I must echo Bob. I read this forum often but post rarely. It's downright unbelievable the maturity level in here when it comes to View Camera and Ron Wisner. If you like to see your thoughts in print, go somewhere else.
j
I must echo Bob. I read this forum often but post rarely. It's downright unbelievable the maturity level in here when it comes to View Camera and Ron Wisner. If you like to see your thoughts in print, go somewhere else.
j
My two cents; the images are the most important aspect of the magazine, and the text secondary! If the article are of value, and the images are good, then the magazine will succeed at its goal of helping us see more of what is happening in the field of large format photography. My sense is that there is so little now to look at, that I am thankful for any info I can get, including View Camera magazine. It is not perfect, but there are not many alternatives either!
Chad Jarvis wrote:
"There can be no excuse for spelling errors. "
I agree. I don't understand why any criticism of View Camera magazine always elicits an emotional response from people who regard it as "bashing Steve." And I also don't understand why anyone would suggest that discussion of View Camera is out of place in a View Camera forum. There is nothing holy about either the publication or the editor, and pointing out its shortcomings is not a sin or character assassination.
As I have said here before, I subscribe to View Camera and like it generally, but I have to agree with the person who said that it has the lowest standard of editing of any publication he has ever seen. As someone who spent several years editing articles for publication, I can tell you that I considered any mistake which appeared in print as my own mistake, for not catching it. The comment that Steve sends a PDF back to the authors for checking, as if that excused his own sloppiness, is ludicrous. Soliciting corrections to proofs from authors is no substitute for careful proofreading. Any mistake that appears in print is the editor's fault. That is what editors are for.
Most of the problems are spelling errors and could be caught in just a few short minutes by putting the text through a spelling checker, into which the most frequently encountered proper names and brand names have been entered. How long does it take to turn "Steiglitz" into Stieglitz--a couple of seconds? How long would it take to correct the spelling of an entire issue? Maybe an hour. More, of course, to fix grammatical and stylistic issues.
Okay, now you guys can tell me that I am a bad person for saying that an editor ought to edit.
Hey guys, we've got some real enemie out there to vent againest - like our government. If you want to look for errors look to a government program. With VC we all have the choice to buy or not to buy. The content is what I buy it for, it is not a "coffee table" show piece for me. One could buy some other photo rags that feature a few nice pics and loads of puff. Did the landscape guys loose all perspective???
Talk about priorities in the wrong place and pettiness....
We just watched "Hotel Rwanda" the other night showing the senseless murder of millions. How many people have died in Iraq??? Meanwhile our governement is taxing us to death and systematically disassembling our Consitution...
We (my family) have been trying to adopt children for 6 YEARS now. We can't because our county will not allow non white children to be adopted here...
I could go on and on for months like this. I'm sure people with sense get the idea...
But yes, the most important thing in life is a few spelling mistakes in VC...
Go ahead. Let your hair down. Tell us what you really think. Everyone else does.
There are times, in this day and age, when I feel it is absolutely the most remarkable thing that I can connect with an essence of something that is so much larger than myself - and that I can do this with a camera. To have a magazine whose underlying premise is to aknowledge the importance of this connection, that which Edward Weston referred to as "the flame of recognition" is also, in this day and age, a remarkable thing. To give contributers (to VC) a forum within which, in relative safety, they can express themselves, unfettered by the exigencies of "popular (commercial) culture" - who in other words can take the risk of falling flat on their faces as visual artists who are trying so hard to put into words that which can feel unexpressible by any means other than visual, and to be encouraged to take this risk - is the most remarkable thing of all. So to me it is the larger mission of View Camera which truly counts, and to the extent that it doesn't lose sight of this, that this continues to be delivered with each and every issue, I'm not going to sweat the small stuff.
Steve.
I posted a question in your forum on viewcamera.com about content in the magazine.
NO ANSWER. I have received an answer on it and its been over a month.
I am the art director of a nationally distributed magazine (I am NOT an editor) and even I would have caught at least 50% of your mistakes on a first read through. so I do have intimate knowledge of the process/industry/business.
It really is something that needs to be remedied and worked on. I am glad you all are at 100 issues and I hope it continues for a 100 more. It just needs to be more carefully and thoroughly edited. its unprofessional.
Have you all considered hiring an outside editor not connected with the industry and who could offer up a fresh set of eyes to help remedy the problem.
I personally would do it voluntarily...just for the love of language.
That's an offer, Steve.
Doug, three does not need to be capitalized in the first sentence of your post. The third block paragraph of your post is a fragmented sentence. You see, this argument is getting old. We all know of the misprints in VC and the apologies that Mr. Simmons must continue to make. The solution is simple....don't buy it! Spend your money on creative writing classes so we won't have to correct you anymore. The man is doing the large format community a service and I'm sure it is being done on a shoe string budget in comparison to larger rags such as "Time", "Sports Illustrated"... ect...ect. Personally I'm not so anal that I must point out every mistake and I can look past a few misspellings to get at the content. Large format photography is not at a point where we can bash anyone trying to make a contribution. We should be encouraging not defaming. It has gotten to the point that some just wait for VC to come out to find the slightest mistake to bring Mr. Simmons to task on. I also hope that in case your livelihood is ever called into question they take it up personally with you and not smear their complaints about you all over a public forum. Mr. Simmons, trust me, if I have any issues with your publication I will contact you personally.
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