Description
Book SynopsisThe new photo-illustrated magazines of the 1920s traded in images of an ideal modernity, promising motorised leisure, scientific progress, and social and sexual emancipation.
Modernist Magazines and the Social Ideal is a pioneering history of these periodicals, focusing on two of the leading European titles: the German monthly
UHU, and the French news weekly
VU, taken as representative of the broad class of popular titles launched in the 1920s.The book is the first major study of
UHU, and the first scholarly work on
VU in English.
Modernist Magazines explores, in particular, the striking use of regularity and repetition in photographs of modernity, reading these repetitious images as symbolic of modernist ideals of social order in the aftermath of the First World War. Introducing a novel methodology,
pattern theory, the book argues for a critical return to the Gestalt tradition in visual studies.Alongside the
UHU and
VU cas
Trade ReviewIf you think you’ve seen all there is to see on the interwar period, Tim Satterthwaite proves you wrong: his original perspective on the world of illustrated magazines draws our attention to a wealth of social and cultural phenomena. The book’s sophisticated readings of magazine photographs reveal a treasure trove of inspiring, unexplored materials. * Patrick Rössler, University of Erfurt, Germany *
The study of illustrated magazines makes for an intimidating prospect, given the sheer quantity and variety of even one title’s output. Satterthwaite makes this challenge a point of departure in his fascinating study of the iconic interwar titles
UHU and
VU. Across innumerable periodical pages he sees patterns that reveal the form and purpose of the classic magazine, and its formative role in the experience of European modernity. * Andrés Mario Zervigón, Rutgers University, USA *
There are many good reasons to warmly welcome this excellent new contribution to the field [...] Tim Satterthwaite has important things to say on the methodology of photo analysis in mass media.
Modernist Magazines and the Social Ideal is a topical and very useful book. * Leonardo *
Modernist Magazines and the Social Ideal is written with a knowledge of the existing literature and with a solid overview of the extensive field. [...] Among the definite merits of Satterthwaite’s text are its aim for readability and the remarkably captivating flow of the text – even the more abstract constructions presented on accessible examples are intuitively comprehensible. * Fotograf *
Table of ContentsIntroduction Acknowledgements Part 1 Social Modernism 1 The Idea of the Whole 2 Pattern Theory 3 Symphonies of the City
Part 2 The Beautiful World: UHU Magazine, 1924–30 1 “The pulse of life” 2 Photographic Unities 3 “The beauty of technology” 4 Sunlit Dancers 5
UHU in the 1930s
Part 3 The Crisis of Modernity: VU Magazine, 1930–33 1 The Promise of Plenty 2 Utopian Patterns 3 The Crisis Years
Epilogue: Modern Pages Bibliography Index
