British-American actress Elizabeth Taylor is featured for the cover of Picture Post magazine. (
Image:
Getty Images)

Incredible images tell fascinating story of iconic Brit photo magazine Picture Post

Wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill contributed to articles and the rich and famous starred on the covers of Picture Post including Elizabeth Taylor

Every photo tells a story... and few did it bigger or better than iconic magazine Picture Post.

Years ahead of its time, the publication changed how people viewed British life, peeling back layers of society many had never seen.

There could be pics of the rich and famous – or, equally, the working class who were Britain’s backbone through dark days of war.

Now a new documentary tells the story of the weekly mag.

The first edition, on October 1, 1938, was down to founder Stefan Lorant, a photojournalist and social campaigner.

The Hungarian-Jewish refugee came here after his release from jail in Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

The initial print run of 750,000 sold in hours. Five million readers at its peak in World War Two made it Britain’s best-selling mag.

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Reports covered ordinary families from Wigan to London, with in-depth stories about the “herring girl” ladies of Yarmouth, Glasgow’s razor gangs and the jobless in Peckham.

But it wasn’t all gloom. There were playful images, like a woman looking bewildered at cacti. Wartime PM Winston Churchill, an on-off friend of Lorant, contributed articles in the early days.

The mag championed better working conditions, a health service and welfare state. But a change in direction came in the 1950s after Lorant gave up the editorship.

Front pages bore photos of pretty women and stars instead of social issues.

As TV took off, readership fell and the mag closed in 1957. But film director Rob West believes its legacy lives on, saying: “Not just in social history, but the way photography evolved, and the traditions of ‘street photography’ and ‘documentary photography’.”

  • Picture Stories: Picture Post and the Photography of Ordinary Life, is released in theatres this Friday and on digital download on Sept 30.