I didn't realise that was Kate either. I love the picture of Nathan in the morning with the cat. I really liked that article the most out of the whole issue. I had nearly forgotten about the September issue (and had a hard time finding where it went to) because I was reading it back in August while on holiday.
Wow! What a brilliant discussion going on in this thread - plenty of passion and opinion about the magazine and just the kind of feedback I need as I begin my journey on this wonderful magazine.
Your thoughts and concerns are very definitely being listened to, I can assure you. I have just returned from the magazine office and I am brimming with ideas and full of conviction to keep you all happy and entertained.
It would be brilliant if you could email me with your thoughts and ideas, as a few of you already have (many thanks). I'd love to see stuff like 'your darkroom' etc - excellent idea. This magazine is very probably the last bastion of silver halide photography and while I have to reflect all aspects of black & white image making you are very definitely a highly important - and much appreciated - part of the monochrome mix.
Wow, thanks so much for your kind words, John Voss, Andy K, Dave Miller, and Heather!
I haven't seen it yet but Mikeg has offered to scan it for me and send it by email so I can see it. Thanks Mike! Much appreciated. I won't see it for another week or so.
Welcome to Apug David Corfield! It's a great place to be. I'm sure Alisa has told you about the fun postcard exchange that she used to participate in on occasion. We have alot of passionate film users here and I'm glad to see your presence on Apug. If people want to see more B&W film portfolios I suggest they submit them to your magazine.
I read this thread with interest. September's issue was very good, especially Kate's feature and Polly Chandler's wonderful Type 55 portfolio. But I've just picked up October's issue and I'm afraid as soon as I saw the Photoshop "Polaroid Border" it went straight in the bin.
I agree Ian, the mag is getting worse, and I am tired of all this stuff about digital. I can't stand digital, it is horrible, don't like it, ugh...........
Anton
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I agree Ian, the mag is getting worse, and I am tired of all this stuff about digital. I can't stand digital, it is horrible, don't like it, ugh...........
Anton
I have no problem with covering digital topics: after all, that's where the mass of consumers are and where the advertisers are. Digital offers all sorts of wonderful creative opportunities, but photoshopped "polaroid borders" are just a shallow pastiche. Pictures which pretend to be something they're not are at best shallow and at worst fraudulent. I look for higher standards in the magazines I buy.
One swallow does not make a ... must be careful not to mix metaphors here, but I did think the recent transmanagement issue was a bit of a sinker. However ...
The B&W mag has been through many changes since I bought issue 15 in 2002. Coming out with a mag dedicated to b&w seemed very courageous at the time ... but then again it seems clear now that the black and white film industry had received a tremendous boost from the impact of digital technology. A sizeable percentage of pro/commercial photographers necessarily dumped their old analogue gear on the s/h market and many an amateur aspiration was realised.
Looking again at issue 15, there are articles on darkroom work and the zone system, and on digital printers and digital post-processing. Of the Reader Gallery all four contributors used film. Of the Reader Gallery in this last issue (77) two contributors used film, and two used digital capture and a b&w conversion in PhotoShop. You want to blame the editor for that?
It doesn't strike me as surprising that a rekindling of the b&w flame would be reflected in the digital arena, after all, at the very least it's quite a simple process to follow if you are already competent in using basic software. The renegade 16 year-olds I teach frequently say how much they prefer looking at b&w photos because b&w stimulates the imagination so much more than colour, making the image concept more 'real'. They shoot pics on a mobile phone, convert them to b&w, and then post them on Bebo or MySpace. It is a process I am very happy to encourage.
I'll be doing a portrait shoot this afternnoon and I'll be packing both analogue (LF) and digital for b&w. Which image gets used won't be my choice as quite simply the selection of the final photo will be down to the image itself ... but it will be black and white.
Once again I ask, is the new (a la Issue 77) ratio of digital to traditional in the magazine here to stay?
Consider yourself lucky, the ratio of digital to film is much higher for US based magazines.
Just this morning, I was reading the August 2007 issue of Outdoor Photography, and in the Reader's Submission section all but three images were taken on Fuji Velvia, 1 digital, 1 Fuji Sensia and 1 Kodak Elite Color. I can't remember when US Outdoor Photographer had that many film images (or readers images for that matter) - especially after the publishers rant against film a couple of months ago.
"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist" -- Louis Nizer
Location: Taking a trip through time on my silver machine in the White Peak
Posts: 1,442
"This magazine is very probably the last bastion of silver halide photography and while I have to reflect all aspects of black & white image making"....
All the more reason to concentrate on pictures rather than gizmos then! Personally, I don't use digital, but I don't object to it being covered as another tool as many have said.Also a lot of people who print digitally use film to capture their images anyway.
PS- "It is a mistake to be too modern. One is apt to go out of fashion very quickly" (Oscar Wilde)
PPS-what happened to the B&W photographer of the year competition (also note how many of the winners were either film or hybrid photographers).
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