breaking rules at harper’s bazaar

In 1930 Alexey moved to the U.S. and headed the Advertising Design Department at the Pennsylvania Museum. Four years later, Carmel Snow—the editor of Harper's Bazaar—foresaw the genius of Brodovitch and asked him to head the magazine’s design team. Alexey accepted the offer and introduced a variety of innovations: reiteration, dynamic pagination, scale contrasts, captions, and typography. Marvin Israel, a painter and designer who was an associate of Brodovitch at Bazaar, called him a man “obsessed with change.”

 

Cover of the September 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. A model wearing blue between columns

Cover of the September 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. Photo via RIT Library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the February 1952 issue of Harper's Bazaar. The Well-Spent Dollar

Cover of the February 1952 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch, cover photo by Richard Avedon. Photo via RIT library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the October 1947 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Crossing arms forming a square
Cover of the August 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. The HB Look
Cover of the September 1956 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. A leg in a high-heeled shoe

Cover of the October 1947 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch, cover photo by Ernst Beadle. Photo via RIT library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the August 1958 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. Photo via RIT library. © The Hearst Corporation.

Cover of the September 1956 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Designed by Alexey Brodovitch. © The Hearst Corporation.

Alexey Brodovitch working on a fashion layout. Newspaper cuttings stuck to a wall

Alexey Brodovitch working on a fashion layout. Photo by George Karger/Pix Inc./The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images.

The 9-minute wonder exercises. Article in the April 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar

The 9-minute wonder exercises. Article in the April 1950 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. Layout designed by Alexey Brodovitch. © The Hearst Corporation.

If you don't like full skirts. Article in the March 1938 issue of Harper's Bazaar
Created with Sketch.

he [brodovitch] taught me to be intolerant of mediocrity. he taught me to worship the unknown.

—art kane, fashion and music photographer

Alexey Brodovitch smoking a cigarette, looking into camera

Alexey Brodovitch, 1964. Photo by Henri Cartier-Bresson. Gelatin silver print, printed 1968. © 2019 Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos, courtesy Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, Paris.

 

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