A magazine dedicated to film photography?

[ted_smith]

For the last couple of years, I've been subscribed to Practical Photography magazine, which has helped me learn quite a bit. For the last 8 or 9 months, I've become increasingly tired of "Want to achieve photos like this?...learn how...with Photoshop!!" and I feel I've outgrown it since my learning experiences gained at APUG.org. The PP mag seems to be 40% "How to use Photoshop..." which I have no interest in.

I'm looking for a magazine, like APUG, that's dedicated and focused on traditional film photography and how to achieve effects by using films, filters, etc that are not via Photoshop.

I've read (there was a url link here which no longer exists) and I've found Black & White Photography but I'm not sure if that's just going to be a whole lot more of Photoshop desaturations?

Cheers

Ted

 

[Simplicius]

I'd like to know too

 

[pentaxuser]

There's some debate about B&W Photography's future direction in terms of analogue photography but it represents the best we have in the U.K for analogue photography. I am amazed you found anything that was analogue in P.P as recently as 8-9 months ago. I picked it up a good number of months ago mistaking it for B&W as the issue was about B&W( i.e. digi and PS B&W) and it looked like the B&W mag - we'll that my excuse for being in a hurry and not checking properly - and found that there was nothing and I mean nothing about analogue photography. It was as if analogue no longer exists! It was worse than nothing - it was like a denial that there is still some analogue photography.

It's B&W mag or nothing as far as I can see in the U.K. if you are analogue. Interestingly Nova Darkroom has reported an increase in analogue materials sales in 2008 but whether this will translate into viability for mags devoted even in part to analogue photography remains to be seen.

pentaxuser

 

[Tom Kershaw]

Pentaxuser,

It would seem that Nova didn't run a spelling / grammar check before publishing. I'm glad to see I'm not alone...

Tom.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

I gotta put in a plug here. We are just leaving our infancy and entering toddler-dom. But try out Creative Image Maker magazine. We focus completely on film photography, or as we say, dedicated to traditional photographic processes. We are growing in our contributorship. And we have some good technical pieces coming out. Glass plates. Daguerreotypes. Lith printing. Introductory Zone System. Not to mention the dozens of excellent articles in our archives. We offer a monthly .pdf for download and are kicking around a quarterly paper publication for little or no profit. We have no overhead other than time at this point so we can pretty much be true to ourselves. So check it out. The link is in my signature.

 

[VaryaV]

I gotta put in a plug here. We are just leaving our infancy and entering toddler-dom. But try out Creative Image Maker magazine. We focus completely on film photography, or as we say, dedicated to traditional photographic processes. We are growing in our contributorship. And we have some good technical pieces coming out. Glass plates. Daguerreotypes. Lith printing. Introductory Zone System. Not to mention the dozens of excellent articles in our archives. We offer a monthly .pdf for download and are kicking around a quarterly paper publication for little or no profit. We have no overhead other than time at this point so we can pretty much be true to ourselves. So check it out. The link is in my signature.

Hi Christopher - Thanks for posting the link to CIM mag. Wow- I would gladly pay a subscription to see this in a quarterly print. I don't know about others but I would. I have been ordering the old, old Aperture from Powells - Minor White days, just to get my hands on these precious babies..... such a treat. Thanks again - that is an exciting endevour.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Thank you for the kind words. As to a quarterly publication. It will be available from the same place as the .pdf downloads at the lulu storefront. It will just be an order for an actual book that you will need to pay and then it will be shipped to you. We're not at that point yet but we're working that general direction.

 

[ted_smith]

Chris

I'm glad you plugged your mag. This looks very promising. My only 'problem' is that I spend ages in front of computers as it is (at work and at home) and get fed up of the eye strain. I like to read my photography books and magazines on the train, or when sitting in the bath, or when staying in hotel rooms. In other words, I'm not drawn to an online version. I would love to see you get this in print somehow. I would certainly subscribe, as would others I'm sure.

PentaxUser - I didn't pick up Practical Photography for it's film content. I was subscribed to it since first going digital, but when I joined APUG about a year ago, I've steadily found PP to be less and less relevant to my interests. I recall the black and white edition you refer to as I also hoped there would be something about B&W film. The only reference I found was one of the expert photographers featured did say he shoots film, but other than that, nothing. Just a whole lot of "Move the slider here, then there..." Snore, snore.

Cheers

Ted

 

[Ian Grant]

I am amazed you found anything that was analogue in P.P as recently as 8-9 months ago. I picked it up a good number of months ago mistaking it for B&W as the issue was about B&W( i.e. digi and PS B&W) and it looked like the B&W mag - we'll that my excuse for being in a hurry and not checking properly - and found that there was nothing and I mean nothing about analogue photography. It was as if analogue no longer exists! It was worse than nothing - it was like a denial that there is still some analogue photography.

pentaxuser

Yes I bought that issue at Istanbul Airport to read on a flight and was shocked to see no mention of film at all. I won't make the mistake of buying it again.

I haven't seen B&W Magazine since my last visit to the UK, if it changes I'll let my subscription lapse, I gave it a chance, I notice the ex 2nd Editor stopped posting here instantly after he stepped down

Ian

 

[jasonhall]

Chris

I'm glad you plugged your mag. This looks very promising. My only 'problem' is that I spend ages in front of computers as it is (at work and at home) and get fed up of the eye strain. I like to read my photography books and magazines on the train, or when sitting in the bath, or when staying in hotel rooms. In other words, I'm not drawn to an online version. I would love to see you get this in print somehow. I would certainly subscribe, as would others I'm sure.

Cheers

Ted

Seems you could down load the PDF and print it off at home or um...at work
Then you could take it along and read it on the train or where ever. Just to bad the quality of the images would likely suffer greatly. The cost of printing it would be offset by the fact it is free to download.

Jason

 

[david b]

With the way the US and world economies are going, and the huge numbers of print magazines shutting down, it's just not feasible for anyone to attempt to put out any magazine, let alone one aimed at a very small niche market.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

We have been hearing more and more interest in something paper for CIM. However, it is not in place yet. David and I are planning to offer you folks to be able to purchase a quarterly paper version of the .pdf content along with a little something special to up the ante, so to speak. We should have an idea of what we will do with this in time to announce it in the March issue of the .pdf. Feel free to download and print out the .pdf's in the meantime. That's what they are there for.

 

[Louis Nargi]

Thank you for the kind words. As to a quarterly publication. It will be available from the same place as the .pdf downloads at the lulu storefront. It will just be an order for an actual book that you will need to pay and then it will be shipped to you. We're not at that point yet but we're working that general direction.

Thanks I'll take a look.

 

[firecracker]

In Japan, there are a few, and one of them is called "Camera magazine":

http://blog.sideriver.com/camera/

I read a couple of old issues of this magazine and found some ads of the shots were to sell film cameras and encourage darkroom printing, which was kind of nice. But now the magazne seems slowing down a bit, and I don't if it's a bi-monthly or quarterly or bi-annually magazine any more! Last year, in the spring and summer, it looked like it was bi-monthly, but now, since the last September, there has not been a new issue yet! Supposedly there's going to be a Feburary issue coming out soon...

 

[John Koehrer]

As others have mentioned 'niche market" Photo Techniques was the last magazine here in the states that had anything related to traditional photography. As mentioned by the OP 40% or more is now digital/ps crap.
In this area even View Camera has disappeared from the local booksellers shelves. I haven't looked at subscriptions to VC because they even had too much(IMO) digital but if they were to expand their articles to cover small & medium format they might be able to handle the "niche".
Perhaps as Lenswork did by going direct/subscription.

 

[vickersdc]

I see that Chris has beaten me to it(!) but I'd just like to add that since Creative Image Maker was started in January '08, we too have had ups and downs like other magazines - it's enormously hard work to put these articles together, but it's worth it when you see people reading the text and viewing the images.

I initially started CIM to provide photographers a channel to share information, to support each other and 'spread the love' ;-) The magazine is only about traditional (non-digital) photography and both Chris and myself really need the input from the photographic community to make it all work, so please take a look and provide us with your feedback, ideas, articles and images.

I need to be absolutely certain that there is enough demand to warrant spending out on publishing a paper copy - I know that I have received a few emails and I've seen comments that people would like a paper mag, but 20 or 30 individuals isn't convincing enough! So, if you want a paper mag... email me and tell me, then I'll have a much better idea of demand!

Anyway, all being well, Chris and I have got a real bumper treat for you around March time - until then, well you'll just have to wait!!

Thank you all for your support to-date.

 

[Bill Harrison]

EMULSIONMAGAZINE.org

 

[vickersdc]

Whilst the Emulsion Mag website is still up, you may be interested in this thread...

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=32436&highlight=emulsion+mag

It would suggest that Emulsion Magazine is no more. I've no idea about the truths behind the comments, and I definitely do not want to take over the thread discussing the merits, or otherwise, of this magazine. I put it here for your info only as I came across it the other day.

David.

 

[Romary]

I've read (there was a url link here which no longer exists) and I've found Black & White Photography but I'm not sure if that's just going to be a whole lot more of Photoshop desaturations?

Ted

I read B&W magazine every months, but i am not sure I like the direction this magazine have taken. Some pages about printing have dissapears and even if analog photogarphy is still present there are more more articles about digital. I was dissapointed about the article about the so-called cyanotype which were only cyano-photoshoped digital pics.

 

[Christopher Walrath]

Yes. I loved getting Ailsa'a magazine every month until the D-SLR comparisons ala POP crept in, replacing the darkroom bit they ran monthly. I knew it spelled the beginning of the end as a reliable FILM photography-ish magazine. I know the film-related content was not exclusive, but it stood in the vast majority for some time. I still look forward to the magazine, but it is cast in a different light than before. It has lost a bit of its luster for me.

 

[John Koehrer]

What's the paper/print quality like from LULU? Similar to the typical monthly with glossy papers or more comic book like?

 

[vickersdc]

Hi John,

I've heard differing things about the print / paper quality - unfortunately the only way to know is to buy a copy (and I don't mean that in a 'you'll have to buy a copy to find out' - I mean that even as the producer of these magazines, I won't know until I buy one. I spoke to Lulu to see if they would send out an example magazine, but they wouldn't).

It's a real conundrum, I plain and simply do not have the funds to produce a glossy magazine straight off. Several people have now said that they would like a paper version and Lulu does allow Chris and I to produce a paper copy in the interim.

We're about to make an announcement later this week anyway, so hold on. One step at a time...

 

[vickersdc]

So, here's the latest news for readers of Creative Image Maker...

"When I first came up with the idea of CiM in December 2007, it was because of several threads on the forums that showed that photographers were lamenting the demise of traditional photography in the magazines; even the few remaining magazines catering for film had begun to introduce digital articles. And so, Creative Image Maker was born in January 2008, dedicated solely to non-digital photographic processes and it will remain that way.


Since we relaunched at the start of 2009, I've been bowled over by the support you have shown towards Creative Image Maker as a whole; that support is in the form of just reading the articles in the PDF magazine that Chris puts together, sending us ideas or comments, or submitting articles and images. You may have seen on the Flickr group discussion that in all of November and December last year there were 1,600 page views on the CiM website; from January 1st to the 21st there were 5,000. That's three times as many pages served in just one third of the time! To me, something has happened, last year there was lots on interest in CiM but it was too big for me to handle, taking up too much of my time at the expense of my family.


This year it's different; between Chris and me we can work together (despite being several thousand miles apart) to bring you articles, images and inspiration for your own photography. There's a lot of interest from the readership and we thank you. But, it doesn't stop there - both myself and Chris are committed to building the magazine, and so here's the absolute latest news for you...

I'd like to welcome Rob Valine on to the team; you may know Rob from Flickr and he'll be writing a monthly article on 'something to do with photography' (that was the extent of the brief I gave him!).

The big news, the really big news though is all about March. Chris and I have both been working feverishly away, drinking cups of strong black coffee in a bid to work tirelessly to bring you... the option of a paper magazine. There I said it. In fact, not just one, but TWO!! Both magazines will be available from the Lulu storefront: http://stores.lulu.com/creativeimagemaker and you're probably asking why two?

Chris is going to put out, each quarter, a roundup of the magazines, as it happens this first one will be a bumper edition containing December through to March. Naturally this will be a paid for edition, so for all you people who requested a paper copy... it's coming!

The second magazine is a CiM Special. Put together by yours truly, it takes one element of photography and does it to death I jest of course, but it enables us to focus on one thing within the huge sphere of traditional photography, and this first issue is: Glass Plate Photography; featuring articles and images from museums, Denise Ross, Quinn Jacobsen, Michael Waite and a host of others. This will be available as a free download PDF, but also as a paper copy. I wanted to make this a 'special' for more than one reason though, and it crossed my mind that we could do goodly works with these specials when they come out, and so all proceeds from the sale of the Glass Plate Photography Special (well, the bit that Lulu doesn't take for printing) will go to charity.

At the time of writing I haven't decided on a charity, but it's very likely to be a charity local to me that provide disabled children a chance to get out, play and try out new experiences. Keep an eye on the website for up-to-date information. Chris has already selected his next two charities!

I hope that you are able to support CiM, provide cash to help disadvantaged kids and get a paper copy of the magazine special yourself. Everybody wins.

Finally, as if that wasn't enough, I'm also planning to start converting the articles on the website in to PDF files. The originals will remain there, but it struck me that as we run different articles in the PDF and the website, that you could actually create your own magazine! So, I plan to create a CiM front cover for you to download, then you can download the articles that interest you from the website; et voila! your very own tailored CiM magazine - now how's that for service with a smile!

It's fair to say that these are exciting times for both Chris and I, and we hope for your continued support - help us by letting your photographic friends know about Creative Image Maker and spread the word that there is an alternative to magazines filled with digital articles.

Thank you."

David Vickers.

 

[Chazzy]

Best of luck to you. If the Lulu option isn't too expensive, I plan to purchase one or both of the issues you mention. I just don't like to read magazines on a computer. If you build up a readership base and treat them right, you may be able to publish a conventional magazine eventually. Look at the number of people on APUG--the interest is there, and no magazine is currently filling the gap.

 

[vickersdc]

Chris and I are lucky in that we don't have to try to earn a living through the magazine, so we can keep costs down as low as possible. So far, I've personally funded the web-hosting and so on!

Here's to producing a real, proper, paper magazine - as it happens I'm in talks with a 'real' publisher...