Quick Survey: Photo Magazines

[martin diedrich]

Another vote for the UK magazine "B&W Photography", which
has great photography, good advice on practical and
technical issues, and a balanced approach to film and
digital, with a regular strand of LF discussions. The magazine
is run by an enthusiastic editorial team who have managed
to create a monthly magazine that has real "personality".
I have read it since Issue 1 and enjoy every issue.

Web:
http://www.thegmcgroup.com/item--Bla...y--1003BW.html

This UK publication is entirely different from the US magazine
"B&W Magazine" (http://www.bandwmag.com/), which I think
is more collector-oriented.

Martin

[John Kasaian]

View Camera (a gift subscription from my Bride!) Film and chemicals seem to gobble up my magazine money---hey, thats not a bad thing, is it? I do enjoy taking gander at B&W( the UK version) Lens Work, and Photo Techniques when Borders gets them in, but chemicals & film get the $$$.

[paulr]

I gave up when Doubletake went under. Now I mostly look at Aperture at the newstands, or at the various cool online zines (like Seasaw).

Hellen, thanks for the heads-up on DoubleTake/Points of Entry. I read about it first right here and now!

Frank, I'm happy to see you mentioning Alpinist. My all-time favorite magazine of any kind. Do you climb things?

They're actually not Californian ... published by Christian Beckwith, right in Jackson, Wyoming. I plan to resubscribe when I have some cash flow again. They need every penny they can get. Right now they're sustained by a single investor. The handful of ads and subscriptions hardly makes a dent in their lavish printing costs. Which is why it's kind of an like art mag. Which must be why we're talking about it here.

[Hans Berkhout]

VC issues from the newsstand. Not so much to learn, more to see what others do. PhotoTechniques subscription, probably for one more year. Mainly interested in writings by Vestal, Bond and the retired Kodak people, forgot their names. Invisible editor, no clear direction. Equipment reviews usually end with reviewer stating that the reviewed item is now part of his/her outfit.

[Darin Boville]

Hey,

The new B&W just came in today--cover is old Bob Dylan images.

I'll let others supply the needed commnetary.

--Darin

[Jim MacKenzie]

Popular Photography... for years, although the film content is getting very thin (I don't shoot digital). This subscription will likely be allowed to lapse.
Black and White Photography (UK)... just subscribed. To use the lingo, I was gobsmacked by June's issue, which I bought to read on a boring flight to Toronto. It ate up a good chunk of the time.
View Camera... just subscribed. Got a stack of back issues with my recent 4x5 system purchase and this magazine is well worth supporting.
Photo Life (Canada)... Consistently good and very inexpensive since I actually live in Canada

I get Chasseur d'Images occasionally, although it's hard to find here. I picked up an issue in Montreal in May - it wasn't as good as the magazine was four or five years ago but it was still good.

I sometimes buy Practical Photography, Photography Monthly or Outdoor Photography (all UK). They are all quite good. Practical used to be my favourite magazine but again, the digital content is just getting too high. I don't care about digital. (Yes, I know I'm in a tiny minority, but it's my right to be different. )

[Michael Graves]

View Camera, Infoworld, Writer's Post Journal (an absolutely MARVELOUS literary journal, if you like fiction), Missouri Review and PC Magazine.

Sorry. Only one photo magazine.

[Jim Chinn]

I quit subscribing to all magazines last year. I found that there was always a few issues of each mag during the year I would have left on the shelf at the bookstore, so it costs the same or is chaeper to buy off the shelf. Also as time goes by it simply seems you see the same photographers with the same images repeated in different magazines and a lot of content I now find uninteresting.

The problem with subscribing is I have a bad habit of subscribing just before they go out of business. After buying Camera and Darkroom off the shelf for a few years in the late 80s and early 90s I subscribed and then after 2 issues they went under. Same with Photovision. I subscribed and got stuck with finishing my subscription with Outdoor Photogrpaher, fine for some but not something I was remotely interested in. I do plan on subscribing to Emulsion when it comes out. (Hope I am not the kiss of death for that effort).

I do buy Lens Work and View Camera on a pretty regualr basis and maybe half a years worth of B&W. I used to buy the British magazine Black and White Photography but most of the technical stuff (at least film and wet printing related) has been discussed in back issues of any number of mags or books I have sitting on the shelf. The rest of the content makes it hard to justify the $10 price tag per issue.

As far as camera reviews or digital information, I find the internet to be much more timely and informative then an issue of Pop Photo or Shutterbug and ever changing technology makes such magazines worthless to save for future reference.

Borders of course is a God send for budget conscious folks. With a few minutes on the way home and a cup of coffee I can still read David Vestal in Photo Techniques, look through Camera Arts, Zoom, PDN, Aperture and Blind Spot. Sometimes I pick up a copy of Art in America, Sculpture or Art on Paper and leaf through issues of Modern Painters, Art Review, Metalsmith and Art News.

All in all I have taken all the money I used to spend on buying magazines and use it to buy books containing photographs. I find books a much better investment and provide more long term enjoyment compared to magazines.

[Richard Kelham]

Blind Spot

Next Level

Aperture occasionally

Nothing else regularly.

I miss DoubleTake, but haven't read DoubleTake/Points of Entry.

Living in the past, I still re-read Ten·8. Nothing quite like it. Those were the days.

I'll second Next Level (and Portfolio) as they are usually on my list, along with BJP, and Black & White (UK). Ag and View Camera are the only ones I subscribe to. Haven't seen a copy of Aperture for a while but Borders have opened a branch in Norwich so they might have it...

When in France I used to buy a copy of Photo. Is it still published?

Like Helen I still miss Ten8.

[David G. Gagnon]

Subscribe to Photo Techniques and Shutterbug. Occasionally I'll buy a View Camera at Barnes and Noble if it looks interesting enough. I have to time my trip to B&N just right as that's the only store near me that carries it and once the current issue is gone, they don't seem to reorder.

DG