Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
There is currently a discussion on the APUG forum about the lack of a good magazine for the traditional photographer in the US and why one does not/may not exist.
http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8266
Do people here agree or disagree?
If you agree what would you like to see?
steve simmons
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
It's more of a diatribe than a discussion.
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
Try
http://www.apug.org/forums/showthread.php?t=8266
steve simmons
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
I don't know that it's important to have a magazine which *only* does traditional B&W. Lenswork is a fabulous magazine, from the perspective of both articles and images, and their portfolios mix digital and darkroom work. Since the articles aren't about equipment (no Photoshop tutorials or reviews!) I don't find myself bothered by the inclusion of some digital images -- a beautiful image is a beautiful image, regardless of how it got there.
View Camera is one I'm fairly happy with. Steve does tend to run more articles about digital equipment and photoshop technique than I'm happy with, but I'm willing to ignore them because there's still enough content I am interested in to make it worth my while to buy. And many of the images are quite good.
B&W is a fine magazine, once you understand that it's market is collectors of B&W photography, not photographers. Lots of great pictures in it, well worth reading to see what's happening in the world of collectors and photographer's portfolios. I'm not into the whole 'photography collector' and gallery things myself, but I like to look at photographs and this one is loaded with them and regularly adds the names of photographers to my list of folks I'd like to see more of.
That's pretty much it for the magazines I regularly buy and read. There was another one I bought a couple of issues of from Barnes and Noble, an Australian one if I recall correctly, but the last issue I bought contained an announcement that they were going subscription only, so I haven't even been looking for it lately. It was a decent magazine but I only read a couple of issues and don't even remember the name any more. If I had to chose one to live with for the rest of my life, Lenswork would win hands down but that's a matter of personal taste, I realize, and not everyone else would agree, I'm sure. Being a traditional sort of guy who enjoys the fiddling perfectionism of large format and the sheer glee of watching a print come up in the developer I'm not likely to change to digital anything in the foreseeable future: I've spent the past 25 years as a computer programmer and after spending all day slaving over a hot keyboard the last thing I want to do is come home and boot up another box so I can participate in my 'reason for living', as my long-suffering wife calls my addition to photography. (Yeah, I do get a little grief about that... :))
I tend to avoid magazines which carry what I consider to be 'too much' emphasis on digital things, but I realize that I'm a small minority of a small minority to begin with and hard as I try I can't seem to make myself indignant about the rising digital tide. Publishers have to sell stuff or the magazines go away. Nevertheless, while I'm happier with magazines that place more emphasis (and devote more space to) darkroom-based photography, some small digital content doesn't bother me too much and I don't really feel a lack of a photography magazine which ignores it.
Mike
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
We've received alot of vague suggestions and to be honest when I have gone back to the people making suggestions we've frequently found that they have not looked at View Camra recently and were not really able to be very specific. One of them even told us he was unemployed and wanted to know if we would hire him.
The one worthwhile and specific comment was about proof reading and we have made a significant change. We have added an employee and her task, among many, is to proofread everything and then to send a PDF of the article back to the author before the issue goes to press as an additinal layer of proof reading. This began about 2 issues ago for each magazine - View Camera and CameraArts.
If there are more specific suggestions or article ideas please list them here in this forum or on our web site forum - www.viewcamera.com.
steve simmons
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
I have to mirror the [other] Mike's comments. And if Steve now has a proof reader, all the better. Thanks.
Mike
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
Although it's a UK publication, Black and White Photography is pretty good. It's not totally traditional, but there's a fair share of traditional stuff in there.
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
Steve..i've been enjoying the alternative process articles you've been running recently..please keep that series of articles going.
regards -andrew
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
I'm pleased to hear that a proof reader has been hired. While that is an improvement, better editing would enhance your magazine. However, choice of writers that have the capability of editing their own work could be a way to go (if they exist?). An example would the poorly written article by Bruce Barlow. I wrote you a letter about this article but got no reply.
Traditional Black and White / View Camera Magazine / Kerfuffle
I specifically don't want a magazine that limits itself to just darkroom work. I think I can learn from both sides. I like the current View Camera, for example, which covers all of photography, both "traditional" and "digital" if you will. The full range of photography is interesting, and all the players can learn from each other, I think. But maybe that's just me.