Only in New York Photographs from Look Magazine

by Albrecht, Donald; Mellins, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9781580932486
• ISBN10: 1580932487
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-10-27
• Publisher: The Monacelli Press

Summary

In the aftermath of World War II, New York emerged as a world-class city and the de facto national financial capital, becoming a magnet for moguls and strivers. At the same time the city remained a collection of small towns made up of people going about their daily rounds. No other publication captured this twin identity as successfully asLookmagazine. In the pre-television era, the editors ofLookrecognized the great demand for photographs of all kindspoliticians, titans of industry, and unsung heroes, glamorous events and intimate moments, society matrons and showgirls, violent crime and courtroom dramathat provided entertainment and diversion to voyeuristic subscribers to the magazine. Reaching a peak circulation of nearly 8 million in the late 1960s,Lookwas a national publication with a focus on the fascination and allure of New York. The magazine's New York imagesmore than 200,000 in allwere donated to the Museum of the City of New York.Only in New Yorkdraws from that astonishing archive to present the tapestry that was New York in the 1940s and 1950s.

Author Biography

Donald Albrecht is the curator of architecture and design at the Museum of the City of New York. His exhibitions there include The Mythic City: Photographs of New York by Samuel H. Gottscho 1925–1940 and Paris/New York: Design/Fashion/Culture/1925–1940.

Thomas Mellins is an architectural historian and independent curator specializing in New York. He is the co-author, with Robert A. M. Stern, of New York 1880, New York 1930, and New York 1960. He has organized exhibitions at the Museum of the City of New York, the National Building Museum, and Yale University.

Excerpts

From: Introduction

Lookmagazine had a long love affair with New York City, bringing its people, places, events, and ever-changing social scene to the attention of the magazine’s national audience. Stressing human warmth over journalistic objectivity, the magazine’s New York–based editors, writers, and photographers scoured their city for stories on a kaleidoscopic range of subjects. OnLook’s pages, readers learned about Broadway personalities, kids in slums, tastemakers and eccentric artists, sports heroes, developers of gleaming new skyscrapers, and Brooklyn’s so-called “thrill killers.” Throughout this diversity, however, one message remained clear. New York was both a big city, unlike any other in the nation, and a small town, where everyday life progressed much as it did elsewhere. “Behind the facade of this pushing, friendly, cruel, cultured, rich and ragged city,” wrote Patricia Coffin (d. 1974), one of the magazine’s longtime editors, “there is another town, a ‘small’ town . . . Mine includes a grocer who delivers my order to the corner liquor store if I’m home late from the office. There is also the Italian shoemaker who chalks ‘5-A’ on the soles of my shoes without asking where I live. ‘Tomarra,’ he says.”

As this observation underscores,Look’s coverage of New York had a distinctive tone, rejecting an icy, at-arms-length view in favor of one that was close-up and finely grained. The magazine’s portrayal of New York was candid, humorous, and always emphasized the story of individuals over societal documentation. Ira Mothner (b. 1932), who served as aLookeditor beginning in 1957, has noted that the magazine “was always more about fun” than its celebrated rivalLife. Mothner has also contended that whileLife’s staff was more highly paid, the work atmosphere atLookwas more spirited and free-wheeling.

Lookwas founded, published, and edited by Gardner Cowles (1903–1985, known as Mike Cowles). Its first issue was published in early 1937, a few months after the launch of Henry R. Luce’sLife. BothLookandLifebrought to America the style of lively photojournalism already apparent in such European magazines as the GermanBerliner Illustrirte Zeitungand the FrenchVU.Look’s mission was to meet “the tremendous unfilled demand for extraordinary news and feature pictures” and sought to appeal to a broad readership. As the editors promised potential advertisers,Lookwould have “reader interest for yourself, for your wife, for your private secretary, for your office boy.” Though the postwar growth of the magazine was dramatic—9,270,830 copies of its March 7, 1967, issue were sold—Look’s demise resulted from many forces, including the shift of advertising dollars to television and the rising costs of paper, printing, and mailing. After publishing 903 issues with 180,000 pictures,Lookprinted its last issue on October 19, 1971.

In the postwar period, numerous stories about New York conveyed the magazine’s defining character.Lookcelebrated New York as a place in which to realize the American ideal of self-invention, publishing articles on fashion models, boxers, artists, and entertainers, both striving and established. In this respect,Look’s editors concurred with E. B. White who, in his 1947 essay, “Here is New York,” stated that the city “can destroy an individual, or it can fulfill him, depending a good deal on luck. No one should come to New York to live unless he is willing to be lucky.” Ambushing expectations that the big city was a place of anonymous crowds,Look’s photographic essay “Life and Love on the New York Subw

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Excerpted from Only in New York: Photographs from Look Magazine by Donald Albrecht, Thomas Mellins
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