VU: The Story of a Magazine

Michel Frizot and Cédric de Veigy's VU is the first full study of the Paris illustrated weekly that, between 1928 and 1940, set the pattern for the modern photo magazine.

Founded and directed by Lucien Vogel, VU ran for 638 issues under the motto 'the text explains, the photograph proves', conceived as an ongoing film that would bring the whole of life within range of the eye. Its pages were built from photographs by André Kertész, Germaine Krull and Robert Capa, among many others, laid out with photomontage covers by Alexander Liberman and his colleagues, and its special issues on the Soviet Union, Germany and the Spanish Civil War shaped the political photo-essay. The book reproduces covers, pages and spreads from across the run, with commentary on the magazine's editorial methods, its layouts and its photographers.

Frizot, research director at the CNRS in Paris and editor of A New History of Photography (1998), and de Veigy, a writer on photography and film, draw on the complete run. The English edition, translated by Ruth Sharman, was published by Thames & Hudson in London (as VU: The Story of a Magazine that Made an Era) and in New York under this title.