Hi all,
in some of the meetings, I proposed to cancel the majority of magazine
subscriptions and use the budgets for buying books instead.
That idea was turned down several times.
Still, I believe it would be better for the club to have a library of valuable
books, rather than a collection of quickly outdating magazines.
Cheers,
Joachim
On 01 Feb 2016, at 18:13, Gabriel Cescutti <gabriel.cescutti@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Dear Nicola,
I agree with your point that one magazine dealing with new gear would be
sufficient.
I am following on specialized Internet sites gear information related to the
camera system that I own and this is by far more efficient and up to date
since the distribution of the magazines takes some times.
About the language I must say that I found it nice to have the opportunity to
choose between different options. Maybe it's indeed for the common interest
better to privilege English but on the other hand, French, German and Dutch
magazines often bring an agenda and local news that might be of interest for
some of us.
Thanks for bringing this point,
Gabriel
On Monday, 1 February 2016, Nicola Moscelli <nmoscelli@xxxxxxx
<mailto:nmoscelli@xxxxxxx>> wrote:
Dear all,
I’m writing to all of you because I am not happy at all with the magazine
subscriptions of the club and I want to understand how many of you feel the
same.
Note that everything I will be writing below can be synthetized by the
following question:
Do you want to learn from photographers that are successful in what they are
doing, or are you comfortable in being camera geeks?
For myself, I know very well the answer. I am provoking you on purpose to
know your reactions.
I have nothing against having the best reviews of the last cameras on the
market – though there are already several very good websites for camera
reviews on the internet –, but as a matter of fact there is a lot of
redundancy in the subscriptions. Not only, but those magazines are outdated
after a couple of months because brand new gears are on the market. Some of
them also try to give advice on composition and techniques, but isn’t it
something one can easily find googling on internet?
Also: do we really need similar magazines in English, French, German and
Dutch? Why don’t we assess magazines just by their quality and usefulness?
I am not saying that we have to get rid of all the magazines we have right
now because we are all different and have different needs, but how can you
become good photographers if you don’t nourish yourselves with inspiration
and curiosity? Without inspiration and curiosity, how do you find the
motivation to learn and master a technique? The gear and the technique are a
medium to reach your ideas, but the sparkle of inspiration gives you the idea
itself and the motivation to realize it.
There are several magazines where editors make a very good job in selecting
emergent and talented photographers running interesting projects all over the
world, or showing and explaining the work of master photographers that have
made history. They make a big effort in editing to show those works at best,
on high quality paper, and one also learns how to present a portfolio or to
realize a serie. And after a couple of months or even years, those magazines
don’t lose value because one always learns from what they show. Here, I only
see advantages.
I will now list some of these magazines so that you can start having a look
and develop your personal idea.
GUP Magazine http://www.gupmagazine.com/ ;
<http://www.gupmagazine.com/>
ZOOM Magazine which is not the Dutch one -
http://www.zoom-net.com/zoom-magazine.aspx ;
<http://www.zoom-net.com/zoom-magazine.aspx>
British Journal of Photography http://www.bjp-online.com/ ;
<http://www.bjp-online.com/>
Polka Magazine http://www.polkamagazine.com/ ;
<http://www.polkamagazine.com/>
Leica Fotografie International https://lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/magazine/ ;
<https://lfi-online.de/ceemes/en/magazine/>
I hope to hear a lot of feedbacks on the topic.
Have a good start of the week,
Nicola
