It seems to me that there is a relative dearth of top quality photographic magazines available, at least in the
relative beginners (I’m not saying these aren’t important),
reading about digital/Photoshop techniques,
that serve as a forum for the presentation of advertisements,
rehashing the same type of articles year in and out.
However, there aren’t many that deal with the more creative, artistic side of photography. At least that is my opinion.
I have already mentioned LensWork, which, again, in my opinion, is the single magazine I would subscribe to if I were limited to just one. In a prior post, I had mentioned that I recently subscribed to CameraArts. Thus far I have only received one issue, but I did enjoy it and have high hopes for future issues as well.
There are two other magazines that I enjoy and strike me as worthwhile, and I though that I would mention one of them.
PhotoLife is a Canadian photography magazine that I subscribe to. Though there are occasional technique and equipment review articles, they tend to be brief and to the point. The remaining articles and portfolios I find to be very worthwhile. The magazine’s focus is rather broad and can range from ‘traditional’ subjects such as landscape photography to more contemporary photographic topics. It really provides a nice overview of what is going on in many different photographic ‘realms’ at the current time.
It is a magazine that I enjoy getting; the details and more information can be found here.
I also thought it might be interesting to ask if anyone else could recommend magazines (from any country) that they have found worthwhile……a link to the magazine site would also be great if you have one. It might enable myself and anyone reading here to find out about magazines that we don’t know about and might enjoy looking into!
I guess if I am asking others to make recommendations I will also have to throw into the list the second magazine of the two I mentioned above. Its scope is much more limited than the others and focused solely on nature and wildlife photography. The website for Nature's Best can be found here. Definitely worthwhile if you enjoy nature photography.
11 comments:
hey howard, I am not sure how long you have been subscribed to Photo Life - I have been for a number of years now. For much of the same reasons you list, the article and photography quality in this magazine has historically been pretty good.
The magazine seems to be changing though, I would say over the past year or so. The article quality seems more variable now, with much more 'filler.' So much to a point where I have considered letting my subscription lapse. I wish Freeman Patterson had more articles with them, I have always enjoyed them greatly, along with the occasional ones that pop up from Andre Gallant (sp?).
For a technical magazine, Digital PhotoPro is pretty good. Their articles are extremely detailed and I usually learn a lot from it. They seem to have an emphasis on portraiture and modeling lately, but still a good mix of generic material. I still look forward to getting new issues on this one.
The problem I have is time to read if I have too many subscriptions, as well as either storing them all and keeping track of bits of particular issues that I like.
Although it is much maligned, I quite enjoy American Photo. It's trash, but it's at the higher-end of photo magazine trash that helps to ground my vision.
I had high hopes for photo life, but it felt anemic to me.
I'm enjoying JPG Magazine - not for the quality of the articles necessarily, but for the variety of high quality images, and that the content is developed by the readership.
I completely agree with your thoughts about Lenswork...been a fan for years (someday I'll catch up on all my back issues!). I have recently gotten invloved with PG Magazine and absolutely love the concept behind it.
Photo Life is a great magazine......they also featured my work in the June 2006 issue, ( Portfolio feature ) also B & W Magazine is also another favourite of mine.
Gary
Adiemus and Latoga, Thanks for the suggestion of JPG Magazine. I checked out the website and it really looked interesting; so much so that I just bought a 6 month subscription.
Gary, that is really an accomplishment. I am going to look through my back issues and see if I have that one now that I can connect the person with the portfolio!
Gary, Believe it or not, our den and hallways are curently being painted and all the books were therefore removed and put away while that is going on...so I can't even find my old Photo Life issues to look up your portfolio until late next week...but I do plan to check it out. Also, funny you should mention B&W Magazine as I actually had seen it at my local Barnes and Noble in passing but never really took a look. I am going to buy one and check it out.
Howard,
Thanks for the comments...... sorry , that should be the July 2006 issue, pages 68 and 69, so much for my memory !.......I have long been a fan of B & W magazine, which I pick up from time to time in Kelowna, I just bought a 2 year subscription to lens Work whcih I am looking forward to.
Gary
One that I like in Japan (in Japanese) is Photographica.
Amazon Japan has it:http://www.amazon.co.jp/Photographica-Vol-06-Photographica%E7%B7%A8%E9%9B%86%E9%83%A8/dp/4844359061 The Spring '07 is out now. I suppose if you don't read Japanese, it isn't of much use for reading, but the photography is usually quite good. (Spring '07 is about portraits).
David, thanks. I updated the main list to include Photographica.
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