Logics of Re-Using Photographs: Negotiating the Mediality of the Magazine

Abstract

This paper explores the logics of magazine re-uses through three case studies, by focusing on pictures produced and reproduced by way of photography. The first case study focuses on half-tone reproductions in the early phase of the development of news photography, using the example of Collier’s Weekly during the Russo-Japanese War. It offers a historical case of transfers between book and magazine. In our second case, examining the American and French editions of Vogue, internal re-uses of content demonstrate both collaborative networks as well as a certain amount of latitude for divergence, and therefore further distinction within the Condé Nast brand. Our last example analyses the re-use of film stills in popular illustrated film magazines. These magazines manage their dependency on existing visual material provided by distribution companies for free, while striving, simultaneously, to highlight their ‘profile’ through visual design. The specific ways in which each magazine re-used images shed light on how respective editorial identities are carved, as well as more generally on magazines’ mediality: the latter, we argue, is showcased, in highly competitive print markets, partly through distinct(ive) re-using practices.