I’m fed up with magazines that call themselves “photo” and then go on and on about what type of stuff you should be buying. They should be called “Buy everything” magazines. I feel like I’m paying for advertisement. Shouldn’t be the other way around? Take Outdoor Photographer for instance, a respectable magazine, long history, good reputation etc… now is like going through a Wall Mart catalog. Most times I lose track of the article, that’s how much pub they have in it. And it never stops, it’s just gets bigger and bigger. The content is disappearing, quality is disappearing, and I end up preferring spending my time on photo.net and luminous-landscapes.com rather than reading those type of publications. I renounced my subscription to OP because of this.
To me, it’s a mystery. I understand what can be suspected as the “business logic” behind it, the revenue must come from somewhere, but photography was never a cheap hobby to begin with. All these toys cost money, lots of them. So I don’t understand the need to cut down prices as much as possible on print publications at the expense of the content, replacing it with advertising. Would 5$ extra make that much of a difference? If I buy a magazine, I buy it for the content, for the article, for the photos inside, for the knowledge. If if want a compare between a Canon and a Nikon sensor, or want to know which is the latest bag Lowepro has on sale, I just go online! I feel that if the content goes away, or if it gets suffocated by big commercials on Canon and Gitzo, there isn’t much interest about the publication anyways, regardless how cheap it is. Not for serious photography magazines, anyway. If one wants to get reviews on shiny toys, there are plenty of resources around. Most of them free!
Considering this general trend, I was amazed when I stumbled across some high quality photo publications, almost publicity free!
One of them is Azart Photographie (website here ). La Vitrine Internationale De La Photographie Contemporaine, French high quality photo publication, issued quarterly, now on number 6. Really wish them good luck and hope they sort out their website that looks lousy and doesn’t do the magazine much justice. Sure it costs a lot (paid 17 CAD here in Montreal), but I’d much rather do that than pay 5$ and get a bunch of advertisement packaged nicely inside so the content only occupies 40% of the space.
The other nice surprise I had is Aperture – click here for the website. Old and established magazine with a very professional look and high quality material. Again, advertisement content is barely noticeable. What a joy to read! Again, the price is high – 15 CAD but the content makes it worth it.
I am by no means associated with these companies, or publishers, or whatever they are, just feel we need to support high quality photo publications. So if you stumble across them, have a read, you’ll enjoy them.