Appearing at charmingly irregular intervals between 1970 and 1987, the 13 volumes of Afterimage comprise an odd, heterodox entry in the history of the “theoretical turn” in film criticism. Less dogmatic than their French counterparts (both literal and spiritual), more playful than the heady severity often found in Artforum and October, this little magazine—it measured roughly 8” by 6”—brought together a promiscuous array of texts in general sympathy with a modernist sensibility that sought to reconcile the tension between the moment’s formal and political avant-gardes.
In practice, this meant a purview stretching from the dawn of the medium to its latest arrivals, all taken up with admirable curiosity and, for the most part, a lightly worn seriousness. Independently published and released in runs between 500 and 1,500 copies, the magazine has remained relatively obscure; while the British distributor Lux has continued to occasionally sell original editions, and while a number of its more famous entries have gone on to be widely anthologized and reprinted, I’ve never personally seen an issue in the flesh. Given this, regarding The Visible Press’ new collection, The Afterimage Reader, I can offer this endorsement, slightly modified from one of its best entries: Highly recommended! Not to be missed. Essential reading.
Having gotten that out of the way, the matter of dealing with what , as a collective intervention in the history of cinema, finally is something of a trickier situation. Editor Mark Webber’s introduction to the volume offers a thorough account of the magazine’s context, both intellectual and historical, so I feel comfortable in foregoing a rehearsal of the names of various contemporaries and sources of funding. Meanwhile, the , running
