Periodicals:

I have a number of periodicals I read and (sometimes) collect. Unfortunately, most of my favorites have ceased publication.

Currently Circulating:

British Journal of Photography (BJP) – perhaps the single oldest photography magazine in continuous production. Despite the semi-mass market appeal of the magazine including camera, lens and lighting equipment reviews, it takes its time to provide some outstanding portfolios of work.

Aperture – who can not read Aperture? It’s about the oldest non-gear-focused photography magazine still in publication (other than the BJP, which is older, but still mass-market / gear-focused). Almost book-like in size and quality.

Silvershotz – a good portfolio magazine that is still in production (one of the few).

Black and White – the other one still being produced, although they’ve changed the format and pacing, and I have some serious heartburn over the last special issue “best of” annual – it was ripe with bad (and I mean BAD) desaturated HDR. Don’t get me wrong, HDR has its place, and when done well, is seamless and unobtrusive. GOOD HDR I look at and don’t even think “wow, look how good the HDR is in this scene”. This stuff, however, was screaming “look at me, I used HDR and over sharpening in photoshop to the point you can’t BUT think about the technique and not the image!”.

The out of print ones are, as follows:

(Not Only) Blue – a really cool photo portfolio/lifestyle magazine from Australia aimed at a gay male audience. Out of print.

(Not Only) Black and White – the sister periodical to (Not Only) Blue, but aimed at a heterosexual audience. Also out of print.

Provocateur – another gay-oriented photography and art journal. It only lasted two years. But it was beautifully produced while it lasted. If memory serves, it went defunct because the publisher had personal issues that interfered with the publication. Or it could have been money – the bane of almost every magazine. I have four issues – I’d love to collect the rest.

Photographers International – one of the very nicest photography magazines I’ve ever seen. It was published jointly out of Taipei and Boulogne for a while, then became a Taiwanese-only publication, then disappeared altogether. I’ve held hardcover photography books in my hands that were not printed as nicely as this magazine. The paper was card stock, at least quad tone reproduction, which is unusual for an almost exclusively black-and-white magazine, and there were usually about six pages of ads at the front, and another six at the back, out of a hundred-plus pages, with none in the middle disrupting the articles and portfolios. It came out bi-monthly, and in the 1990s it was $18 an issue. If anyone reading this has issues NOT listed below and would like to part with them, please contact me.

I promise I’ll come back through and fix the table later – this is a placeholder. The issue numbers listed, though, are correct.