Color Magazine Joining B&W

[RSL]

I just got my April B&W and found that, as Tom Toldrian, the publisher puts it, "We were a bit optimistic in our assessment of the magazine market." As a result, they're going to join Color and B&W. B&W will be top dog and will continue to be the name of the mag, but color will be added as a separate section. Mr. Toldrian says "The publication schedule for the year includes four combination issues, two B&W special issues and two Color special issues.

I'm sorry to see Color fold, but I ws never too happy with the mag's emphasis on color as an object in itself.

Incidentally, the April B&W is a stunner with large sections on John Gutman and David Goldblatt.

[PhillyPhotographer]

I'm not surprised.

[RSL]

Michael, Neither am I. When Color first appeared it seemed like a bridge too far, and when I saw that the editors didn't really understand the function of color in photography I was pretty sure it wasn't going to last long. Today my special issue of Color arrived with this year's single image contest winners, and all you have to do is flip through the mag to see why it couldn't survive, though there's some good stuff in there. The difference in quality between the current B&W and the current Color is astonishing. It's clear that the editors never were able to make the jump from black and white to color. Sad though, it was a brave attempt.

[Rob C]

Russ

Whilst I have a stack of early B/Ws, I never saw the Colour version. Where lay its flaws?

Rob C

[RSL]

Rob, If you can lay hands on the current "special issue" of Color, thumb through it. You'll see the problem immediately. The folks who are laying out Color don't understand that color is best used as a way to help illustrate concrete reality. Yes, some color abstraction is fun and interesting, but painting can do that kind of thing much, much better than photography can. Photographic abstraction goes all the way back at least to Moholy-Nagy, and the earlier stuff only pops up nowadays as a novelty, to demonstrate the creative sidelines of some early photographers. There are very few illustrations of concrete reality in Color mag, not that there haven't been a few splendid examples of it. But most of what's in the magazine is the same old boring soft focus or hard focus abstraction with the emphasis on color as an end in itself. I can understand why advertisers weren't enchanted. I had a couple ads in the early issues of Color, but I switched to B&W when I saw what was happening.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Ironically, while Color and B&W are merging, Lenswork -- that bastion of Black and White Only -- has recently polled its subscribers to find out if they would like color to be included in the magazine. Personally, I hope they don't add color.

As for Color magazine, I thumbed through one issue on a newstand quite a while ago and came to the same conclusion Russ did. So I hope B&W mag doesn't get watered down too much with highly saturated trivia.

Eric

[RSL]

Eric, I agree. I got polled and said "no color." That was before B&W decided to merge with Color mag. Now I'm doubly glad I said "no."

[Geoff Wittig]

It seems self-evident that tacking on an appendix of color photos will only detract from the quality and focus of Black & White magazine. I can understand the urge to retrieve something from the collapse of Color, but hanging the millstone around the neck of Black & White is likely to be counterproductive, serving only to weaken the flagship publication. Just my two cents, but the last year or two of Black & White cannot bear comparison to its first two years. A further qualitative decline may be fatal.

For most people, color photography just means 'photography'. As others have noted, without a stringent focus on imagery for which color was the central aesthetic value, the target was just too broad. It's also far too easy for such work to quickly devolve down to the hypersaturated Flickr aesthetic.

[Rob C]

I've just checked my pile: I have most of them from Issue 4, Winter 1999 to Issue 60, 2008.

I was really taken with it when I first stumbled upon it in the newsagents here, but by the time I bought my last one, I had decided that it was just a machine pumping out a stream of rubbish along with the rare nugget: mining became too expensive to be worth the reward. And I put the blame squarely on the Special Issues that were, in my eyes, total rip offs.

A shame, but that was my experience.

Yet, if your memory takes you back to the 50s, you may remember the Popular Photography Annuals which also featured a Colour Annual. I found them both wonderful sources of interesting photographs and there I met the work of so many people that I later came to recognize as stars. I have not heard of the Annuals since; wonder if they still happen. Could be that part of the problem mags face is that people are so much more aware of, and bombarded by images in these current times; nothing much amazes anymore. Sad.

Rob C

[Rob C]

Well, having made a millisecond decision this morning, I walked into the newsagent's shop owned by my French friend who used to have the now closed bookshop across the road. Sitting on shelves was some of the former bookshop's stock, amongst which Helmut Newton's Sumo, but in the smaller size. I made the second millisecond decision of the morning and put down the credit card. I now have a cute little perspex folding X-frame book table sitting alongside the HP printer with Mr Newton's oeuvre sitting with its caress. And I'm the one who made disparaging noises about paying tonorrow for what one buys today...

At least I can look at it standing up and save the strain on both back and deep veins!

The Escort is now repaired and I await confirmation of the new insurance deal before picking it up... feels quite romantic; somewhat like discovering a teenage crush, except that I married mine. I'm definitiely getting confused - best go for a walk along the coast now.

;-)

Rob C 

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Rob,

Just to clarify, please remember that you married your wife, but only had an affair with the car.

Eric

[Rob C]

Rob,

Just to clarify, please remember that you married your wife, but only had an affair with the car.

Eric

I know, I know, but it was one of those on-off-on again things, it seems. With the car, that is.

One thing about the Sumo purchase this morning: beint the size it is, it gives me a very clear idea about print quality (films) and I am pleased to say that I feel no sense of being a lesser printer than was the guy(s) Newton used. That alone is a prize worth paying for, in my view. Something else I note is that some ladies of a certain shelf age would have done better to have kept their audience in mind of them at their peak; this isn't a sexist attack at all - just that beauty doesn't last for anyone, and why ruin illusions? To have built up all that mystique and then blow it in one ill-advised photo shoot too far - did he hypnotize them all?

But en masse, his work sure shows him to have a certain style about him. Love the irony of his shots into mirrors; nudes and himself with (dirty?) raincoat and bent over his Rollei...  dear me!

Rob C

[PhillyPhotographer]

As someone that has been in the last two Special Editions of B&W Magazine I agree that it's getting harder to find good work in those editions and I hope they make some better choices in the future. Yes I also submitted to the upcoming Portfolio Issue  . I think LensWork stays all black and white even though I'm not a subscriber anymore. I just wasn't excited about many of the issues over the last year and a half except for the last one, issue #92. I will keep an eye on it and purchase individual issues or even subscribe again if I like what I see. I have every issue from #18 to #92.

[Rob C]

As someone that has been in the last two Special Editions of B&W Magazine I agree that it's getting harder to find good work in those editions and I hope they make some better choices in the future. Yes I also submitted to the upcoming Portfolio Issue  . I think LensWork stays all black and white even though I'm not a subscriber anymore. I just wasn't excited about many of the issues over the last year and a half except for the last one, issue #92. I will keep an eye on it and purchase individual issues or even subscribe again if I like what I see. I have every issue from #18 to #92.

I think it's really just a basic problem that faces all magazines at some time or another: they run out of puff, originality or supply of fresh material. The 'how to' ones are worse, as are women's interest productions. They become an annual cycle - they end up depending on the seasons and the essentials, which once you grasp them, fail to hold your interest in the magazine any further. What happens is that they come to depend on fresh readers treading the same old path, but for the first time. The end of readership continuity is virtually built in from the start or, at least, that's how they affected my buying patterns.

Still think it's a shame that the original B/W ethic waned more than somewhat; would have liked to have had something to which I could look forward to buying every now and again.

Rob C

[PhillyPhotographer]

Ok, I just had a chance to look at this issue. I did see a handful of good photographs but the majority were bad. To elaborate i mean that there were a lot that looked like art work and not photography. Also I have a suspicion that the magazine itself over-saturated the images because it looks like it was done across the board. 

[PhillyPhotographer]

LensWork

Remaining True to Our Roots

We want to thank all of you who responded to our recent survey to determine our readers' interest in seeing color portfolios in LensWork. As most of you know, LensWork has been printed in black-and-white since Issue #1 in 1993. We're fully aware that much has changed over the past 18 years, and thought it was time to check-in with our readers.

We are delighted to report that the overwhelming feedback encouraged (even begged) us to continuing featuring black-and-white work only in LensWork, and to maintain our high-quality duo-tone printing. Even so, readers stated that they enjoy the inclusion of color work in LensWork Extended (our PDF-based DVD edition). So, the results of the survey confirmed that our predipositions for both versions of LensWork are in perfect synchronicity with over 80% of our readers!

Of course, a publisher can't be all things to all people, but we always endeavor to provide content that is valued and useful to the greater percentage of our readers. Thanks again for all your feedback — and your passion for those lovely monochrome images!