I have long considered a subscription, but the price of international mail has p revented me so far. Would there be a way of making the magazine available in Europe at a better rate?
I have long considered a subscription, but the price of international mail has p revented me so far. Would there be a way of making the magazine available in Europe at a better rate?
Paul, I now get my copy from Robert White in the UK (who is the UK distributor) for GBP6.50 including postage. It probably wouldn't be much more to send it to Switzerland. In Japan, this magazine was available off the shelf from Tower Records in Shibuya!
I'm looking forward to the upcoming issue given the previous discussions on this board (!), and it is disappointing that Tuan appears to have deleted that thread, although it did appear to be bordering on the litigious towards the end.
Overall, View Camera oscillates between very high quality (e.g portfolios such as David Fokos), and fairly banal and badly written word-spinning, but it has an overall air of zealous honesty which I find endearing. The current approach and balance would be difficult to change, but Steve Simmons could do well to introduce some non-American photographers - there are many Japanese LF photographers who produce excellent work - if Steve were to contact the Tokyo Museum of photography at Ebisu, I am sure that they would be very helpful in arranging introductions, etc.
Thanks David! I'll have a look at this offer.
OK, I'll throw my 2 cents worth in...
I have to say, I really like the magazine's format. It's impossible to come up with a publication that covers everything, but I think Steve does a good job of touching on a lot of different things.
The portfolios and discussions with the photographers are interesting and pretty well done. I wouldn't change that much, except I'd really like to see a bit more discussion about how each photographer makes their images. As another poster said, a "day in the life" type of thing with a little more technical information about why a specific lens/film/process combination wwas chosen. It might also be nice to see a section later in the magazine with a couple of the images that didn't make the cut and a small description of why the photographer chose one version of an image over another. These images could obviously be smaller and of lower quality reproduction. The effect would be something similar to other magazines that have smaller thumbnails near the end of the publication with a description of how the image was made.
Also, I'd disagree with some here who said they'd like less reading material and more photos. I love examining the photos, but I always feel like I'm finished with the magazine much too soon for a publication that only comes out every other month. I'd like a little more substance to tide me over until my next ViewCamera "fix"!
(and like several others, Thank you Steve for putting out this fine magazine)
The "swimsuit issue" idea may have been a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I think it might be interesting to do a piece from the _VC_ perspective on Peter Gowland. Aside from his influence on commercial glamour and advertising photography in defining the _Playboy_ style of the 1970s, he wrote many popular books for amateur photographers that affected the way ordinary people looked at themselves through the camera, and he's designed some very interesting large format cameras (Gowlandflex TLR, the ultralight Pocket View, some arial cameras, and others).
I have an 8x10" Pocket View, and have ordered some parts from him, and he's a very accessible, generous guy who loves to talk about his cameras and to help people with them. He is always making improvements to them.
Steve, my only input concerns an aspect you have virtually no control over. This thread (and the one that spawned it) have been around for how long now? My issue only arrived with yesterday's mail delivery! Since the USPS has caved in and made a deal with FedEx, maybe you could negotiate one with them too?
Boy, what a thread. A fair number of reasonably good suggestions and several incredibly dorky ones that are almost embarrassing to read.
I'd like to see more articles about what LF photographers eat for breakfast. Edward Weston liked Rice Chex. I like Wheaties mixed with Rice Chex, especially after its sat for a while and gets a little soppy. I'm guessing Ansel didnt shy away from the bacon and eggs
I'm sorry, that should have been wheat chex. tsk, tsk. So I'm also fond of hops.
Just found this thread, but I thought I'd contribute a few thoughts of my own.
For one thing, I can actually attribute some of my original interest in large format photography to a single issue of View Camera my father got for me while on a business trip about 2 1/2 years ago (during my sophmore year in high school). Since then, I have bought and devoured every issue and have gained much from the magazine. Yeah, some issues are better than others, but when you compare it to other, more mainstream photography magazines (Popular Photography and the like), it's pretty easy to tell that it really is on a much higher level overall. Steve Simmons has done a great job of creating a wonderful publication and has managed to keep it going strongly despite the relatively small number of photographers that it goes to.
What kind of articles would I like to see? I think Micah pretty much addressed everything I would like to see, and quite well I might add. I understand the amount of effort and time required to create a magazine like View Camera, and that will limit what can be done with it, but I'm sure that there are plenty of people who would be happy to volunteer their time and effort if it meant making an already great publication even better. I really like the idea of a single photograph from and a paragraph about lesser known, not necessarily professional, but still talented LF shooters. Also, and it might seem sort of amateurish, but as Bill Lange pointed out above, a critique of a few photos from readers might be nice. Practical Photography, a British photography magazine, does this in every issue and it's actually pretty interesting to read.
Finally, as far as photographers I'd like to see profiled, I think there's only one that I can think of that I'd really like to see something about- Clyde Butcher. If you're not familiar with him, he does pretty amazing stuff in the Florida Everglades with cameras up to 12x20, which is no simple task.
That's about it from me.
This is a remark on Dave's comment. If you are going to volunteer your time and effort, do it to help this site, not View Camera. View Camera, like any magazine, has already advertising revenue and of course charges subcription fees, so if you do something for them, it wouldn't be fair for you not to be compensated. On the other hand, I maintain this site without any compensation (besides the amazon referal fees, which are pocket money), do not resort to commercialization (in particular banner adds), take care of this forum despite the abuse that I receive periodically, format contributions in HTML, write articles, all this just for the satisfaction of serving the Large Format community. I would certainly welcome any help.
The main difference that I see between View Camera and this site is that View Camera has an easier access to established photographers. They are happy to be featured in the magazine, which has a high standard of quality, but they would not be interested by being featured on this site for a variety of reasons. Besides that, I don't see why some of the excellent suggestions of Micah couldn't be used here as well.
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