Twenty-five bucks of pure pleasure….
COLOR Magazine, sister to BLACK AND WHITE Magazine, has mailed its inaugural issue. There’s no doubt they’re family – the layout and set up are identical.
The funny thing about this company, Ross Periodicals, is their total lack of urgency about websites. Here’s the URL for COLOR Magazine: http://www.color-mag.com/. If you click on it, you get one page – a reproduction of the double spread in the inaugural issue advertising its annual Portfolio contest and the heading at the top of this page says: BLACK AND WHITE MAGAZINE FOR COLLECTORS OF FINE PHOTOGRAPHY.No subscription info, nothing about articles to get excited about, photographers reviewed and written about….weird.
BLACK AND WHITE took its sweet time developing a website and it’s a darn simple set up (http://www.bandwmag.com/). I feel like I’m going back about ten years technologically when I get on to it.
To prove my point, NOwhere online can I get a cover of this first issue to reproduce here to get you excited about it! It’s just hard to believe.
So, don’t plan on exploring COLOR online at all before ordering it. Just order it. (415-382-0580, or 42 Digital Drive #5, Novato, CA 94949)(See what I mean? Send a note in the mail???? and did you notice the address: DIGITAL DRIVE?) For each magazine, it’s $25 a year for six issues and reading these mags will give you some of your best hours in the coming 12 months.
The most recent photography book I bought is Maggie Taylor‘s “Landscape of Dreams” published by Adobe Press. I bought it at one of my favorite NYC photography galleries, Laurence Miller Gallery where, in November, they had a small, but exquisite exhibit of Taylor’s images. I almost bought one. The fact that I bought the book instead is a perfect example of how fiscal frugality is one huge domino effect towards a global economic meltdown. Here’s the Taylor image that almost dominates the entire cover of the elusive inaugural issue of COLOR Magazine:
Girl With Bee Dress © Maggie Taylor, 2004
Inside, is an article by Carol McCusker, Photography Curator at San Diego’s Museum of Photographic Arts, “Desiring Veracity – The History of Color Photography, Part One: 1840′s – 1940′s” – very fitting for the first and second issues and a topic I’d just decided I needed to understand better. Then there’s an extensive article on Eliot Porter and tons of his images. Saul Leiter, one of my favorite photographers, is featured and the images reproduced in the mag (also available in the book Saul Leiter: Early Color, one of the most-viewed books on my bookshelf) are like seeing old friends, I love them so much.
Foot on El – 1954 © Saul Leiter
Want to know more about William Christenberry? Or have you heard of Jeffrey Becom? If you want to see color, get to know his work.
La Carga © Jeffrey Becom, Courtesy of Verve Gallery of Photography
Berber Woman, Chaouen, Morocco – 1987 © Jeffrey Becom, Courtesy of Verve Gallery of Photography
Okay, what else? Carolyn Cole, photojournalist extraordinaire, and the remarkable landscapes of Lynn Geesaman. Don’t know their work? I didn’t either before today but I’m richer for the knowledge.
See? I’ve spent $25 bucks and I’m richer. Alot. And I pulled one domino out of the heaving mass equation of fear of spending = we all crash and burn.
September 2, 2011 at 3:13 pm
Some truly prime blog posts on this web site , bookmarked