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In post-war Paris, 24-year-old medical student Robert Delpire had an idea for an illustrated magazine for medical professionals. The result was NEUF, a short-lived but revolutionary periodical of the French avant-garde. 

The story of 1950s French periodical NEUF follows the rule of three: it had three founders, 24-year-old medical student Robert Delpire and his two friends Pierre Faucheux and Michel Ragon; became synonymous with the work of three photographers Robert Doisneau, Brassaï and Robert Frank, as well as three illustrators Mose, Chaval and André François; it was a three-year editorial adventure – running from 1950 to 1953 – producing nine issues. Indeed, the story of NEUF (meaning both “new” and “nine”) was contained in its name.

Initially advertised as a “luxury magazine for doctors”, NEUF was born out of a tradition of pharmaceutical-funded medical journals that had begun in the 1930s as a way to connect laboratories and doctors through a cultural medium. Art et Médecine was the most significant example at the time, proving the model could work, but NEUF was by no means guaranteed the same success. Delpire – a multi-talented maverick – described his initial foray into publishing as “an irrational experiment”, adding: “I had no skills in that field … I knew nothing about publishing, graphic design or printing. And I knew none of the authors I wanted to contact.” Yet by 1953, Delpire was on course to become one of the most influential French publishers of the 20th century.

What the NEUF team lacked in editorial expertise it made up for in its fraternising spirit and fortuitous connections with friends and artists in the avant-garde underground of post-war Saint-Germaindes-Prés. “Son, if you can’t make money, make friends,” said jazz musician Mezz Mezzrow in NEUF’s second issue, something of an elegy to its collaborative culture. Guided by only the aesthetic imperative of producing “something new”, NEUF’s cultural interest lay partly in this divergence from traditional design conventions and philosophies; NEUF prioritised the asymmetrical, the dissident and the subversive.

Seventy years after its conception, a new facsimile published by Paris-based delpire & co. this July – and exhibited at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2021 – refreshes this short-lived, but influential, periodical for a modern readership. Extracted here is a selection of spreads from across NEUF’s nine issues, including photography from Brassaï and Henri Cartier-Bresson, as well as illustrations and pharmaceutical adverts as they appeared in the original journals. ◉