The Manipulator

1984

Kluisfolio; 17 dl. (... p.) ill

Serie: The Manipulator, no. 1-18 (1984-1989) ; no. 7 (1986) ontbreekt. - Afmetingen: 50 x 70 cm

The Manipulator Magazine was een extra groot formaat fotografisch tijdschrift met hypergestileerde advertenties. Het tijdschrift produceerde en portretteerde sterren op het gebied van mode, fotografie, architectuur, design, film en kunst. Het tijdschrift - verschenen in de periode 1984-1994 - werd uitgegeven door de kunstenaars Wilhelm Moser en David Colby, beiden afkomstig uit de kring van Andy Warhol en de galeriehouder Charles Cowles. - The Manipulator was a champion for photography. The Over-large format had been used on occasions in the past, particularly for picture-heavy publications, but this was the biggest by far (50 cm x 70 cm), able to reprint images in gargantuan, poster-like proportions. Its content reflected an obvious bias towards architecture, design, art and photography, but it was also one of the first consumer magazines to start addressing the looming ecological plight facing the world. De-forestation; rising sea-levels; suspect animal-husbandry; acid-rain: these were issues regularly confronted in the pages of The Manipulator, made all the more compelling by the huge pictures that accompanied the articles. Archival photography was another favourite. Hand-tinted images taken in Japanese brothels in the late-1800s; sepia-toned shots of Spanish bull-fighters from the turn of the century; murky photographs from the albums of the Victorian Egyptologists: all found a home in the pages of The Manipulator. When the USSR began crumbling under the onslaught of Gorbachev’s glasnost, the Novosti archives, which had been closed to the world since the revolution of 1917, were made available for reproduction in a 1989-edition of the magazine. The romance between The Manipulator and photography would span a full decade. Over the ensuing years, from time to time, ghosts of The Manipulator have been spotted here and there. Naturally, other extra-large format clones followed, but they didn’t hang around for too long. The odd back-issue of The Manipulator would pop up as part of the set-dressing on a movie, or grace a pop-star’s album cover, or be a prop in some music video, or a feature in some exhibit

Located in: TIJDSCHRIFTEN; MANIPULATOR, THE (SCULPTURENDEPOT VAM)

VUBIS: 2:103921