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Andrew HeiskellAndrew Heiskell
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This is from Loudon Wainwright's book, The Great American Magazine. And it states that “in a memo to his boss, LIFE publisher Roy Larson”--this is in around 1943--“Andrew Heiskell, an elegant type himself not easily looked down upon, wrote of this pervasive disregard.” And this is from your memo now: “‘Strangely enough’ , he said, ‘despite the fantastic success of LIFE and other picture magazines, news photography is not a respectable profession, and the photograph is not considered to be a complete and accurate medium for the reproduction of news and general information.’ He ticked off a few examples of this:

[1]“We ourselves feel that to give weight, substance and solidity to LIFE we must run text articles.

2. The better minds have a tendency to sneer at picture magazines and pictures. A magazine, because it is primarily composed of pictures, is not considered essential reading by those who want to know all about this world. I need not mention comments by various Time Inc. people about pictures.

3. News photographers are barred from many events open to reporters and placed in a lower and secondary category professionally.”

“‘It is probable that if we do nothing about this problem’ , he continued, ‘the natural course of evolution would bring respectability to photo-reporting in due course. I think it would be unwise for us to wait for this, particularly so since this is going to be an increasing belief that LIFE is a war baby--that photographs





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