Passion

Front cover of Passion 1970

My summer passion this year is randomly browsing and then unearthing some of the brilliant gems that are here in this great little library of ours.

The 1970 SVA Passion class. . .

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Passion
New York: School of Visual Arts, 1970.
R TR179.5.S36 P37 1970

The ‘Objective’ of this class magazine Passion in 1970 was to produce a visual expression about various notions concerning passion. The magazine was called Passion because the creators wanted to make a statement in favor of positive involvement, in favor of belief. . .

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Passion ‘magazine’ from 1970

It has been said that Milton Glaser and Henry Wolfs Passion magazine workshop at SVA in 1970 was an homage to the erotic magazine Eros published by Ralph Ginzburg.  Ralph Ginzburg was an author, editor, publisher and photo-journalist who in 1963 was convicted for distributing obscene literature through the mails, in violation of federal anti-obscenity laws. Ralph was sentenced to five years and he served eight months in prison.  Allen Ginsberg traveled to Washington and picketed the Supreme Court building on behalf of Ralph Ginzburg but to no avail.

Four Volumes of Eros Magazine

Eros magazine was produced in 1962, consisting of four volumes:
Eros – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
TR676 .E76 1962

The four controversial Eros volumes aimed to explore the undercurrent of pornography that exists in English literature.  Contributions included a manuscript given by the Bishop of Exeter to his cathedral in 1070, an interview with Bobby Fischer, an introduction by psychoanalyst Theodor Reik, a short story by Ray Bradbury, a photo essay by Marvin Newman, Bert Stern images of Marilyn Monroe, Love in the Subway a photographic essay by Gary Winogrand, Me and the Male Prostitutes of Bombay by Art Kane, The Agonies and the Ecstasies of a Stripper by Nicholas David and many other odd and interesting contributions. It really is entertaining. It is not an entirely photographic magazine. There is a lot of text and imagery and art historical information.  It has a real strong sense of design. It is obviously this sense of design which had a great appeal to Milton Glaser and Henry Wolfs Passion magazine workshop at SVA in 1970 so much so that they mimiced the style for the cover of Passion.

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Some Highlights from the controversial Eros magazine

Passion is a great innovative magazine. I am sure that the workshop/magazine must have been so much fun for those involved.
Milton Glaser and Henry Wolfs Passion is a real delight to browse and it contains some extraordinarily beautiful design and playful imagery. And some lovely blissful advice from the authors of Passion in 1970:

Be gentle, be sincere, be modest, be kind, be cheerful, be honest, be yourself.

Eros endpapers from 1962

Back cover of Passion 1970

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More modern books on Passion might include:

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Lonely Boy Mag: No.A-1. Alec Soth’s “Midwestern Exotica”.
Lonely Boy Mag: No.A-2, Alec Soth’s Boys & their cars.
Saint Paul, Minnesota : Little Brown Mushroom, 2011.
R TR179.5.S681 L66 2011

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The first issue features poetry, erotic text, pictures of ex-girlfriends and a photo-story by Alec Soth and the second issue features Alec Soth, Todd Hido, Chad States and erotic dioramas by Peter Davidson. The erotic dioramas are a real stand-out in theses Lonely Boy mag’s. It would be great if Alec and LBM would consider continuing with some issues of this wonderful magazine.

Eros endpapers from 1962