Black and White Magazine's "change" of heart...

[Jorge]

Jorge, I was _THIS_ close to going digital and then you screwed it all up.

LOL...yeah I know, but enough is enough. How many times do we have to read the same opinion undermining Aggie's efforts?

 

[Flotsam]

I love monochrome photography and am happy to see a magazine devoted to it. Best of luck for their success. But I have no interest in digital manipulation and inkjet print manufacturing so, of course, I have no plans to purchase a copy myself. I'm sure that they have crunched the numbers and discarded me as a potential subscriber long ago. Probably a good idea.

 

[Jorge]

Well see, here is the thing. Ink jet posters have an artificial look to them. The after image gallery was mentioned, and as it happens I was checking out yesterday just to keep up on what is new with the. Look at their courrent exhibition, when I saw the photograph on the main page I knew even before I read about the exhibition that it was an ink jet print.

It is easy to tell, everything is sharp, but IMO too sharph, not even a single blade of grass is blurred. Second the sunflower is sitting by the side of the road, on what looks like a rain storm comming and it is sharper than anything else.

Check it out and you will see...

www.afterimagegallery.com

Some of the photographs are beautiful, but I cant see myself paying $600 for an ink jet poster, and frankly I dont want to make "perfect" photographs.

Anyhow, who cares? if the prints sell for that amount, more the power to him....

 

[Gim]

The business of photography is something a lot of photographers, collectors and curators are very passionate about. How do you market yourself? How do you find representation? What kind of prints are acceptable and have a better chance of being picked up by a gallery than others? What should you limit your editions to? How do you price your work? There's so much to talk about and get excited about and for a photographer who is seeking gallery representation to use as a tool! And then there's the goings on in the collector's side of things too! Fine Art Photography auctions, up close interviews with galleries and appraisers, fine art photography book reviews, how a print increases in value over the years!

You want a how-to magazine to tell you how many angles to shoot a bird from, there are lots of other magazines for that.

You have me hooked. Throw in an article on the success of Thomas Kinkade and I might accept a free copy.

Jim

 

[arigram]

In the end, who really gives a shit about your publishing business apart from you and your stuff? People only care about the content of the magazine. I don't see sad excuses and whinning will make your content any better. There is a greek magazine that appeals to the mass that just bought a digi compact and only to them. Sure it sells. It has absolutely nothing to offer to anyone with any serious interest in photography, but it sells. Now, if that is your audience, go and sell. But you won't find anyone to support you here. Tis a bad spot to go fishing.

 

[DavidS]

Hey, folks, if all 7,000 of you paid $32 a year for a subscription to Emulsion, fantastic, Emulsion would make it. $56,000 in subsription money, an issue is enough to support a magazine. I came onto this forum to explain my opinion about B&W's decision to do digital, not my magazine. I'm glad some of you have taken the liberty to talk about Inked, when I wasn't. Btw - when I was a sponsor here, I recieved over 100 unique visitors to my website, over 250 new subscribers and two new advertisers. Tis not such a bad place to go fishing after all. All in all, not everyone shares the 5 or 6 opinions that are represented on this specific group on the site.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Back to the original question, I don't see _B&W_ as a magazine that particularly sees photographers as its target audience, though they certainly realize that photographers buy the magazine. _B&W_ is aimed at collectors, so if there are photographers producing collectible B&W work in digital media, then it makes some sense for them to include it. I think it's a pretty small group of photographers who really produce B&W digital prints (color is a different story) that would be interesting to collectors of photographs (as opposed to art collectors who collect work in various media), so I don't see digital taking over at _B&W_ unless they really want to abandon their core audience--collectors of B&W photographs.

 

[Wayne]

Other than one or two other magazine's that remain 'film only', this was one of the few that I truly love to read because of their dedication to black and white film.

I dont want to pick the scabs of a dead thread which I havent read in its entirety, but where can I find even one magazine, let alone two, that are still dedicated to film?

 

[roteague]

I dont want to pick the scabs of a dead thread which I havent read in its entirety, but where can I find even one magazine, let alone two, that are still dedicated to film?

Probably nowhere, until Emulsion comes out - which will be pretty soon. I think that we, photographers, are probably going to have to get used to seeing digital images in the magazines we like, and pick and choose from what we see. For example, in the second issue of Inked the work of Dennis Mecham was quite good, all traditional, while Graham French shoots color film and coverts to B&W in the computer (why he can't just shoot Tri-X or Efke is beyond me). I looked at Graham's work and mostly dismissed it. I enjoyed the issue of Inked I read (except the font makes it hard to read).

FWIW, my feeling is that the UK photography magazines are much more film-friendly than most US magazines.

 

[bobbysandstrom]

Static Vs Dynamic

For those who are not aware, there are traditional concert grand pianos that will record an actual performance and then spit it back out pretty much the way you played it. Now, would you rather sit in a room and listen to a "More Perfect" performance by Van Cliburn that is spit out by the piano from a previous recording ---OR--- would you rather be there in the room with Cliburn playing LIVE albeit a less perfect rendition. The latter is DYNAMIC and will be different every time. It has a pulse... it has energy... it has LIFE! The recording is static. It will be EXACTLY the same every time you hear it! Kinda like the twilight zone where the guy is on a toy train that goes round and round in circles stopping at the same place.

 

[Wayne]

Probably nowhere, until Emulsion comes out - which will be pretty soon. I think that we, photographers, are probably going to have to get used to seeing digital images in the magazines we like, and pick and choose from what we see.

If I wanted to pick and choose from what I see, I already have any number of magazine choices. I want analog photography, aka photography. What is Emulsion? I couldnt find a website for it. (OK- now I found it-thanks)


Inked does not have a name that leaves me wanting to know more...I might glance at issues if its on my newsstand but I will not subscribe to any magazine that devotes significant space to subjects unrelated to photography that I have no interest in.

I will subscribe to Emulsion.

 

[ajuk]

NOt sure if that is the same B&W Photography magazine we get in the UK but I only just started buying it 2 months ago because it is the most film Oriantated magazine out there I also buy Amatuer Photographer for the same reason.

 

[Kevin Caulfield]

The B&W UK mag is different, and is definitely film-oriented.