I very much enjoy Lenswork and the additional books / musings that Brooks Jensen has put out. I enjoy the lack of vague over-abstract artists statements, the (perceived) lack of bias towards the gallery set in accepted submissions, the production standards and the clear and concise presentation.

The bottom line is that I find value in his material and the material he publishes.

My question is: who else am I missing? Are there other publications like this that I've not seen? For those of you that consider Lenswork to be top-notch, what else do you consider top notch?

Only a couple of issues in I like Color Magazine. I think it is by the people who make black and white magazine. (Or something like that.)

I haven't seen Color Magazine. B&W Magazine by the same publisher is pretty good. The print/production quality is not as good as Lenswork, and the work they publish is a little more varied so it's sometimes hit or miss for me, but it's worth the subscription price IMHO.

I don't think you're going to find anything else exactly like Lenswork though.

How the heck did you subscribe to the magazine. It's not available for ordering through Amazon, and I can't even find a @#$# website. They didn't choose a very web-savvy name for it, that's for sure.

Jeff,

I figured it should be an easy google to find it, but it wasn't. There seem to be many "color magazines", some having to do with "persons of color" or with "skating". But I finally found it. The home page is here and it is called "color-mag.com." I hope this helps. I think I'll spring for a free trial issues myself, now that I know where it is.


Eric

I didn't. I've been picking it up at Borders.

I see no web site on their subscription form or in any of the obvious locations. Beats Camera Bastards^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^hArts full email box, I suppose. (Bastards.)

Thanks. I tried colormagazine.com, colormag, and a few others but didn't think to try the hyphen and didn't see it in the google results. Like I said, pretty stupid name for a new magazine if you want people to be able to find it on the web. Also lame that they don't have online subscription ordering.

Color Magazine is almost as bad as naming a band "The Music." Their debut album was also called The Music. Not knowing any of the tracks (heard it on radio), finding them was an exercise in online contortions.

Shockingly current google seems to find the band as first link, even without hyphens.

I'll have to check them out next time I'm near a Borders. Do you know if BarneyNoble carries it?

I didn't see it when I was there today. But I already have the current issue so I really wasn't looking.

Correct.
Color Magazine is put out by the same group that bought Henry Rassmussen's Black and White magazine. It has some of the same virtues and vices; decent (though not Lenswork-caliber) reproduction quality, an eclectic mix of photography varying from excellent to hokey to WTF?. The first few issues include a series of articles intended to place color photography in historical & artistic perspective, but the quality of the analysis and writing is pedestrian at best. Nowhere near Brooks Jensen's gimlet-eyed realism or the sarcastic erudition of J.D. Coleman. There's a welcome review of Elliot Porter's pioneering color photography, but then there's also fawning homage to Maggie Taylor's hokey collages. It's apparent that the publisher smiles upon a certain group of favored 'artists', which is surely his prerogative; but I find his choices pretty disagreeable so far.

I don't see myself subscribing; the gold-to-dross ratio is unfavorable. As always, YMMV.

I used to get B&W too some years ago, but gave up in disgust for the very reasons you mentioned. Added to that, I considered the Special Issue prices a poor joke. Not only a joke in monetary terms but also in content/value terms. The main winners were excellent, but I couldn´t lose the impression that the rest of the stuff was just there to make up the numbers, keep the mills turning and produce a product to sell at an inflated price.

That doesn´t even begin to address the issue of the perceived hype (in my eyes) that was making me feel embarrassed to be reading it. Obviously, I quit.

I suppose that it reflects the reality of life: so much stuff around but such little of it of value.

Rob C

Rob, Seems to me the hype level has been rising for years in most publications that deal with photography, painting, poetry, you name it. B&W and Color aren't alone in that. Brooks Jensen is the one-of-a-kind writer who tells it like it is. Everyone who aspires to do serious photography (beyond tourist snapshots) should be required to read Brooks's Letting Go of the Camera before they're allowed to trip a shutter.

Jeff and Feppe, I'd agree that "Color" is a pretty stupid name for a magazine, but how about "Black and White," which is the real name of what we all call "B&W?" I'm sure the moniker "Black and White" explains why the spin-off mag was named "Color."

I had a quarter page ad in the second edition of Color, betting on the come. I'll have a half-page in the fourth issue. If I can't rake in some chips after that one I'll probably back off from the whole art magazine approach.

Russ

I once contacted a Scottish lad who had taken a quarter-page in B&W's rear section with a view to finding out if it had proven useful for him. He replied that it had opened the door to a gallery somewhere in the States but I don´t think any sales came directly via the advertisement he´d placed. Unfortunately, I have long lost his address, but I do still have the magazines I had bought. However, I have also misplaced the energy and drive that would push me to checking those things out again - for now. Perhaps in the winter?

Rob C

Rob,

Cole Thompson is a friend of mine. You may have seen some of this work. He does black and white exclusively, and it's quite good stuff. He's run ads in B&W off and on for a long time. A year or so ago he had a large spread in B&W with an Auschwitz ghost series. He's the one who suggested I take a shot at Color. A couple years ago I had a five page color spread in Focus. I paid for that one. Considering the coverage I got, it was a bargain, but I drew a blank with that too. I suspect the problem is that my work is pretty much from a different era. I don't do the kind of manipulation B&W and Color seem to like -- the kind of thing that makes you wonder if the photographer dropped his camera. That's also the kind of stuff you'll find in most galleries nowadays -- with the exception of a couple galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I should add that I don't worry about it. I love to make photographs, but, as I think I said once before, though I may not be the world's worst marketer, when he dies, I'm in.

I remember those images, haunting and beautiful. I do agree with some of the criticisms others have voiced at B&W, but there's still enough worthwhile content in there to make it worth reading IMHO.

The name jogged(rattled actually)a memory of that being in Lens Work Extended, Issue #81 "Ghosts of Auschwitz and Birkenau", 18 images with audio interview.
Looks like the next issue(#83) is dedicated to and about photographer Bill Jay.

Fantastic!

I've ordered a trial subscription of B&W - and for the life of me can't figure out how to do that with Color. You can apparently only send in the little coupon looking thing to subscribe? I'll pick it up at B&N.

I think it's safe to say that Lenswork is in a class all by itself. To put it simply, it's required reading.