What magazines are worth reading in your opinion?

Andrzej_Muzaj · February 13, 2021, 9:57am

Hi Folks!

As part of “keeping in touch” with photography I like to run through some articles in magazines and read about different approaches people have. I’m mostly interested in landscapes and found out at least few of them, like Landscape Photography Magazine or On Landscape. The point is - I’m not sure if I want to subscribe to all of them, but have very little information about what’s really behind the paywall. For LPM a free version contains mostly images of other readers, headings of articles and ads. Not sure how it looks on On Landscape, as they do not provide anything except one sample issue to take a peak inside.

Since it’s hard to get any paper one where I live, I’m looking mostly to online resources. I also do have many blogs in my RSS feed, although I find articles different (and more pleasing) in form than blog posts.

So, my question is - what online magazines are worth reading, in your opinion?

Take care!
Andrew

João_Ferrão · February 14, 2021, 3:06pm

Hey @Andrzej_Muzaj

I’m a subscriber to On landscape and it is worth it, no doubt about it, and you might also want to look at Lens Work. I read both in digital version.
As blogs go, i would like to get some recommendation also. From the top of my head i recall this two:
Guy Tal
David Ward

Cheers

Andrzej_Muzaj · February 14, 2021, 9:02pm

Hi @João_Ferrão !

Thanks for your reply! I haven’t heard about Lens Work so I’ll take a deepr dive into what they have to offer. Also, I find it reassuring that On Landscape seems to work for you. This one is my number one for now to purchase, when I finally decide.

As for blogs - I’ve read Guy Tal’s “More Than a Rock” but never occurred to me, that he can have his own blog as well. I think I read his articles on other websites, though. I didn’t know David Ward, though - thanks a ton for link to his website!

From my blog resources, strictly landscape related, I can recommend:

Photo Cascadia - I think it could be quite popular here, due to some of the members being members. I especially like Erin Babnik’s articles. She also runs her own blog here.
Luminous Landscape - they venture into other genres (eg. wildlife) but I still like to read some of their articles.
Visual Wilderness - owned (if I’m correct) by Varina and Jay Patel, but other people write there too.

Above were more like a collectives. Now, moving into solo work:

Hope you’ll find something you didn’t alread know.

Take care!

João_Ferrão · February 14, 2021, 9:05pm

Guy is a frequent contributor to On landscape so if you like his articles there’s a plus.
Those names are all familiar but never dwell on their blogs, that I recall (shame on me). Adding them to the list right away.

Harley_Goldman · February 14, 2021, 10:10pm

I really like LensWork. It is not all landscape and they occasionally have some “unusual” portfolios, but the quality is quite good and Guy has a column in it as well.

Bonnie_Lampley · February 15, 2021, 6:11pm

Here’s another vote for On Landscape and Lenswork. I used to have a subscription to both ON and LPM, but I let it LPM go because the content felt more superficial than ON. ON has more philosophical/thoughtful articles than LPM. The latter, to me, was just a venue for over-the-top grand landscape photos.

Lenswork is great. With an on-line subscription you get access to lots and lots of content (podcasts, videos, articles, interview, etc.). Their printed books are gorgeous.

davewallace · February 17, 2021, 1:12am

I recently saw something going around called Elements. It is a digital magazine, no print, looks like 12 issues for 79 bucks. They have some really big names attached to the project, first issue is released in March.

Andrzej_Muzaj · February 17, 2021, 7:46am

Hi @davewallace!

Never heard of Elements before - thank you so much. Lineup for the first issue looks really impressive! I think it might be worth a shot, even if they meet only half of my expectations.

davewallace · February 17, 2021, 10:39am

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about it. I’m not sure how I feel about digital magazines, I don’t have a tablet to read from and I know I wouldn’t read them on my phone!

Andrzej_Muzaj · February 17, 2021, 11:33am

@davewallace I’m reading either on a tablet (bought exactly to read photography books, which don’t work that great with e-book readers) or straight from my computer. I don’t like reading on small screens like smartphones have either. I think I’ll take a chance and try Elements. I’ll let you know what I think.

joaoquintela · February 23, 2021, 9:53am

I too believe “On Landscape” is a must.

Andrzej_Muzaj · March 10, 2021, 2:14pm

I’ve taken advice from @davewallace and bought an Elements subscription first. Here are my thoughts after reading first issue:

Magazine is little over 100 pages, with names such as Hans Strand, Erin Babnik, Bruce Barnbaum, William Neill, Rachael Talibart contributing (among others). Some of them (like Bruce, Erin & Rachel) are going to come back with series of articles on different topics. All articles are strictly landscape oriented (eg. no wildlife, travel, etc.). Now, to pros and cons:

Pros:

Landscape (horizontal) format.
No ads (except of plugs for photographers contributing to the edition, like links to websites or books).
Very clean and minimalistic design.
Photographs look great, even on the 5K monitor (at least some of them, more on that in cons)
Articles were interesting and provided some new perspectives. They also helped me find new photographers to follow (like Ned Pratt) .

Cons:

Some of the images have visible banding to them. It looks like a compression problem, either during export to JPG or during PDF generation process. I contacted editors about that, but they coudln’t replicate what I saw on my monitors (both iMac 27" and iPad mini). It didn’t distract from the picture itself, but was clearly noticable. It was a problem only with three articles though - most of the images were fine, so it could have something to do with provided JPGs.
I found interviews rather short and uninspiring. It seemed like the question weren’t really relevant and some answers were just very flat (one sentence, no explanations). I preferred articles over interviews.

I understand that first issue (or first few issues) might look little unpolished or can have minor issues. I don’t have a referrence to the established one, like ON Landscape (yet!), so I cannot compare those. But I’m looking forward to next issues and next articles from artists I know and like their work. As well as I look forward to finding new ones to get inspiration from.

If you have any specific questions - let me know here or in a PM.

StephJohnPhoto · March 16, 2021, 10:23pm

I have been publishing a quarterly e-magazine called ICM Photography Magazine for a year now. This magazine is dedicated solely to the Art of ICM photography, i.e., Intentional Camera Movement photography.

I know ICM is not mainstream photography and is very niche…but it is gaining in popularity around the world. I’ve now featured nearly 50 photographers, in more than a dozen different countries, and the readership is from more than 40 countries.

The magazine is also advertisement free. And, I have paid every featured photographer who has been published in the magazine from day one. This is a very important aspect of the project…to support other photographers by paying them for their content.

Featured photographer articles are basically just that…showcasing the photographer’s work, along with a written article about their ICM journey and creative philosophies.

Each quarter there are also topic articles about everything from various Art movements, to Mindfulness in photography, to projects working with a specific subject, and more.

The magazine is interactive…links to all photographers personal platforms are all live links. There is also video content in some of the issues.

The magazine also has an ICM exercise for readers to do and then submit their images for possible publication and feedback in the next issue.

And, there is a mentoring opportunity each issue, with a team of ICM photographers known for their ICM work and Environmental work, Leeming & Paterson. Readers can submit to be selected for mentoring and then their mentoring session will be published in the next issue.

All of this, along with a photographer spotlight each quarter - the first four photographer spotlights have been William Neill, Leeming & Paterson, Pep Ventosa, and Freeman Patterson.

I know this kind of content and genre of photography doesn’t appeal to everyone, but the magazine really is about so much more than just presenting pretty pictures for the sake of pretty pictures, and I think there are probably things in each issue that most people can relate to, regardless of the style of photography they shoot.

Anyway, this is the link to the website, if interested in having a look - www.icmphotomag.com.

Single issue prices are $12, and annual subscriptions are $36…so basically, for an annual subscription, you get four issues for the price of three.

And each issue is 300 pages (150 spreads) or more. Quite a bit of content for the price, and all top quality.