
The gold standard of originality in fashion covers for me has always been Richard Avedon’s 1962 Harper’s Bazaar shot of Steve McQueen, art directed by Ruth Ansel. Not only was it daring to put a man on the cover (even one as famously sexy as McQueen), but that bejeweled hand rumpling his hair just adds icing to the cake. I’d love to know how that cover did.
W magazine’s November cover trumpets: “EXCLUSIVE: BRAD PITT’S PRIVATE PHOTOS OF ANGELINA JOLIE.” A cover picture of Jolie discreetly breastfeeding was supposed to be shocking, but the picture really just looks sweet. Much more striking is Pitt’s picture inside playing off Jolie’s famous lips.
Elsewhere in fashion land, Vogue and Allure close in on their subjects’ faces (and Norman Jean Roy’s Allure photograph of Eva Longoria is remarkably pretty). Was there a prescient sense that this month readers would be more interested in buying lipstick than ball gowns? And at Harper’s Bazaar, Drew Barrymore positively sparkles in front of an American flag. The picture takes us right back to the 1940s—the golden era when magazines ruled.
James Danziger was the Director of Photography at the London Sunday Times Magazine, Features Editor of Vanity Fair, and Director of Magnum New York. He runs the gallery Danziger Projects in New York and blogs at The Year in Pictures.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Obama HOPE Photo Mystery Continues!
James Danziger was the director of photography at the London Sunday Times Magazine, features editor of Vanity Fair, and director of Magnum New York. He runs the gallery Danziger Projects in New York and blogs at The Year in Pictures.
Apparently Danziger either did not do his homework, or has a bias against The Atlantic. That magazine just came out with an entirely new design, from cover to cover. In fact the latest edition specifically addresses the issues raised and inferred by the author. And to refer to Angelina Jolie's siliconed lips as something newsworthy is simply vacuous!
@hockeydog
Considering that The Atlantic just started its new cover style this month (as you said), and the author used the October issue, I don't see how that would really be "not doing his homework" or having a bias. Besides, Mr. Danziger was not making a case against the Atlantic specifically, but rather talking about magazine covers on the whole.
To hockeydog
The point made regarding The Atlantic (and Vibe) had nothing to do with design. It was that neither candidate apparently made any effort to check the work of the photographer sent to photograph them. I doubt this would happen with a writer.
Re: Jolie's lips, a google image search will show she had the same lips at 12.
JD.
I wouldn't say there's been an inventive cover since the old Hollywood-glamor covers of eras with Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, even Brigitte Bardot. If anything, I love seeing the magazines go retro- it's what has been popular in the past, and reminder of a simpler, more innocent time. Personally, I love the pictures of pin-up girls, far more than I like seeing Britney Spears' tush. No one can make the war in Iraq appear as romantic as Time did with The Kiss after the end of WWII. The industry is caught up between wanting retro, wanting sexy, and wanting racy. If anything, I'd say they've got all three, just lacking in imagination.
Thank you.
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