View Camera Magazine, Special Edition

[Jan Pedersen]

My mailman delivered a nice surprice today.
September/October issue of View Camera Magazine with 59 unpublished plates by Paul Caponigro.
Print quality is the best i have ever seen in a View Camera mag.
Worth bying for those who don't have a subscription.

[Jim Graves]

I haven't received mine yet ... but it is just crazy to me that this community doesn't support VC magazine better than it does. I understand that some have had personal issues that get in the way of subscribing ... but this is the only publication that supports LF ... and has for over 20 years. The recent quality has been excellent. Frank Petronio's recent article is a great example.

I am about to sell a few years of duplicates that I have acquired and I went through them to list what is included ... I was stunned by the number of photographers represented, the volume and variety of photos, and the weatlth of articles on equipment and different processes.

Buying a magazine off the rack doesn't really do a lot of good ... most of the money goes to the store and distributor ... if you really want to keep the magazine going you have to subscribe. And with the recent recession, advertising has dried up ... so subscriptions become critically important.

[Merg Ross]

I haven't received mine yet ... but it is just crazy to me that this community doesn't support VC magazine better than it does. I understand that some have had personal issues that get in the way of subscribing ... but this is the only publication that supports LF ... and has for over 20 years. The recent quality has been excellent. Frank Petronio's recent article is a great example.

I am about to sell a few years of duplicates that I have acquired and I went through them to list what is included ... I was stunned by the number of photographers represented, the volume and variety of photos, and the weatlth of articles on equipment and different processes.

Buying a magazine off the rack doesn't really do a lot of good ... most of the money goes to the store and distributor ... if you really want to keep the magazine going you have to subscribe. And with the recent recession, advertising has dried up ... so subscriptions become critically important.

Jim, I agree with your remarks, and was an early subscriber. The recent issues have been excellent. Congratulations to Steve Simmons for persevering in these difficult economic times, and for continuing to deliver such a fine product to the large format community.

I look forward to receiving the Caponigro issue, knowing that it was a long time in planning. A published portfolio of that size is very rare.

As to your final point, perhaps Steve should cease offering the newstand option, as Brooks Jensen did with Lenswork. View Camera is certainly worthy of a strong subscriber base.

[Vaughn]

Definitely worth supporting! Looking forward to my copy!

[Drew Bedo]

My copy came on Saturday. What an issue. Its a little like the old Lens Work but without all the editorial filler.

The aluminum foil images were intriguing,. The window image is my favorite. I feel that I have received what should be a limited edition photo-book, in my mail box for <<$10!

[Louie Powell]

I haven't received mine yet ... but it is just crazy to me that this community doesn't support VC magazine better than it does. I understand that some have had personal issues that get in the way of subscribing ... but this is the only publication that supports LF ... and has for over 20 years.


Some people just like to bitch about everything.

I agree with Jim - VC is the ONLY magazine that consistently supports large format photographers and needs our support. Yes, it's not perfect - but it arrives regularly.

[Eric Biggerstaff]

I can't wait to see it! Hopefully mine will arrive this week. I know this issue has been in the works for several months and it sounds like it will be a treat.

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

[QUOTE=.. but it is just crazy to me that this community doesn't support VC magazine better than it does. I understand that some have had personal issues that get in the way of subscribing ...

You might call it a personal issue, but I have another name for it when you are charged
$ 70 a year for a foreign subscribtion and only every other issue surfaces. I was a loyal subscriber for 18 years from the first issue.

[Bob Kerner]

As to your final point, perhaps Steve should cease offering the newstand option, as Brooks Jensen did with Lenswork. View Camera is certainly worthy of a strong subscriber base.

I think that would be a tragedy. I subscribed years ago but stopped. As I recall, I'd go a long time without seeing a delivery. But my memory might be faulty.

Recently I started looking for it at my local bookstores and was told they stopped carrying it due to low volume sales. I quick email and a member of Steve's staff sent me a free copy to review. I understand the importance of subscription support but there is also another reason why maintaining newstand/bookstore sales are important: a lot of people don't want every issue of every magazine. They want to go to the store, scan the table of contents and then decide whether to take it home. I only purchase what I know I'll read.

That said, I'll probably re-subscribe if for know other reason than the closest bookstore that still carries it is a 30 minute car ride away.

[lilmsmaggie]

That said, I'll probably re-subscribe if for know other reason than the closest bookstore that still carries it is a 30 minute car ride away.

And this is precisely why I became a new subscriber last week. Not only is the closest bookstore that carries VC magazine at least 45 minutes away but it is located in a very traffic congested area in a shopping mall! Gets a bit disappointing to drive all that way in traffic only to find that the latest issue hasn't arrived yet, even when the web site says it was shipped to stores in time to be on the stand when you arrived.

But its not the bookstores fault -- that distinction belongs to the distributor.
The publisher and the bookstores are at the mercy of the distribution chain and have very little control over delivery.

Ditto with mail systems. All mail systems and Post Offices are not created equal.
Some areas in the world have very good, dependable mail service and some go wanting. Mail delivery in some U.S. cities are the same way.

I would even venture to say that mail delivery may vary within the same zip code.

[mikebarger]

My copy arrived today!

[Joe O'Hara]

I received my copy today and I have to say that it is really excellent. The quality of the reproductions is particularly good. The photographs, of course, speak for themselves. My thanks to the publisher and all those who made this possible!

[lilmsmaggie]

My copy and first issue as a subscriber arrived today as well!

[Jeremy Graves]

Nice to see an extended body of work in print form without a long interview about what the unpublished images might mean.

[ari velazco]

I wish there was a reasonable way of getting those here (Philippines).

[gphoto120]

I hope mine arrives soon. Sounds like a great issue!

[Louie Powell]

I just got the latest View Camera issue.

I don't care what the cover dates are - this is one that I am definitely going to keep. Wow!

[Merg Ross]

I just got the latest View Camera issue.

I don't care what the cover dates are - this is one that I am definitely going to keep. Wow!

Wow, indeed! Congratulations to Steve and, of course, Paul.

[Joel Brown]

Just got my copy. I may even frame the cover shot.!

[Capocheny]

What an issue! Couldn't decide which of the 59 plates are my favorite but there sure are some GREAT images there.

Couldn't agree more with Jim and Merg... we should be supporting a resource such as V/C!

Way to go Steve... keep it up! :)

Cheers

[Gary L. Quay]

I got mine last weekend. The print quality was definately high. Which reminds me, I need to renew this month.

I saw a few copies of View Camera at a Barnes & Nobles in Beaverton, OR. a few weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised.

--Gary

[Flauvius]

In light of the high esteem that many members of this forum have for Steve Simmons' "View Camera Magazine", I propose that this formum's administrators extend "an olive branch" and invite Steve to rejoin this forum.

Steve is a good man, he is passionate about his work and his absence from this forum is a loss for all of us who respect, if not always accept, Steve's points of view. Indeed, how many of us have had the experiences, and conducted the high profile interviews, that Steve has to his credit?

Certainly, we can not deny that becasue of Steve's long and expansive photographic background, his particaption on this forum would make this forum an even more vauable resource of informtion for the art and practice of large format photography.

Robert J. Triffin. "Flauvius"
Drexel Hill, PA

* I have no affliation with Steve other than I subscribe to his "View Camera Magazine", and I have meet him a few times over the past twenty years.

[Renato Tonelli]

A beautiful issue. I have almost every issue from the early years when the magazine was very thin; I remember being excited by the mere fact that there was a publication dedicated to large format. Publishing this type of magazine has to be a labour of love - it wouldn't have survived this long if it were otherwise.

[tgtaylor]

I picked-up my copy from the post office last night after returning from shooting the annual lighting of the Fresnel at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse on the California Coast. GREAT ISSUE!

[Merg Ross]

In light of the high esteem that many members of this forum have for Steve Simmons' "View Camera Magazine", I propose that this formum's administrators extend "an olive branch" and invite Steve to rejoin this forum.

Steve is a good man, he is passionate about his work and his absence from this forum is a loss for all of us who respect, if not always accept, Steve's points of view. Indeed, how many of us have had the experiences, and conducted the high profile interviews, that Steve has to his credit?

Certainly, we can not deny that becasue of Steve's long and expansive photographic background, his particaption on this forum would make this forum an even more vauable resource of informtion for the art and practice of large format photography.

Robert J. Triffin. "Flauvius"
Drexel Hill, PA

* I have no affliation with Steve other than I subscribe to his "View Camera Magazine", and I have meet him a few times over the past twenty years.

Robert, although you make valid comments about Steve Simmons and his contributions to the large format community, I question why he would have an interest in again being a member of this forum.

When I received the current issue of View Camera magazine, I recalled an inscription on a photograph by Edward Weston given to his friend Merle Armitage in 1932: "Others talk while Merle acts". Merle published the first book of Edward Weston photographs that year.

Steve has also acted, with a departure from anything previously published on the work of Paul Caponigro. Not only are the images published for the first time, more than one-half are from the 1950's and 1960's, the formative years of Paul's long and distinguished career. To present such a body of work, beautifully reproduced, is a tribute to the publisher, with due credit to the designer, Eleanor Caponigro.

Well done!

[Vaughn]

Yes, very well done!

[ari velazco]

Can someone please get me this issue? I will pay for the issue and shipping to my country. Please, please. :) :)

[Jim Graves]

Ari ... I believe they have them down at the local book store here ... I'll check tomorrow and pick up the remaining copies. I'll contact you directly if I get one. Anybody else want one????? Jim in Sacramento

[ari velazco]

Thank you very much Jim. Truly appreciated.

[David Hedley]

Ari ... I believe they have them down at the local book store here ... I'll check tomorrow and pick up the remaining copies. I'll contact you directly if I get one. Anybody else want one????? Jim in Sacramento

Jim - yes please, if you can find an extra copy.

Thanks

David

[Richard Wasserman]

I've been thrilled with the current issue of View Camera magazine. Paul Caponigro is one of my all-time favorite photographers, and has been since the 1970's when I first saw his work and had the pleasure of meeting him. Steve Simmons has done a great service for the photographic community and I applaud him for it. Thank you!

[Richard K.]

I picked up an extra copy for you at the newsstand just in case. Let me know if you want it :)

$995 + shipping...er...make that $9.95 (the actual sticker price here in Canada at Chapters book store) + $7 (the actual honest real true postage for magazine in protective cardboard wrap) + 5 cents towards my gas, labels, tape = $17

If you are in Canada, then postage is $3.39

[Jim Galli]

Dang it! I was hoping to purchase those pictures in a garage sale in Fresno a few years from now, and Steve went and published them!

Bravo Steve! A beautiful issue that will be treasured!

[Tyler Boley]

anyone in the N.W. got there's yet? I subscribed a month ago or so specifically to get this... not here yet, so just wondering if my subscription went through...
Hate to bug them if it's on it's way.
Thanks.
By the way, the man his own self-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQYeKmmJA4k

so much admiration for him and of course his work.
Tyler

[Jim Graves]

Tyler ... thanks for posting that ... very nice.

[pnplibi]

Boise, Idaho arrived last Saturday.

[Tyler Boley]

all rapidly straightened out, issue on the way, thanks all...
Tyler

[R Shaffer]

Got mine last week. And would have to concur, this is another outstanding issue. Mr Simmons has certainly made huge strides this year improving the magazine. The issue with Keith Taylor's gum printing article is a personal favorite and now this.

WOW. I'll be keeping my subscription.

[William McEwen]

Beautifully printed. It couldn't have been cheap.

[Richard K.]

Very nice reproductions. Glad to see that it was mostly photographs and hence no typos in this "Speciasl" issue (see cover)...:rolleyes: :)

[briphoto]

Wow!! Great Paul Caponigro issue of View Camera Magazine. How does one get those black backgrounds for still lifes?

[SW Rick]

It's a great issue, and well-executed- what a treat to see the Caponigro portfolio!

[Jim Noel]

What difference does it make what Steve prints. It is impossible to get a copy. It does not appear on the magazine stand and three years ago I handed him my subscription with cash to pay for it and even after more than half a dozen phone calls, I have yet to see a copy.

[Jan Pedersen]

Jim, Not impossible, PM me your address and i will go get you a copy :)
Seriously!

[Ektarmax]

What I find significant is that for the first time in the history of the magazine, the typography and design doesn't make me cringe. He ought use a real designer all the time.

[dasBlute]

Nothing else like the magazine. I resubscribed recently, glad to have it.
Lots of info, an invaluable resource, always welcome in my mailbox.
Good to see someone like Caponigro getting some much space...

[David E. Rose]

Steve- how about a hardbound book edition?

[lloyd]

anyone willing to grab up and ship a copy of this--I can't find this locally.....thanks

[Eric Biggerstaff]

For anyone who wants an issue but cannot find it locally, you an always contact View Camera directly and they will send one out via the mail.

Contact is amiles@viewcamera.com or 505-899-8439

This issue is a great one and worth having if you are a Caponigro fan.

[sanking]

I join in congratulating Steve for a very nice issue. It is good to see Steve getting some nice comments for his work with View Camera. There is no question but that View Camera magazine has played an important role, unique in many ways, in keeping LF in the forefront for over two decades, and in publishing portfolios and work by many contemporary workers.

Sandy King

[Jim Fitzgerald]

I managed to find the issue at a Borders in Goleta, California. I must say it is an impressive issue.

Jim

[Drew Bedo]

Ok: I've got my copy of this special issue in the mmail . . .where is the subscriber's password/code number so I can access the subscriber's section of the website?

[Merg Ross]

Ok: I've got my copy of this special issue in the mmail . . .where is the subscriber's password/code number so I can access the subscriber's section of the website?

Drew, have you tried the password from the previous issue? I believe that may work, not sure.

Just checked, the password is on the spine of the Caponigro issue.

[Drew Bedo]

Hello Meg.

There it is!

Thanks for the sharp eyes . . .I amlegally blind and don't see half of what I look at!

[Frank Petronio]

I think the new issue speaks volumes to the power of having a good graphic designer, they all should be this quality.

[anglophone1]

Frank
Just subscribed to get this issue, which means in Europe you buy this years issues, good thing too as I gotiJuly/August with your excellent article and images. Really nice and now I can see a bit more where you're at, interesting!!

[Tyler Boley]

Imagine the subscription fee for a magazine whose every issue is designed by Eleanor Caponigro or a peer. Come on. I was a subscriber to View Camera from the beginning, though I did let it lapse for a few years. It has never occurred to me to allow my attention to drift to design quality with this magazine, since it was the only magazine of it's kind with content devoted to my interests, whenever it came in the mail you could immediately write me off for a few hours at least. When endeavours of every kind involved in pursuits related to this membership are dropping like flies around us every day, View Camera is still managing to be there, somehow.
So now when the most beautiful publication aligned with our interests I have seen in maybe a decade hits the streets, a stunning example of the very esthetics we expound, we're bitching about fonts?
So you say Steve's a little cranky? Really?
Tyler

[Frank Petronio]

Ugh... because I know Steve will not respond well to constructive criticism but yes, to me at least, respect for design and at least the craft, if not the cutting edge, of typography and layout should mesh with the same value system that respects a finely crafted B&W large format print. Slamming something out with little regard to the design could be considered disrespectful and a big turn-off -- better photographers who want to control their work wouldn't want to be published in a magazine that comes off as unprofessional.

It doesn't have to be Eleanor designing it. It's really just a basic level of craft that's needed, a basic 101-course level newsletter design, perhaps a good designer providing a template and occasional advice?

Do you really think Paul Caponigro would have let his images be published without considering the quality of the design? He probably talked Eleanor into doing it as a precondition to publishing his images.

I think design matters. It's probably responsible for half the praise this issue is getting, even if it's not acknowledged outright then subconsciously it is appreciated.

For that matter, if it were designed nicer, it could sit on the shelf on par with other art magazines and definitely sell better than it is now.

[Tyler Boley]

Frank, I don't think that's what I was saying at all. There's a lot of mileage between the varying quality of the production values of View Camera over the years, and "Slamming something out with little regard to the design".
As someone who was in the Mead Show and AR100 year after year, I think it's safe to say I think design matters.
So that's it? Not the slightest of slack here? Middle ground? Gray area? Man, this place is brutal.
Tyler

[Frank Petronio]

So that's it? Not the slightest of slack here? Middle ground? Gray area? Man, this place is brutal.


Sure, plenty of slack. Just read what I wrote....


It doesn't have to be Eleanor designing it. It's really just a basic level of craft that's needed, a basic 101-course level newsletter design, perhaps a good designer providing a template and occasional advice?

Hey I already know he won't take my comments the right way, but the intent is to encourage him to keep up the nice quality design and extra attention to proofing that this last issue had. It doesn't require an expensive designer or more than a few hours, it's just a little effort for an important gain.

[John Powers]

Sure, plenty of slack. Just read what I wrote....



Hey I already know he won't take my comments the right way, but the intent is to encourage him to keep up the nice quality design and extra attention to proofing that this last issue had. It doesn't require an expensive designer or more than a few hours, it's just a little effort for an important gain.

And how much time does Spell Check take?

It was a wonderful issue. What a pleasant change.

John

[Mark Sawyer]

Yes, it's a wonderful issue, from a wonderful journal. Paul Caponigro has published new work in VC on multiple occasions; if it's good enough for him to contribute to, it's more than good enough for me to appreciate.

And if I can expect a monograph from a single artist like this each year, all the more reason to keep supporting a fine publication.

[Merg Ross]

Yes, it's a wonderful issue, from a wonderful journal. Paul Caponigro has published new work in VC on multiple occasions; if it's good enough for him to contribute to, it's more than good enough for me to appreciate.

And if I can expect a monograph from a single artist like this each year, all the more reason to keep supporting a fine publication.

Some have supported the publication from the start, over two decades; perhaps this current issue is our reward. I wonder how many of those singing the praise of this issue, have supported the publication through the years.

There is no doubt that this issue is a high point in the history of View Camera. However, think about the planning, the cost, the design and printing; could such a product be expected as an annual monograph?

If one has such expectations, then your support is imperative. It is easy to criticise and opine. However, the future and quality of the publication depends a great deal on this group, and others interested in large format photography.

[CarstenW]

I have subscribed internationally, i.e. the online edition, for nearly a year now, and have turned a blind eye to spelling errors, wild layout variation, inconsistent and confusion file naming conventions, and about the least friendly online section of any website I know, since the content is very interesting.

However, since the switch to Flash I cannot access the content any more, and my email plea to the support email has gone unanswered. I cannot see the content in Safari, Firefox or Chrome, with the latest Flash plugin (10.1). Does anyone know a way around this? As far as I can see, the PDF download links are only presented from inside the Flash plugin, i.e. I cannot see them.

[André Michaud]

My subscription has been paid for this magasine in April 2010.I receive only
one number of this mag. I am anxious and hope to receive this one.
thanks Mr Simmons

[ari velazco]

My copy came in the mail today. Would like to thank Jim Graves for the trouble of getting and mailing me a copy of this awesome issue. I always had back issues and for the first time I have a current :)

From the Philippines to Jim, Mabuhay!!

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a175/arivelazco/397f25ea.jpg

[Jim Graves]

Ari ... Walang anuman.

Jim

[Merg Ross]

Also available from the publisher for $25. Well worth it.

[Øyvind:D]

I found the easiest way to get it to Norway is to use newwstand at ebay, and I pay $15 shipping.

[GabrielSeri]

Thanks for letting us know..not only did I order the issue but I also subscribed to the magazine.