I too am disappointed with the content lately. I have been a subscriber since day one and the steady drifting towards digital is slowly driving me away. Having taken out two years subscription this time, I will have some time to make my mind up, but if things do not improve then, sadly and with real regret, I will not be renewing.
Hello everyone, it's David Corfield here, the new editor of Black & White Photography magazine.
I have read all the threads on this post with interest and at a time of change on the magazine I totally understand your concerns. But I'm here to tell you that I certainly have no intention of taking this well-established magazine down a route that doesn't suit it. Yes, we are a niche title but we are also a commercial enterprise. To survive means that we have to take on board modern technology and reflect the majority interest. We are a magazine that champions the monochrome image, and digital is a part of the photographic landscape just as any other process.
It is true that my background is mass-market consumer magazines, but I don't want you thinking that I'm going to make this magazine a pastiche of all that I have served under. Far from it. I will certainly use the 10-year experience I have gleaned to introduce some really exciting features that big magazines do so well - like reader workshops, challenges, and so on - and look forward to working with you all on those over the coming months. But Black & White Photography magazine has its own flavour and I love it for that.
This is a really exciting time for us. It is a magazine we are passionate about and I am glad to see you are all passionate about it too. From the next issue we will be firing on all cylinders and I want you to write to me at davidc at thegmcgroup dot com and suggest ideas that perhaps haven't been covered before.
This is YOUR magazine and you should play a part on it - new contributors, images, ideas - they are all welcome here. I grew up with the smell of Hypam around my house and still have funny coloured fingernails! I am a devout monochrome fan and feel so lucky and privileged that I get to take this magazine forward and keep it focused on what it does best.
All the best to you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
David Corfield
Dear David,
Thanks for posting here and good luck with your new task. I hope you do take the magazine into the right direction. I bought the very first issue of B&W in the magazineshop and have been a subscriber ever since. I warmed to it so quickly for it's more than fair share of (analog) black&whight imagery and it's analog product information. It simply is (was?) the only mag that caters for analog in this day and age. I was worried with the latest trend toward printer tests and analog/digital "darkroom"-workshops. There's a multitude of mags that cater for digital and review printers, inks and DSLR's more than aptly. There are precious few that write about new papers, new films and wet printing. Traditional photographers, that stick to there silver-based guns in current times, are probably a pretty dedicated bunch and, I would imagine, trusty readers of such a mag. However, if "taking on board modern technology and reflecting the majority interest" would result in 95% digital and 5% silver, many of them, including myself, might loose interest. I sure hope it doesn't happen.
i'm not surprised by the shift to digital in B&W at all, we all knew it was coming. ten or fifteen years from now, you will be hard pressed to find traditional film-based work in any major publication. film-based photography, whether color or b&w, is slowly being relegated to the status of an "alternative process", and i have yet to receive the latest edition of "cyanotype monthly" or "salted print quarterly".
i'm not surprised by the shift to digital in B&W at all, we all knew it was coming. ten or fifteen years from now, you will be hard pressed to find traditional film-based work in any major publication. film-based photography, whether color or b&w, is slowly being relegated to the status of an "alternative process", and i have yet to receive the latest edition of "cyanotype monthly" or "salted print quarterly".
Or as Robin at Nova called it, "The ultimate alternative process'.
We may yet reach the paradoxical point where advertising revenues for 'real' photography cannot support a printed magazine, and the only refuge will be on-line.
A suggestion, and it's probably difficult to source, I do appreciate the occasional srories featuring the proof sheets of well known photographs, it's reassuring if there a few duds, inspiring if they are all good, and the final choice is a lesson for all.
Thanks- Ross
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Location: Taking a trip through time on my silver machine in the White Peak
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Yes-I'd like to see more of that. Also more readers' darkrooms and reviews of Adox and Foma films.
__________________
"The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse....a weasel lives as he's meant to,yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of pure necessity" [Annie Dillard]
Could I just make a suggestion? Just in case David Corfield isn't going to come back to this thread, maybe you should all email your suggestions (as in your own suggestions, don't copy and paste the whole thread) directly to David Corfield at his email address that he left in this thread. That way it's not going to get "lost" in APUG's forums.
I just want to give a shout out to David and say that we welcome new subscribers, link at the top of the page! Good luck, well wishes with the new position. I'll email my thoughts for coming articles.
P.S. I always enjoy reading the mag at Barnes and Noble here in the states over a cup of coffee. At about $9 a copy or so, it's not worth the money to acquire tho, but I do look at the ads.
__________________
W.A. Crider
There are only two groups of mortals in the eyes of God: those who desire to do his will and those who do not. [The Urantia Book, p. 1468, par. 3]
I generally buy the magazine, but it depends. If there is too much digital I won't buy it unless Leon's work is in it (or any other APUG member) or Roger (and Francis) have an column.
"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
Maybe you will buy the Septemer issue of B&W because I am an Apug subscriber and I have a feature in it. I haven't seen it yet because it takes awhile to get here but Black Dog has seen it and said it looked alright.
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