Anyone get an email from Focus Magazine?

[wildbill]

Here's an email i received this morning. I'm not sure if they got my email address from the latest issue of B+W or elsewhere. I'm not a fan of random solicitation like this. I've excluded the fella's full name. Anyone else get one of these?

"This e-mail is being sent out to a few select photographers whose work we have selected for potential publication inside of Focus Magazine (www.focusmag.info). We currently have one 4-page spread and a 3-page spread in either black and white or duotone in Focus Magazine's August '07 issue. The opportunity for you to exhibit your photography in front of the highest number of readers Focus Magazine has ever had is here and it's the perfect time of the year with people traveling all over the world, they'll want to take a magazine on board the flight to sit down, read and digest. That magazine will be Focus magazine. That issue of Focus magazine will be the next issue with Jock Sturges, Gillian Laub and Anderson & Low, plus a special feature on Magnum Photos' 60th anniversary.
*
The opportunity is this: We have tens of thousands of collectors reading Focus Magazine. For $2000 for the 4-page spread and $1500 for the 3-page spread (or $3000 for the 7 pages), Focus Magazine can exhibit your work in either black and white or duotone. The duotone resembles a subtle warm-tone added to your black and white photographs. In all of the pages you decide to purchase, you'll receive:
*
A*250-500 word bio or artist's statement
Up to 2 images per page
A*free full page ad in the next 2 issues
If you purchase the 7 pages, you'll receive an extra full page ad in a 3rd issue.
*
So that's either 6 pages for $2000 ($334/page), 5 pages for $1500 ($300 page) or*10 pages for $3000 ($300/page).
*
Here's the catch: We're going to press on Monday. We need from you immediately, a 250-500 word bio or artist's statement, twenty 300 dpi, grayscale TIFF's, max size 8 x 10 and payment. This is first come, first serve and I do not anticipate this opportunity being available for any amount of time longer than the end of the day on Sunday.
*
Please call me immediately to reserve your space for this issue."
*
D
Publisher Focus Magazine
718.360.4724
www.focusmag.info
NYFocus 2008


vinny

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

His name is no big secret--David Spivak.

Be sure to read this before acting on anything--

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=18633&

 

[lee]

consider it spam. David Spivak feeds off photographers trying to make them believe they are gonna get gallery representation. Proceed at your own risk. And do read the link David Goldfarb referenced.

lee\c

 

[wildbill]

I don't have any plans of getting involved with this guy, i'd just like folks to know what this guy is up to. I check the link and it doens't look good. That's no way conduct business.

vinny

 

[juan]

David seems to have a business model similar to the vanity press for writers, or music publishers who charge to take on your songs.

I don't think he's dishonest - it's just not a way of doing business that I care for. To his credit, the email is more straightforward about his charges than he used to be about them.

Bottom line, if you think appearing in his magazine will help you, and you think the charges are reasonable, make further inquiries, but if you don't, don't.
juan

 

[percepts]

I don't think he's dishonest

If you look at the other site you will find that he registered with a false name and then proceeded to plant posts about advertising in his magazine before he was rumbled by someone who had seen his antics on other forums.

In my book that is downright deceitful.

 

[kaygee]

We just had a discussion about this over at filmwasters, where a user posted he got the same message:

http://filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=655.0

Interesting indeed.

 

[Thomassauerwein]

This guy is very, very aggresive. Took me a long time to get rid of him. Being nice is not a solution.