Junior Bazaar

For the fresh new face of Junior Bazaar “the graphics were the key,” Bassman recalled. “It was all part of playing with design—arresting you with shapes.” She recruited young photographers like Richard Avedon, Louis Faurer, and Ernst Beadle, and offered veterans like Leslie Gill a place to experiment. With scant oversight and few obligations to manufacturers still destabilized by the war, Bassman’s art department enjoyed a rare degree of freedom. Here, their avant-garde approaches illustrate trend reports and makeup tips. Action erupts across the magazine’s bright, propulsive spreads, realizing its larger mandate: to serve young readers with “bravery, wisdom, and taste.”