UK Film photography magazines

[w9cae]

I was wondering if the UK has any just film based photography magazines. Most of what I find in the Australian newsagents is geared towards the digital market. I was thinking about checking out a mag called Black & White but someone mentioned they have a new editor & its now mostly about digital.

Cheers Scott

 

[alapin]

w9cae

There is or was a magazine called Black and White Photography that was film base. I have a few copies from 2008. I looked at a copy in Barnes and Nobles last year they were still film base. Price is high $11.99 a copy. Had some great articles. I hope it's not gone the digital route.

 

[R gould]

As far as I can tell all british mags, including black and white photography, are firmly based in digital, with barely a passing nod to film these days, which is why I don't bother buying them,just a browse in the newsagents is enough for me these days,Richard

 

[monodave]

B+W Photography magazine is thriving in the UK. It is a good balance of both film/darkroom and digital. It is published by GMC Publications. There is also a Black and White Photography magazine in the USA. They are completely independent of one another.

 

[Vincent Brady]

As far as I can tell all british mags, including black and white photography, are firmly based in digital, with barely a passing nod to film these days, which is why I don't bother buying them,just a browse in the newsagents is enough for me these days,Richard

I would agree with Richard on this. The Black & White magazine started out as mainly film based is now almost entirely digital orientated, I expect that's market they have to aim for in order to survive. The printing of the photo's within all seem to be variations of sepia tone, it is as if they are unable to print in straight black and white anymore. Save your money and buy photo books instead.

 

[Sim2]

The printing of the photo's within all seem to be variations of sepia tone, it is as if they are unable to print in straight black and white anymore.

Lol! I have seen this trend too, glad it is not just my eyes going all squey-whiff!

I do still purchase the magazine B + W Photography - it is mainly geared towards digital. To an extent I can understand why - larger potential readership base, easier magazine layout production, potentially quicker lead times on articles, cheaper input costs etc but it is a shame it has "gone with the herd". Used to be very film/print based but no longer the case. Fi;m/print is very much the rarity nowadays. Digi product reviews seem to be fairly "soft", in that everything seems to be "great" and "ideal for use" with little critique and not as thorough as widely available reviews.

The sepia toned look of all the pics is really annoying, either it's a bit of an affectation which I don't get or they need to sort out their ICC profiles!

However, I like the USA gallery review (not because I can visit but the featured exhibitions seem to be very creative and inspiring) and oddly enough the random article/promotions from Silverprint - last one was about printing with Autochrome from 1913 - now that is intruiging!!!

Sim2.

 

[Athiril]

I was wondering if the UK has any just film based photography magazines. Most of what I find in the Australian newsagents is geared towards the digital market. I was thinking about checking out a mag called Black & White but someone mentioned they have a new editor & its now mostly about digital.

Cheers Scott

Sorry, we both live in heathen country

 

[Black Dog]

I would agree with Richard on this. The Black & White magazine started out as mainly film based is now almost entirely digital orientated, I expect that's market they have to aim for in order to survive. The printing of the photo's within all seem to be variations of sepia tone, it is as if they are unable to print in straight black and white anymore. Save your money and buy photo books instead.

I used to get it, now I get Ag which actually publishes a wide range of work in both b+w and colour-oh and it actually credits its readers with a bit of intelligence. As far as learning about technique goes, get a few decent books, such as The Craft of Photography [David Vestal] and The Darkroom Cookbook.

 

[benjiboy]

I stopped buying photographic magazines, because I don't do digital they are of little interest, to me I buy books instead, they have much more hard information in them, and the magazines are so expensive they are better value.

 

[paulie]

could never understand the need for photo mags, sound boring even if they were about photography and not digital devices.

photography is doing not reading lol

those who cant do ,teach

 

[roy]

I have been taking the UK "Black & White Photography" magazine for some while now and it shows what I would call a nodding acceptance to film and darkroom work. The latest edition has a reference to 'digital cyanotypes' which has put me off as the word cyanotype typifies the process and should, in my mind describe them as 'blue prints'. We shall be having digital platinum prints next I should imagine !

 

[ozphoto]

Scott, if you subscribe to B&W Photography, it is way cheaper than off the shelf at the newsagent, even with the exchange rate taken into account.
Great mag that I enjoy reading cover to cover, even look at the d***** stuff as well.

 

[w9cae]

Thank you all for such great quick responses. My worst fears of no truly film photography magazine is on the market. I used to get Digital Photographer but after a year it just started to repeat it's self. The digital world is all fine but digital photography dont cover all aspect's, just like analog covering every aspect also. Maybe someone with the ability to bring us a film photography magazine will see this thread & make it happen ? I am lucky being the Melbourne Camera club Librarian I have some wonderful very old photography books to read. But some of the Analog folks would have liked a new Analog photography magazine to read as they have read all the other material.

Ho hum Scotty

 

[hoffy]

B+W Photography magazine is thriving in the UK. It is a good balance of both film/darkroom and digital. It is published by GMC Publications. There is also a Black and White Photography magazine in the USA. They are completely independent of one another.

I also agree with you about Black+White mag. Not sure which magazine the others are talking about, because out of the recent issues of B+W I have seen it appears to be half and half. Yes, the equipment reviews that they tend to do tends to be digital (I wonder if that has anything to do with the lack of new Film equipment).

& why do I read it? Pure and simple, I like looking at pictures (surely this is why we do photography?)

 

[hoffy]

Thank you all for such great quick responses. My worst fears of no truly film photography magazine is on the market. I used to get Digital Photographer but after a year it just started to repeat it's self. The digital world is all fine but digital photography dont cover all aspect's, just like analog covering every aspect also. Maybe someone with the ability to bring us a film photography magazine will see this thread & make it happen ? I am lucky being the Melbourne Camera club Librarian I have some wonderful very old photography books to read. But some of the Analog folks would have liked a new Analog photography magazine to read as they have read all the other material.

Ho hum Scotty

Just taking this slightly off topic, I was looking at the Melbourne Camera Club Website last night and was keen to see that you still have a thriving darkroom group, well that was the impression I got from the website. Is this so?

Also keen to note that the Darkroom hire is $5 for 12 hours.... (unless I miss read it!)

 

[ozphoto]

I too would love to see more film based photography magazines on the market, but to be fair, magazines are in the business to make money. And (unfortunately) the money is being made in digital photography magazines.

True we have almost 41,000 members here on APUG, but in the grand scheme of making money - that isn't anywhere near enough subscribers for a magazine to truly make a profit. (If each of us took out a subscription which is highly unlikely.)

I remember a member putting together a solely film-based magazine a year or so back, but haven't seen or heard anything about it for quite a while. (The name escapes me on both the member and magazine title fronts.)

I can live with B&W Photography having digital articles; to be honest burying my head in the sand *won't* make digital disappear and some of the articles are quite interesting. If it's a case of having digital & film in the one mag in fair proportions, I'm happy to buy. But if most of the articles are purely digital based - forget it, whilst I use digital in my commercial work I really don't want to be surrounded by it in my off time if I can help it.

Ag is another mag that has caught my eye, but it's price is just too prohibitive to warrant purchasing (same goes for Silverprint). At $20+ an issue I can buy a book at that price with considerably more information; true it won't have interviews or showcase photographers, but my $$ are spent on where I see value - $20 for an interview? Sorry just not my cup of coffee. . . . . . .

 

[hoffy]

Nanette, are you talking B+W or B&W? Just want to clarify, that's all!

 

[ozphoto]

Hi Hoffy,

B&W (UK mag) - I no longer subscribe to B+W (US). Sorry for the confusion. :O

 

[hoffy]

OK, I thought it was the other way around! I am looking at an English Black+White magazine (editor, Elizabeth Roberts, published by GMC Publictions)

 

[ozphoto]

Hoffy you're correct it IS B+W for the UK edition - GMC Publications.
My error; apologies to all for the confusion.

 

[hoffy]

Tis OK! I just wanted to know if I was missing something!

Anyhow, back to your post up a few spots. I agree, it would be good to have a photographic only magazine, but I also agree about the issues with circulation. The other problem is that inevitably, a Film mag will probably turn into a Lomo mag...

 

[largeformat pat]

I used to buy B&W, gave up, to electronic. View camera magazine is still mainly film. Large format too. Some good articles though. Borders have it normally.
Pat

 

[ozphoto]

Pat I like View Camera also, but the price was too steep for what I got out of it.

For now, I can live with the B+W content, but should it shift too far digital, it will get the flick; I get all that info from another Pro mag I subscribe to.

 

[perkeleellinen]

True we have almost 41,000 members here on APUG, but in the grand scheme of making money - that isn't anywhere near enough subscribers for a magazine to truly make a profit.

This has been on my mind for a while. The idea of a technical magazine is redundant as the forums here show. But an artistic magazine dedicated to film...

An APUG magazine, one per year, showing the very best of film photography, priced at cost (or a little extra for APUG funds), utilizing on-demand magazine printing such as magcloud:

http://magcloud.com/

Could it happen?

 

[hoffy]

This has been on my mind for a while. The idea of a technical magazine is redundant as the forums here show. But an artistic magazine dedicated to film...

An APUG magazine, one per year, showing the very best of film photography, priced at cost (or a little extra for APUG funds), utilizing on-demand magazine printing such as magcloud:

http://magcloud.com/

Could it happen?

Its not impossible, but it all depends on how you want it done and how much it could cost.

By far, the easiest option is to produce a blurb book. I run a forum that is dedicated to motorsports photography (www.catchfencephotos.com) and each year one of our members produces an annual book. The concept is simple, you supply him with suitable images digitally (OK, I'm sure I have lost you here already) and he edits them together (you need to use their propitiatory software), adds a few graphics and uploads them to blurb. (I am actually not giving the guy who does it enough credit. It takes quite a bit of time just to do that!). For those who want to buy, you buy straight from Blurb, so there is no minimum order. If people are interested, here is this years book:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/deta...e=badge&utm_medium=banner&utm_content=280x160

That being said, I am not 100% sure that something like that would really fit the look you could expect for artistic photos. Certainly not any worse then most magazines, but then again, its really only a glorified photo book.

That being said, that "Magcloud" does look interesting