Haven’t we all really wanted to say that? The odds are that, with your tongue firmly planted in your cheek, you have. You have said it, and it was a throwaway line. But haven’t we all really wanted to say it and mean it?
Maybe not. Maybe its just me and my nostalgia. For I have always been an avid reader of print media. Growing up I consumed it to an almost fanatical degree. First, it was books, then, as I moved into my 20s, it was a mixture of books and magazines. The trouble was, the magazines seldom sat quite right with me. I would hear of this Golden Age of Print. Of a time when print media made a real impact and earned real respect. But it was clear that the Golden Age was behind us, and still remains there. Go to your nearest newsstand and you will see we are in an era of now only 1 USD titles. What quality can we really expect for $1? Little. As a generalization, most magazines now feel like a disposable product churned out to elicit cash from our pockets and give us no more than an hours entertainment. Yet there was a time when it was different. A time when you really could pick up Playboy and say “I read it for the articles.” A time when Playboy published and serialized works by Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Fleming. A time when it, and other titles aimed at anyone but society’s archaic definition of the housewife, provoked thought alongside pictures of Marilyn Monroe. What makes you love a fashion shoot? Is it the model, the clothing, the way the clothes are styled, the photography? It could be any or all of the above, but sometimes a shoot is great for something else: sometimes it’s the mood it evokes.
