Quote:
Originally Posted by Black Dog  So true!-I do think a lot of people go digital because of all the 'film is dead' blether that gets peddled all the time (an impression unfortunately given by the silver to digi piece in this month's mag).They think that there's no other way when there is (praise Ilford,brothers and sisters   ). I'd also like to see film and paper listings in the mag. |
This is absolutely true - it is like a snowball effect, and not all that dissimilar from the run on the Northern Rock last week.
I bought the most recent issue and I really feal that it is veering dangerously close to competing with the more mainstream magazines - rather like Jessops has positioned itself in the middle of the market dominated by the likes of Dixons.
One of the keys to success is a unique selling point, and I don't think the fact it is a mono-only magazine is quite enough,
unless there is a stronger emphasis on traditional monochrome photography. Why? traditional monochrome photography can never be anything else, ie. can never be made colour - once the moment is caught it is frozen in shades of grey for ever. You aren't doing anything other than shooting a mono image. That is one of the attractions of it.
I can also see that it has to appeal to a decent sized market, and the editor can not ignore the potential readership using digital. My suggestion would therefore be to:
1. Not run down traditional techniques (or digitial techniques for that matter) as in the current issue about the Australian photographer.
2. Have dedicated articles one way or the other, although I do quite like the digital / traditional printing comparison in the printers Art. I am sure that there are plenty of digital photographers who may well enjoy reading about a traditional monochrome paper or article about darkrooms etc etc - and I am also sure that there are many traditional photographers who would read articles about the digital monochrome world - I don't think that printing an article about one or the other is necessarily excluding readership - infact it is probably enhancing it.
3. And, actually, as a general point, I really think some of the articles could be filled out a little.
Matt