Modern Photography Cover, Surreal Landscape

Historically , newsstand magazines have used a standard set of practices when it came to choosing their cover image. Their goal was to use an image that people could instantly relate to. The idea being, if an image pops off the page it will attract more attention and then generate more newsstand sales. For editors, choosing a cover was first a marketing decision and then an aesthetic one. That is why most magazine covers and (that includes art magazines) pretty much looked the same. They used familiar images, mostly of celebrities, beauty people or news items of that would beckon and aggressively reach out to the prospect. In this Modern Photography Cover of August 1983, they chose a radical departure. They used an image that was the opposite of the norm. Mitchell Funk’s Graphic Surreal Landscape breaks the rules of formula magazine cover art. Visionary editors Herbert Keppler and Ernest G. Scarfone used 20 of Mitchell Funk images for Modern Photography covers. This one maybe their most original. Signed and dated on lower right, numbered on verso, 3/15 Printed later, other size available, unframed