Picture Post was an immensely popular weekly magazine whose circulation reached almost 2 million copies a week at its' height. It was a left-leaning, liberal magazine which used photographs extensively to illustrate the social themes of the day and could be said to have been instrumental in sparking a revolution in how photographs were used to tell stories. Its' own story is now being told by Rob West in the online documentary "Picture Stories" available from 27th September 2021.

It was founded by Stefan Lorant, a Hungarian who had initially moved to Germany and established an anti-fascist magazine there which led to his arrest and imprisonment by Hitler in the early 1930's. He left for Britain upon release and in 1938 founded Picture Post. The magazine ran until 1957 when changes in taste and reading habits led it to close.

It proved a great success in drawing attention to contemporary life and nurtured the careers of many photo journalists. These included Bert Hardy, Kurt Hutton, Felix H Mann, Grace Robinson (one of the few women photographers working in photo journalism at the time), John Chillingworth, Francis Reiss and Leonard McComb.

In January 1941 Picture Post published their "Plan for Britain". This included minimum wages throughout industry, full employment, child allowances, a national health service, the planned use of land and a complete overhaul of education, a forerunner of the Beveridge plan that led to many of the postwar changes brought in the the Labour party.

The eventual demise of the magazine led to photo archive was sold to the BBC although it is now owned by Getty Images.