"Is journalism an art?" asks Anna Wintour. The global director of Vogue magazine and head of content for Condé Nast has no doubts: “Naturally”, she writes. "And every page of this book justifies it."
The book he is referring to is Chronorama: Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century (Ed. Abrams), an exquisite volume, curated by the Condé Nast publishing group, which compiles four hundred images that appeared on the glossy pages of the group's publications between 1910 and 1970. A photographic treasure that has been acquired, in part, by the Pinault Collection, and which is also featured in an exhibition at the Palazzo Grassi, in Venice, which can be seen until January 2024.
The images are the work of some of the greatest photographers of the last century: such as Edward Steichen, Irving Penn, Helmut Newton, Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, Lee Miller, and Diane Arbus. Organized by decades, each period comes with a text that explains the historical context in which they were taken.
In any case, the photographs speak for themselves, both for their aesthetics and for the characters portrayed: artists from various disciplines (Josephine Baker, Marlene Dietrich, the Beatles, Picasso...), writers (James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway), politicians ( Kennedy, Churchill, even Stalin, who appeared on the pages of Vanity Fair in 1934), athletes, astronauts, filmmakers, aristocrats and millionaires and, of course, the models: those beautiful women essential to build the fabulous imagery that is reflected in the book.
But not everything is glamorous. In the introduction to Chronorama Anna Wintour uses the adjectives "genius and bravery" to describe her impressions of this photo tour. She has no doubt that genius is due to the work of what she describes as "the best photographers of our time", but the legendary editor of Vogue cannot fail to highlight the vision of those who came before her: “Because these are magazine images. Photographs commissioned by editors to appear in the pages of Vogue, Vanity Fair, House
Datos del libro: Chronorama - Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century by The Pinault Collection and Condé Nast Archive (Abrams)
