Life, 1928-05-17 · page 39 of 42
Life — May 17, 1928 — page 39: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page contains two distinct elements: a **Graflex camera advertisement** and a **reader engagement promotion**. The **Graflex ad** uses sentimentality to market cameras to parents. It depicts a child looking upward, emphasizing how professional-quality cameras can capture fleeting, candid moments of childhood that cheaper equipment might miss. The pitch is accessible: while Graflex cameras are premium equipment, models now start at $85—within reach of ordinary families rather than just professional photographers. The **"Have you written your letter to the editor?"** section encourages reader participation by promoting LIFE's new redesign and features like "Neighborhood News." It names popular columnists and writers (Robert Benchley, Grantland Rice, etc.) as contributors, attempting to build anticipation for the magazine's evolution. The tone is playfully self-aware—LIFE admits it's suggesting the "kind of opinion" it wants, inviting readers to either comply or disagree. Both sections reflect 1920s-30s marketing: aspirational product placement and community-building through reader engagement.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Rea PSV we hw “Now Look Up!” There's one class of pictures—known to one class of camera enthusiasts—for which the very best equipment in the whole world is the only kind that will do, Child pictures...parents know the thrill of fleeting expression. The instant the child looks up—before there’s time to pose—there’s a thousandth ‘of a second worth many times the price ofaGraflex. + + * 2 « «© ¢ PER a a RER RGES And now there’s a Graflex priced within : ‘reach of everybody. + + * + ¢ Graflex 34°x444"—speed up to 1/1000 sec- ond—880. Other. models from $85 to $375. Featured by A Good Dealer Everywhere FOLMER GRAFLEX CORP. ROCHESTER, NEW YORK 5| ~S=s <1} . #6 | Lave you written your letter to the editor’? Write to the Editor now. Tellhim what You won't want to miss, Robert Bench- % eg: i ley, John Kieran, Robert Sherwood, Henry you think of the new LIFE with its new Suydam, Walter Winchell, Baird Leonard, make-up and new features. How did Agnes Smith, Franklin P. Adams, Neal : : O'Hara, Grantland Rice, Edmund Pear- you like Neighborhood News and the son, Milt Gross, and many another, in other new departments? We want _ the Lires to come. Obey that impulse! your opinion! Just to make it absurdly easy, we have worked out for you the kind of opinion we like best. It’s the kind of opinion that’s wortha lottous, when you come right down to it.... fom comicbooks.com