John Vachon’s photograph of a newsstand in Omaha, Nebraska, 1938 (pages 178-179) is unique in that it is one of the very few insights into media and pop culture in the New Deal Photography‘s documentation. Dozens upon dozens of magazine copies are lined up in rows, showing celebrities, luxury items, and the like. The sheer number of copies, which take up the entire space of the photograph, are definitely a sensory overload and create a disorienting effect. In a book almost entirely depicting human condition and experience during the Great Depression, this image depicts the very opposite – an enchanting, fanciful, but ultimately unattainable medium that represents a fictional ideal of human experience.
Print publications have been a pioneering force in American society for decades at this point, with the concept of “mass media” introducing itself at the start of the 20th century. Upon observing the covers of the magazines, I realize that there are quite a few titles that I recognize, and are still publishing to this date. TIME, The Atlantic, LIFE, and The Billboard are just a few that I immediately recognize. It’s definitely interesting to see the role these ubiquitous publications play during the Great Depression, especially when you compare them to their current state in the 21st century. In the photograph, the aforementioned titles primarily show young people, most likely celebrities or important public figures, smiling at the camera. I can definitely see how consumers would find them appealing. Although television programs existed in the late 1930s, they didn’t become a common household item until around the ’50s. Entertainment publications serve an important role in society, in that they were the primary way of knowing what was happening. Who’s playing who in this movie? What is the current state of our country?
Upon analyzing the photograph a second time, I realize that around half of the magazine stock is made up of comics or pulp fiction books. Most of them are westerns and detective mysteries, but I recognize a couple of sci-fi titles as well, such as The Amazing Stories. These publications represent another form of escapism for consumers. They explore a fictional world with heroes, villains, and a sense of self-indulgent campiness, which temporarily takes the reader’s mind away from the state of reality. This is especially true for sci-fi, which questioned the unknown and rapidly industrializing society. I can venture that these stories played an important role for people growing up and struggling during the 1930s.
If there’s one thing this photograph doesn’t explain on its own, it’s how media fared during the Great Depression. I wonder how these publication companies managed to continue circulating during this period of economic stagnation. Who were their consumers, and what helped some of them live on to this day?
