Vu (magazine)

Not to be confused with VU Mag, a periodic publication by Agence Vu.

VU

Vu (magazine) N°77 featuring Adelaide Hall
Editor	Desfossés - Néogravure1
Categories	Photojournalism
Frequency	Weekly
Founder	Lucien Vogel
Founded	1928
Final issue	1940
Based in	Paris, France
Language	French

Vu, stylized as VU, was a weekly French pictorial magazine, created and directed by Lucien Vogel, which was published from 21 March 1928 to 29 May 1940; it ran for 638 issues.

History

Vu was the first large weekly to systematically feature photographs in essay form, and as such was an important precursor to, and proponent of, the magazine format of photojournalism (which came to prominence a decade after its print run in magazines such as Life and Look).

Innovation

Although inspired in part by the German magazine Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, VU featured a constructivist aesthetic and was innovative in its layouts, especially in its double-page spreads, in which the layout artists were assisted by rotogravure from film positives of both type and halftone images which could be easily cut and arranged on a light box, rather than using less flexible and more expensive metal halftone blocks.

Photography

Notable contributing photographers included Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray, Brassaï, and André Kertész, but the sole staff photographer was the now lesser-known Gaston Paris 1933-38 who made around 1,300 photos for the magazine. VU was particularly advanced in its use of the picture essay format. Vu encouraged photographers to use the newly available smaller cameras, the medium-format Rolleiflex and 35mm Leica, with faster lenses, high-speed (100 ASA in 1931) roll-film in high-capacity magazines, and rapid operation, facilitated them in producing striking imagery.

Content

The magazine published special issues on the Soviet Union (VU au pays des Soviets, 18 November 1931), which was illustrated by Vogel himself, a keen photographer, on Germany (L'énigme allemande, 1932), the ascent of technology (Fin d'une civilisation, 1933), China (Interrogatoire de la Chine, 1934), and Spain (VU en Espagne, 1936).

In 1931, Vogel founded a companion magazine named Lu (read), a survey of the foreign press translated into French; this merged with Vu in March 1937.

Legacy

A major retrospective was hosted by the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) in late 2006/early 2007.

Selected contributors

• Ida Treat (née Ida Frances Treat; 1889–1978), correspondent for Vu, 1930 to 1935. She married three times; first, on June 28, 1916, in Cleveland, to Raymond Newton O'Neil (1887–1957); second, October 31, 1923, in Bobigny, to Paul Vaillant-Couturier (1882–1937); and third, on September 30, 1939, André Bergeret (fr) (1904–1966).
• Jean d'Erleigh aka Brassaï (pseudonyms of Gyula Halász; 1899–1994), writer
• André Kertész (1894–1985), photographer
• Man Ray (1890–1976), photographer
• Robert Capa (1913–1954), photographer
• Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908–2004), photographer
• Marie-Claude Vaillant-Couturier (1912–1996), photographer, who, in 1934, married Paul Vaillant-Couturier (1882–1937); she was also the daughter of Lucien Vogel
• Gaston Paris (photographer) (1903–1964), photographer

See also

• Isaac Kitrosser
• Alexander Liberman

Bibliography

References

• Clark, Josh (19 February 2007) [updated June 13, 2007]. "Vu Magazine: Photos, Robots and Cutting-Edge Design" (blog of Josh Clark). Asheville, North Carolina: Big Medium. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
• Mirsky, D.S. (1997). "D. S. Mirsky: Twenty-Two Letters (1926–34) to Salomeya Halpern". In Davies, Richard (MBE; 2003), Archivist, Leeds, Brotherton Library, Russian Archive; Smith, Gerald Stanton, PhD (born 1938), Professor of Russian, University of Oxford (eds.). Oxford Slavonic Papers (Mirsky's letter 17, October 20, 1929, from his Gower Street address → "Душенька". pp. 109–110; note 100). New Series. Vol. 30. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 89–122. ISBN 978-0-19-815954-4. Retrieved 13 January 2013 – via Internet Archive [for info on Salomeya Halpern (1888–1982), see Mark Slonim]. {{cite book}}: External link in |type= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: editors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link) LCCN 52-18936; ISSN 0078-7256; ISBN 0-1981-5954-4, 978-0-1981-5954-4; OCLC 1245622914 (all editions).
• Frizot, Michel (curator), Photography Historian and Director of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research [in French]; De Veigy, Cédric (curator), Lecturer and Researcher in Photography and Cinema (2 November 2006). "Regarder Vu: Un Magazine Photographique 1928–1940" [Looking at Vu: A Photographic Magazine, 1928–1940] (in French). Paris. Retrieved 18 January 2013 (exhibited November 2, 2006, through February 25, 2007 → co-produced by MEP and the Nicéphore Niépce Museum in Chalon-sur-Saône){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: postscript (link) ISBN 978-2-7324-3751-4, 2-7324-3751-4 (2009 exhibition book); OCLC 644622672 (all editions) (2009 exhibition book).
• Heller, Steven; Pomeroy, Karen (1997). "Vogue, Alexander Lieberman". Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design. Allworth Press. p. 47. ISBN 9781880559765. Retrieved 22 June 2021 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 96-79695; ISBN 1-8805-5976-5; OCLC 634624360 (all editions).

Supplemental edition:

1. Heller, Steven (1999). "Picture Magazines of the 1930s". Design Literacy (continued): Understanding Graphic Design. Allworth Press. p. 65. Retrieved 13 January 2013 – via Internet Archive ("Paris Match was arguably the most popular picture magazine, but the newsweekly Vu ... was the most innovative".){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) LCCN 99-42995; ISBN 1-5811-5035-0; OCLC 883592407 (all editions).

• Heller, Steve (2009). "Photography Changes the Look and Content of Magazines". In Heiferman, Marvin (ed.). Click! Photography Changes Everything. New York: Aperture. London: Thames & Hudson. Archived from the original on 27 March 2009. Retrieved 18 January 2013 – via Wayback Machine (originally published around March 2009){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) LCCN 201200428 201-200428; ISBN 1-5971-1199-6, 978-1-5971-1199-7; OCLC 818622087 (all editions).
• Leenaerts, Danielle (2009). "Le Magazine Français Vu (1928–40): Naissance de L'Information Visuelle et Utopie de la Substitution de L'Image Photographique au Texte Écrit" [The French Magazine Vu (1928–40): The Birth of Visual Information and Utopia of the Substitution of Photographic Image for Written Text]. In MacLeod, Catriona, PhD, University of Chicago; Plesch, Véronique, PhD, Colby College; Schoell-Glass, Charlotte, University of Hamburg [in German] (eds.). Elective Affinities: Testing Word and Image Relationships. Word & Image Interactions 6 (in French). Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi BV. pp. 159–172. Retrieved 20 January 2013 – via Google Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) ISBN 978-9-0420-2618-6 (hardback); ISBN 978-9-0420-2619-3 (e-book); OCLC 897034082 (all editions).
• Leenaerts, Danielle (2010). Petite Histoire du Magazine Vu (1928–1940): Entre Photographie d'Information et Photographie D'Art [A Brief History of Vu Magazine (1928–1940): Between Information Photography and Art Photography] (in French). Brussels: Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes (P.I.E.) – Peter Lang. p. 115. Retrieved 22 June 2021 – via Google Books. ISBN 978-9-0520-1585-9, 9-0520-1585-6; OCLC 690329730 (all editions) (print), 739050136 (print), 764627239 (online).

Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen (2019). Gaston Paris: die unersättliche Kamera (in German). Köln: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König. ISBN 978-3-96098-569-3. OCLC 1263196302.

Further reading

• Michel Frizot and Cédric de Veigy. Vu: The Story of a Magazine That made an Era. London: Thames & Hudson, 2009. ISBN 9780500543832.

External links

• French clip of the 2006 MEP retrospective.