Editing Picture Post

{{Short description|Weekly photo journal magazine (1938–1957)}}
{{more citations needed|date=August 2009}}
{{Infobox magazine
| title           = Picture Post
| image_file      = Picture Post 21-Sep-40.jpg
| image_size      = 220px
| image_alt       = Cover of the Picture Post dated 21 September 1940. Caption: Camouflage – a home guard learns a lesson in cover at Osterley Park Training School
| image_caption   = Cover of the ''Picture Post'' vol. 8 no. 12<br />dated 21 September 1940
| editor          = [[Tom Hopkinson]]
| editor_title    = Editor
| previous_editor = [[Stefan Lorant]], [[Max Raison]]
| staff_writer    = MacDonald Hastings, Lorna Hay, [[Sydney Jacobson]], [[J. B. Priestley]], Lionel Birch, James Cameron, [[Fyfe Robertson]], [[Anne Scott-James]], [[Robert Kee]], [[Timothy Raison]] and [[Bert Lloyd]]
| frequency       = weekly
| circulation     = 1,950,000 copies a week in 1943
| category        = [[current affairs (news format)|Current affairs]]; [[photojournalism]]
| company         = 
| publisher       = [[Edward George Warris Hulton|Sir Edward G Hulton]]
| firstdate       = 1938
| country         = [[United Kingdom]]
| based           = [[London]]
| language        = [[English language|English]]
| website         = 
| issn            = 
| finaldate       = 1957
| finalnumber     = 
}}

'''''Picture Post''''' was a photojournalistic magazine published in the [[United Kingdom]] from 1938 to 1957.<ref name=gale>{{cite web|title=The Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938–1957|url=http://gdc.gale.com/products/the-picture-post-historical-archive-1938-1957/|work=Gale Digital Collections|access-date=19 October 2015}}</ref>  It is considered a pioneering example of [[photojournalism]] and  was an immediate success, selling 1,000,000 copies a week after only two months.<ref name="Circ2month">{{cite book|last=Hopkinson|first=Tom|title=Picture Post 1938-1950|page=11|publisher=[[Penguin Books|Penguin]]|year=1970|isbn=978-0-1400-3115-7}}</ref> It has been called the UK's equivalent of ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://photographyicon.com/photojournalism/ | title=What is Photojournalism? &#124; Icon Photography School | date=13 June 2011 }}</ref>

The magazine's editorial stance was [[Liberalism|liberal]], [[Anti-fascism|anti-fascist]], and [[Populism|populist]],<ref name="getty">[http://corporate.gettyimages.com/masters2/conservation/articles/HAHistory.pdf Hulton|Archive – History in Pictures] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527044717/http://corporate.gettyimages.com/masters2/conservation/articles/HAHistory.pdf |date=2013-05-27 }} History of ''Picture Post'' by the Archive Curator Sarah McDonald, 15/10/04. Accessed March 2008</ref> and from its inception, ''Picture Post'' campaigned against the [[The Holocaust|persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany]]. In the 26 November 1938 issue, a picture story was run entitled "Back to the Middle Ages": photographs of [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Joseph Goebbels]] and [[Hermann Göring]] were contrasted with the faces of those scientists, writers and actors they were persecuting.

==History==
In January 1941 ''Picture Post'' published their "Plan for Britain". This included minimum wages throughout industry, full employment, child allowances, a national health service, the planned use of land and a complete overhaul of education. This document led to discussions about post-war Britain and was a populist forerunner of [[William Beveridge]]'s November 1942 Report.

Sales of ''Picture Post'' increased further during [[World War II]], and by December 1943, the magazine was selling 1,950,000 copies a week. By the end of 1949 circulation had declined to 1,422,000.

The founding editor, [[Stefan Lorant]] (who had also founded ''[[Lilliput (magazine)|Lilliput]]'' and had even earlier pioneered the picture-story in Germany in the 1920s), had been succeeded by (Sir) [[Tom Hopkinson]] in 1940. Lorant, who was Jewish, had been imprisoned by Hitler in the early 1930s and later wrote a best-selling book, ''I Was Hitler's Prisoner''. By 1940, he feared that he would be captured in a [[Operation Sealion|Nazi invasion of Britain]] and so fled to [[Massachusetts]], where he wrote important illustrated US histories and biographies.

During World War II, the art editor of the magazine, [[Edgar Ainsworth (artist)|Edgar Ainsworth]], served as a war correspondent and accompanied the [[United States Army Europe|American 7th Army]] on its advance across Europe in 1945.<ref name=SimFA>{{cite web |url=https://issuu.com/adamhw/docs/holdingline2015 |title=Holding the Line 2015, The Art of the War Years 1939–1945 |year=2015|access-date=5 November 2016|work=Sim Fine Arts}}</ref> He visited the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]] three times after the British army liberated the complex in April 1945. Several of his sketches and drawings from the camp were published in a September 1945 article, ''Victim and Prisoner''. Ainsworth also commissioned the artist [[Mervyn Peake]] to visit France and Germany at the end of the war and reported from Bergen-Belsen.<ref name=Colegrave>{{cite web|author=Sarah Colegrave Fine Art|url=http://www.sarahcolegrave.co.uk/paintings/d/gordale-scar/41434|title=Edgar Ainsworth (1905–1975)|access-date=5 November 2016|work=Sarah Colegrave Fine Art|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201044438/http://www.sarahcolegrave.co.uk/paintings/d/gordale-scar/41434|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Hopkinson said that his photographers were thoroughbreds and that text could always be written after the event, but if his photographers did not come back with good pictures, he had nothing to work with. Years later, Hopkinson said that the greatest photos he ever received to lay out were [[Bert Hardy]]'s images from the [[Korean War]]'s [[Battle of Incheon]], for which [[James Cameron (journalist)|James Cameron]] wrote the article. The magazine's greatest photographers included Hardy, [[Kurt Hutton]], [[Felix H. Man]] (aka Hans Baumann), [[Francis Reiss]], [[Thurston Hopkins]], John Chillingworth, [[Grace Robertson]], and Leonard McCombe, who eventually joined ''Life'' magazine's staff. Staff writers included [[MacDonald Hastings]], Lorna Hay, [[Sydney Jacobson]], [[J. B. Priestley]], Lionel Birch, James Cameron, [[Fyfe Robertson]], [[Anne Scott-James]], [[Robert Kee]] and [[Bert Lloyd]]. Many freelancer writers contributed as well, including [[George Bernard Shaw]], [[Dorothy Parker]], and [[William Saroyan]].

On 17 June 1950, ''[[Leader Magazine|Leader]]'' magazine was incorporated in ''Picture Post''.<ref>{{cite news|title=Weekly Magazines to be Merged|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19500518&id=LkhAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ZZEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=3269,1472053&hl=tr|access-date=26 November 2015|work=The Glasgow Herald|date=18 May 1950}}</ref> Editor Tom Hopkinson was often in conflict with (Sir) [[Edward G. Hulton]], the owner of ''Picture Post''. Hulton mainly supported the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] and objected to Hopkinson's [[socialist]] views. The conflict led to Hopkinson's dismissal in 1950 following the publication of Cameron's article, with pictures by Hardy, about [[South Korea]]'s treatment of political prisoners in the Korean War.

By June 1952, circulation had fallen to 935,000. Sales continued to decline in the face of competition from television and a revolving door of new editors. By the time the magazine closed in July 1957, circulation was less than 600,000 copies a week.

''Picture Post'' was digitised as The Picture Post Historical Archive, 1938–1957 and consists of the complete, fully searchable facsimile archive of the ''Picture Post''. It was made available in 2011 to libraries and institutions.<ref name=gale/>

==Hulton Press Library==
{{Infobox company
| name             = Hulton Getty
| logo             = 
| type             = 
| genre            = [[Stock photography]]
| fate             = 
| predecessor      = Hulton Press Library, ''Radio Times'' photo archive, BBC Hulton Picture Library, Hulton Picture Collection
| successor        = 
| foundation       = 
| founder          = [[Edward George Warris Hulton|Sir Edward Hulton]]
| defunct          = 
| industry         = [[Publishing]], [[Mass media|media]], [[web design]]
| products         = Archive journalistic photography
| parent           = [[Getty Images]]
| homepage         = [http://www.gettyimages.com/EditorialImages/Archival/Hulton www.gettyimages.com]
}}
As the photographic archive of ''Picture Post'' expanded through the Second World War, it became clear that its vast collection of photographs and negatives, both published and unpublished, were becoming an important historical documentary resource. In 1945, Sir Edward Hulton set up the Hulton Press Library as a semi-independent operation. He commissioned [[Charles Gibbs-Smith]] of the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] to catalogue the entire archive using a system of keywords and classifications. The Gibbs-Smith system was the world's first indexing system for pictures, and it was eventually adopted by the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] and parts of the [[British Museum]] collections.<ref name="getty"/>

When ''Picture Post'' folded, Sir Edward Hulton sold the archive collection to the [[BBC]] in 1957. It was incorporated into the ''[[Radio Times]]'' photo archive, and the BBC expanded the collection further with the purchase of the photo archives of the ''[[Daily Express]]'' and ''[[Evening Standard]]'' newspapers. Eventually, the BBC disposed of its photo archive and the BBC Hulton Picture Library was sold on once more, this time to Brian Deutsch, in 1988.  In 1996, the Hulton Picture Collection was bought by [[Getty Images|Getty Investments]] for £8.6 million. Getty Images now owns the rights to some 15 million photographs from the British press archives dating back to the 19th century.<ref name="image-ethics">{{cite book|last=Gross|first=Larry P.|author2=Katz, John Stuart |author3=Ruby, Jay |title=Image ethics in the digital age|publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]]|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8166-3824-6}}</ref> In 2000, Getty embarked on a large project to [[Digitizing|digitise]] the photo archive, and launched a dedicated website in 2001. A [[data migration]] programme began in 2003 and the Hulton Archive was transferred to the main Getty Images website; the Hulton Archive is still available today as a featured resource within the vast Getty holdings.<ref name="getty"/>

== Present day: ''Picture Stories'' ==
A documentary about the life and photographic legacy of ''Picture Post'', ''[http://www.picturestoriesfilm.com Picture Stories]'', was produced by Ship of Life Films in 2021.

The documentary features archive interviews with editors Stefan Lorant and Tom Hopkinson and several ''Picture Post'' photographers, including [[Bert Hardy]], [[Thurston Hopkins]], John Chillingworth,  [[Humphrey Spender]] and David Steen. It also includes the photographer [[Grace Robertson]]'s last interview, in which she discusses her classic picture story "Mother's Day Off". Modern-day documentary photographers including [[David Hurn]], [[Daniel Meadows]], [[Anna Fox]], [[Homer Sykes]], [[Peter Dench]] and [[Nick Turpin]] discuss the photography and influence of ''Picture Post''.

''Picture Stories'' received positive reviews and won the Audience Award at the 2021 UK Jewish Film Festival. ''[[The Guardian]]'' gave the documentary a four-star review, describing it as "inspiring".<ref>{{Cite web |title=PICTURE STORIES: How one magazine transformed photography |url=https://www.eventbrite.es/e/239403812247?aff=efbneb |access-date=2022-03-29 |website=Eventbrite |language=en-us}}</ref>

==References==

===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
;Primary:
* {{cite web |url=https://www.gale.com/intl/c/picture-post-historical-archive |title=''Picture Post'' Historical Archive, 1938–1957 |publisher=[[Gale (publisher)|Gale]] |url-access=subscription |access-date=16 May 2020}}
;Secondary:
* {{cite book| url=http://www.lacrossehistory.org/literature/cached/AlltheBest.pdf | title='All the Best', a Complete History of Picture Post Magazine | first=David J. | last=Marcou | publisher=La Crosse History Unbound | date=2009 }}

==External links==
* {{cite web |url=https://www.gettyimages.ie/photos/picture-post?family=editorial&phrase=picture%20post&sort=mostpopular |title=picture post photos |publisher=[[Getty Images]] |access-date=16 May 2020}}

[[Category:Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Getty Images]]
[[Category:Magazines published in London]]
[[Category:Magazines established in 1938]]
[[Category:Magazines disestablished in 1957]]
[[Category:Photojournalistic magazines]]
[[Category:Photography in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Stock photography]]
[[Category:1938 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1957 disestablishments in the United Kingdom]]