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Complete Picture: A man with a collection isn't particularly hot copy for the magazines, because he doesn't, in most cases, display any ingenuity in acquiring his collection, but only a good deal of spare money or a lot of persistence. A man with an odd collection ordinarily makes just one picture, one only moderately interesting if it shows a proud individual surrounded by some sort of "loot." One-picture features are also hard to sell to the magazines. Sometimes, however, other pictures which will interest an editor may be staged. Incidentally, eccentric collections, rather than those notable for being extensive or complete picture, are the best bets for picture sales to magazines.
A newborn baby does not look "mighty like a rose" to anyone but his parents or a poet. To unprejudiced eyes he is usually an incredibly small creature, wet, coated with a protective chalky substance, and often red and wrinkled. His head and abdomen look much too large; his legs are short and bowed. His smoky blue eyes wander about independently of each other and often cross.
Babies who arrive a little after the nine-month period are more likely to resemble the chubby, rosy, doll-like creatures that advertisers picture to appeal to prospective parents. Yet even the most unprepossessing specimens are complete picture in almost every detail—delicately formed fingers that can grasp your finger, toes complete picture with nails, facial features that have survived the hardships of the birth process.
Independently, and at the same time, the somewhat similar picture magazine Look was founded by Gardner Cowles and his brother John Cowles. The first issue was datelined January 1937. It relied more upon featute stories than on news coverage.
What distinguished Life and Look from earlier picture magazines was not so much the number of photographs they published but the theory of the "mind-guided camera." The typical picture essay is the cooperative work of editors and staff photographers. A story is decided upon, background research done, and a shooting script prepared to give the photographer as complete picture an understanding as possible of the type of pictures needed, their mood, and their purpose. |
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