Do NOT buy Photographer’s i
UPDATE: I went a bit overboard with this post, and I’m sorry as I sort of said here. However, once something’s bolted on the internet there’s little point in closing the gate, so I’ll leave this here. However, I have cut a few bits which went too far. Please note - nobody asked me to do this.
A couple of days ago I posted a review of the e-magazines “Photographer’s i” and “Photograph”. I now regret this - or rather, I regret that I implied that “Photograph” was in the same space as “Photographer’s i”. It isn’t. David duChemin, and his publishing company, Craft & Vision, have an unblemished reputation for integrity and quality. Ilex Press Ltd, the outfit behind “Photographer’s i”, have dropped the ball here though.
Let me explain:
Up until Issue 3, Photographer’s i (bit of a stupid name, by the way), was doing great. It featured high quality content, a range of interesting and sometimes renowned contributors, and great photography. Then Issue 4 went missing in action. The release schedule was supposed to be bi-monthly - which seemed very ambitious, but nobody forced it on them. Now Issue 4 has turned up. Let’s see what it’s got:
- An editorial by Adam Juniper. Who the hell is he ?
- 14 sections on various aspects of technique, blatantly recycled from Michael Freeman’s vast back catalogue
- A single totally out of context page of “Pring’s Photographer’s Miscellany”, which almost looks like part of an article which got included by mistake. This is the only “contributing author” section - 1 page of utterly tedious trivia
What’s gone:
- Editor Michael Freeman, apparently
- Executive Editor Marti Saltzman
- Editing, basically
- Nothing, zilch, nada about photographers, portfolios etc
- Zero meaningful contributors
The is a weak excuse that this is actually A TOTALLY DIFFERENT PUBLICATION, called, wait for it, “Photographer’s i Plus”, although this is not mentioned on their website, or in the App Store, or indeed anywhere in the Issue except the introduction by Who-The-Hell-Is Adam Juniper.
Clearly, “Photographer’s i” got tangled up in it’s own ambition, and/or Michael Freeman got bored / fell out with the publisher, or whatever, but basically imploded. And what we’re seeing now is a “contractual obligation album” to try to placate irate subscribers.
