Popular Photography
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| Premiere issue of May, 1937 scan courtesy Voxphoto (Image rights) |
Popular Photography is a long-running US magazine, inaugurated in May, 1937, one of a series of hobbyist publications from Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.[1]. As of May, 2012 Popular Photography marks 75 years of continuous publication from New York City. (For a time in the early 1950s, the cover title was displayed as "Photography—the magazine of popular photography.") It is now owned by the Bonnier Corporation.
While Popular Photography has always shared the US market with other publications, in many eras it surpassed all others in page count; and for firms advertising photo goods it was often the preferred venue. Beginning in April, 1940, an index to display advertisers appeared in each magazine (except for a few WWII-era issues); and coupled with its long publication run this makes "PopPhoto" a handy resource for researching the history of photographic products in the US market.
While tips for beginners and equipment reviews have always formed the core of the magazine, earlier issues often included surprisingly sophisticated content. For example, historian Beaumont Newhall[2], the specialist in photography from the Museum of Modern Art, wrote a detailed history of photography's first 100 years, published in the January, 1939 issue[3]. In a June, 1940 article on photographing trees, photographer Edward Weston gave such advice as,
"The wise photographer will avoid […] formulas, and if he needs any rules, will devise his own by the time-honored system of making the pictures first and the rules afterwards[4]."
Notes
- ↑ Ziff Davis article at Wikipedia.
- ↑ Beaumont Newhall article at at Wikipedia.
- ↑ "Photography is 100 Years Old," by Beumont Newhall, Popular Photography magazine, January 1939 (Vol. 4, No. 1) page 10.
- ↑ "I Photograph Trees," by Edward Weston, Popular Photography magazine, June 1940 (Vol. 6, No. 6) page 20.
