Gomma magazine

Looks interesting but at approx. $12.80 US to Canada, bit pricey for an unknown like this.
 
That's $12.80 US for issue #1, didn't review subscription cost.
 
OK. I ordered one copy. 3 Euro plus 5.50 euro P&P (which IMO is rather expensive for regular mail from the UK). It should be here middle of next week or so.

When I cecked out the seller's statistics on Paypal it seemes like they had sold just 9 copies. However, Paypal states there is a 30 day retention time, so they could have sold a few more. The website states this first edition is limited to 3500 copies.

Well, we'll see how it is....
 
By the way, do you know some magazines which are worth buying ? Magazines only dedicated to photography. Here in France, the only magazines I can find are mainly tests and reviews oriented with amateurish photographs of whatever birds or butterflies taken with a 300mm 😉 - which does not interest me at all.
 
gelmir - PHOTO i have found to be a more than decent french photo mag. Although it did bring me weird looks from colleagues etc, since the cover has a half-naked girl in a very inviting pose. You might not find it in a generic small newsstand but in a shop with a broader range of magazines. At least here in NL that's the case with PHOTO, Black and White UK, and some more.
The april edition is very good (not the girl - the stuff inside. OK, the girl as well.)
Advertisments and "reviews"...you get them everywhere. 🙁
 
I find Ag magazine to be very interesting. It's aimed both at showing the work of (semi/pro) photogs as well as going over (alternative/traditional/digital) shooting/printing/dark room techniques. Se here: http://www.ag-photo.co.uk/ .

I also like Aperture magazine.

I got 1 copy of LensWorks but couldn't be bothered with it much. Very nice mag but not my cuppa tea.
 
Some months ago Ed Schwartzreic was talking about LHSA magazine. He had a few copies left with the review of the R-D1 that he was giving away. I guess my PM never made it to him, sadly. I would have liked to see the mag and the review. Reportedly, it's a nice mag as well.
 
My list (and I subscribe to all of these):

1) Amateur Photographer (UK): http://www.amateurphotographer.com/
2) Black and White Magazine (UK): http://www.thegmcgroup.com/
3) Shots Magazine: http://www.shotsmag.com/
4) Lens Work: http://www.lenswork.com/
5) Juxtapoz: http://www.juxtapoz.com/ (not a 'photography' mag, but that's still why I read it).
6) Shutterbug: http://www.shutterbug.net
7) Rangefinder Magazine: http://www.rangefindermag.com (I was clued to this one here)

I will buy Popular Photography and Photographic on the stand if I see them and happen to think about it, but if I don't, I don't mind missing them; they're mostly ads, junk, and reviews that I have little respect for.

It costs a mint to subscribe to B&W Magazine in the USA - it is a weekly magazine. Well worth it, in my opinion. I read it primarily for Ivor Mantanle and old-what's-his-name who graces the back page. Pure dynamite, and greatly enjoyable.

Shots is the best magazine of hardcore B&W photography that there is, period, say no more.

Lenswork is the best magazine of art B&W photography that there is.

All in my humble opinion, of course.

But for pure photo-magazine brilliance - I paw through my growing collection of photography and camera magazines from the 1900's through the 1970's. They grow in brilliance and relevance starting in about 1942, and topping out in about 1972, then they begin their decline to the sad state they maintain today.

You have NO IDEA what a photography magazine can be like until you've picked up a 1958 issue of Popular Photography or Modern Photography or The Camera and read through it. Great articles, great interviews, equipment is reviewed without that need to call everything 'great' and 'fantastic' and 'breakthrough' and so on - superlatives seem to be held back for actually cool stuff. Amazing to see what they were predicting for the future of photography back then, too. I've read articles from the 1950's where they were talking about using electrically-charged plastic film to hold an image - no, they didn't have the concept of the ultra-tiny computers on board or the CMOS sensors, but they understood well enough where things were headed. INCREDIBLE! And you can buy a stack of the musty old things from shutter bugs who are moving to old-folks' homes and need to clear them out - 5 bucks for a couple year's subscriptions. Great good fun, for a geek like me.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
gelmir said:
By the way, do you know some magazines which are worth buying ? Magazines only dedicated to photography. Here in France, the only magazines I can find are mainly tests and reviews oriented with amateurish photographs of whatever birds or butterflies taken with a 300mm 😉 - which does not interest me at all.
Hey Gelmir,
Are you talking about Chasseur d'Images? I hate this mag, both the content (which is close to what you describe) and the tabloid style of writing (every other sentences ends with an exclamation mark! Sometimes even two!!).
Seriously, I quite like Reponses Photo. Sure, the scope of the articles is broader than most "arty" mags such as Gomma, but I usually find the content to be interesting, informative and of decent quality. Also, they seem to have taken a stance in support of traditional, film-based B&W photography lately, which makes them very respectable to me.
Cheers
Vincent
 
I have also take a look on the Gomma magazine. Its looks great! I have order one copy of Issue No. 1 and have pay 8.50 Euro for it.

Its a cool idea, that Gomma will benefits the Childcare Foundation of Klong Toey in Bangkok with the income from this magazine! A really great idea!
 
Gomma magazine looks interesting. I subscribe to Aperture and it is excellent. Bill I also subscribe to Shots and it is a great magazine as well. Sometimes the emphasis on the toy camera photography (Holga, Diana, etc) becomes a little redundent but it is still a fine magazine for B&W photography. What is really cool about Aperture is that it is based in the USA but features photographers from all over the world. I now collect old isssues of Aperture and the older they are the more expensive they are. A few months back, 24 isssues of Aperture from the early to mid 1950's, in excellent condition, sold for over 600.00 on ebay.
 
To answer the original question: I've ordered one a few months ago and I like it.
It's just photo's (by 12 photographers), no text. Most of them are in colour but there are quite a few b/w in there too.
In a way it feels a bit like a Lomohome (I hope that's not a bad word around here) and I mean that in the most positive way. Maybe it's the X-pro pics that make me think that.

Fancy some pics?
 
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Hey, RDW.

You are right if you say, that Aperture is also a very good magazine. But.. i would order the current issue from the Aperture.org site to test the quality of the magazine but they didnt accept my credit card! Gomma, Shots and Lenswork have no problem with my card!

So i must say: bye bye Aperture... If you dont need my money...
 
I'm bored by photo mags. I much prefer to look at advertising, fashion, and fresh journalistic work. Somebody found it "good" enough to pay for it, a meaningful measure. And for those who say pros aren't more subtle, and more responsive to the world around us than amateurs, my answer is a Bronx cheer. Braaaaaak!

The stuff that winds up in photo mags tends to be amateur/inferior or antique/precious/professional...not turn-ons. There certainly are exceptions, and I do buy a photo mag every couple of months from a news-stand, but there's rarely anything as exciting as in every Sunday's New York Times or online Al Jazeera.

And......I don't think Aperture, Minor White's once-important creation, retains any merit or deserves to survive.
 
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Hey djon.

Hmm.. Photojournalistic.. This is a word, what is not exist in german magazines! The medias are to fastliving. There are no place for a long and good photo reportage. The new "Stern View" magazine for example, was a completly failture (in my eyes). It would be a reportage magazine but really is a pool for "publish my photo on the magazine" horny (sorry for this, but my anger needs air) peoples! Its the false way..

But the hopening died at last... There is a magazine from Switzerland called 500ex with is a really good photo reportage magazine! Coming sixmontly, there is enought time to get a good reportage!

So, i take place from the Aperture magazine. Its to expensive (65 $ are to many for 4 magazines) and i think i will pay the name, not the magazine... 😡

I will take a closer look on 500ex, Shots and Gomma.
 
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