Photography magazines were a passion of mine before I moved to the edge of the jungle of Mexico. I can no longer get American Photography nor Aperture, if they are still going. "Popular..." and "Modern..." like "Shutterbug" were just for the ads and an article on How to this or that. The genre began with Stiegliz' "Camera Work" which evolved into other fine paper magazines like "Aperture" with serious, well reproduced works.They became ever more expensive.
Here in Mexico I get "Cuartoscuro" put out by a stock and assignment agency in Mexico City. It is quite good, especially for Mexico where photography and its' artificial, renaissance perspective is not seen by most of the population. A population that normally can't read or isn't interested in reading . I finally bought my first computer (OK, I am a digital late-bloomer) a bit over a year ago to pay bills and send some email. Suddenly I was addicted to the ability to read the Village Voice, the New York Times, The London Times, The Review of Books and even Scientific American. Then I really got hooked on the digital world and began my photoblog. I discovered not only others and photographers' websites but; get this, Photo Magazines on-line, paperless and filled with pictures. They are proliferating and the quality is astounding. New media for the new age.
Given my 33kbs download time here,totally examining one at a time seemed wise. Don't snicker. The telephone lines were only put through a few years ago. Therefore each picture takes time to download and had better be worth my investment of time.
I begin with my favorite. "AK47", a bi-monthly. This is issue number 7 and it is at http://www.ak47.tv. Here is the current issue:
There is a Winograndish essay, "Snapshots" by William Greiner. It has some excellent shots and they outweigh the ok ones. There are a few duds. But Gary Winogrand and Robert Frank ,who are the heroes of the line he follows, had their duds too. The "Wedding Dress" Santa Fe, NM 2001 is everything I always wanted to capture in a shopwindow shot. Here and there I have some that please me but his is on the cover of AK47 and deserves the honor. It is what I have wanted to capture since I returned to photography in 1979 and started playing Winogrand on Poughkeepsie streets on my lunch hour. "Bridge Mural and Mirror" San Francisco 2002 has great color and "Painted Tree Trunk" Miami 2004 work the magic of color to the edges with information we might not need but enjoy. "Civil War Mural" New Orleans 2003 does everthing it should: entertains and confuses and fills the frame with painted images and an air conditioner to juxtapose levels of reality "Dog Head" Baton Rouge '02 fails as much as the others succeed. "Yellow Sandwich Truck", LA '03 hints of the truck and the sandwich and of colors that collide and confuse as much as the cut-off information in the frame.
Article comments
1 - William Greiner
Thank you for your comments and interest in my work. I now also have a blog which started out being about the affects of Hurricane Katrina , but is more... Cheers