May/June View Camera

[steve simmons]

Let's see if I can clarify a few things.

To Robert Zeichner. We have sent two letters to you in the last few weeks asking for your ss#, tax id number, etc. We are now required to have this. As soon as you respond with an invoice as we have asked that includes this information we will take care of things.

As to the comments that we don't listen to comments here that is incorrect. We have been asked to show the work of lesser known and younger photographers. The An-my and Janet Pritchard pieces are just that. You may or may like like the photos all the time but at least in the case of An-my she is now gettig a lot of attention in the art photo world for her work. You will be seeing and hearing a lot more about her in the coming months, and perhaps longer, and we are probebly one of the first magazines to show her work. We have received several e-mails on this article and all of them complimentary.We are always looking for photogrpahers who are not yet well known or just becoming known to show in View Camera. This is a constant search and we enjoy this process

We have been asked to show how photogrpahers are earning a living or making money with their work. The piece by McGrath on his panoramas is just that.

We have been asked to improve delivery to Canada. Last fall we found a company that takes magazines from the printer, trucks them to Canada, and then puts them directly into the Canadian postal system. Since we started this we rarely have a complaint from anyone in Canada not getting their magazine.

As for delivery in the US - well, if anyone here has control of the US postal system please help us. It is not possible for someone in California and Illinois to get their magazines on the same day. The are mailed from the printing company in Kentucky and we are dependent on the postal systyem to get them to our readers. We have worked consistently with our printer and the postal system to make this process as efficient as possible. The magazines are mailed periodical rate which is the old second class. It takes time.

We did an article just a few years ago on a photographer who used a speed graphic to cover the 2004 presidential compaign. Many of his images appeared in Time magazine using this camera.

We did not include the Epson product in the scanning article becasue Epson repeatedly promised to send one and did not do so. Becasue of the interest in scanning we decided to go ahead with the article and followup with the Epson prodct later if they make one available. The article clearly says this.

steve simmons

[Jay W]

I agree that if you don't like the current content of the magazine, then write an article...or at least give Steve a list of ideas you'd like to see in print. I write articles on occasion for a regional magazine, and it's very time consuming. Usually articles are not finished, they're abandonned...and you hope the editor finds the glaring mistakes. I really respect folks who write an article every month, and it's hard to imagine writing for a daily.

[Walt Calahan]

"You see, ya can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself" Ricky Nelson

Having worked in newspapers and magazines all my life (other than being a janitor in the early years), it is a wonder publications come out at all, let alone with no mistakes. There are so many chefs in the kitchen, all claiming they have the real answer to what the readers "want", and so many steps in the process to ink on paper that can go wrong, it's amazing the darn fool bundles of pulp make it into readers' hands.

Complain complain complain - HEY, don't read it and move on. I don't like every issue of Aperture, but I still subscribe. I don't like every issue of Contact Sheet, but I keep sending money to Light Works. I don't always nail my eskimo roll, but I still subscribe to Paddler magazine.

Me, I've got pictures to make, when I'm not sea kayaking.

[David Luttmann]

Or Steve could just ignore the stuff coming up in these threads.....afterall, what is the loss of 30 or 40 readers already in love with large format compared to a readership of 12,000 or so just beginning their passion.

These threads are tired!

[Tim Hyde]

Whew.! Now that we have gone through that seasonal Shirley Jackson ritual, we can all get back to work. Thanks everybody.

[BrianShaw]

Why don't we start now and beat up the July/Aug 2006 ViewCamera. Why wait until it is published?

I'm being sarcastic, folks. Let's admit it... Steve might still make a few mistakes but he has been listening and is making efforts to improve upon the criticisms that are presented here and on other forums.

[Jim Jirka]

Doug :

Don't like the magazine, don't buy it. Don't understand the content, then educate yourself.

It isn't OP. Some of the content you have to think about.

[Richard Schlesinger]

Once again Brian Ellis can pretty much speak for me! I think I should arrnage just to have a kind of ditto added to his posts.

One addendum, however. I haven't renewed to the magazine, but probably will as there is no alternative. I certainly agree that I wouldn't want the job ofputting the thing together. But then again, I can't do much of anything very well but when I pay to have something (a magazine in this case) done I do expect they will supply a 'professional' product. PhotoTechniques for my money offers fairly often some usable information.

[Greg Miller]

To steal someone else's words: The definition of insanity: To repeat the same process over and over and expect a different result.

[Frank Petronio]

Yeah, it's like a wife you should have divorced a long time ago... ain;t much point in picking at the putrid festering boil of the magazine world when the only result is more pus!