Printed photographic press

[Bob Michaels]

In the mid-60's, I had several hours in the university library every day. I read Life, Look, Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, and looked at Stern and Paris Match. I developed an appreciation for informative pictures without reference to "photography" as many here relate to it. That influence continues today.

 

[Dogman]

In the mid-60's, I had several hours in the university library every day. I read Life, Look, Saturday Evening Post, National Geographic, and looked at Stern and Paris Match. I developed an appreciation for informative pictures without reference to "photography" as many here relate to it. That influence continues today.

Oh yes indeed. Those magazines played a big role in my childhood. When I was in college I discovered a cache of 1950s Life and Look magazines at an aunt's house. I spent hours pouring over those magazines. In addition to the pictures and stories, the advertising was great. There were brands of automobiles advertised I had never heard of at the time. Henry J? And cigarette ads that extolled the health benefits of smoking.

 

[p.giannakis]

@Bob Michaels
@Dogman

This might be old news but you can find some scanned issues of Life here:

LIFE

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to...

books.google.co.uk

You can also find scanned issues of Popular Photography here:

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

 

[Kai-san]

I still have every issue of the British Black & White Photography magazine between 2001-2006, when Ailsa McWhinnie was the editor, and the content was predominantly about analogue. That magazine was huge for me. I still remember how I bought the first issue and immediately went on a longish trip to India with that single issue in my bag.
In 2006 Ailsa left and with the digital tsunami back then the magazine shifted its focus to digital. That's when I stopped buying it. No idea if it still exists.

Black & White Photography still exists, I've been subscribing for quite a few years. I keep it mainly for the artistic content which is of fairly high quality. Gear reviews are no more than two or three pages and rarely of any interest to me since it's mostly digital. There is not much choice in print magazines these days, in addition to B&W Photography I keep the German PhotoKlassik and the Silvergrain Classics. I find the PhotoKlassik quite interesting with reviews of new films and developers plus reviews of old cameras. It's strictly analog, but you need to be able to read German. I also keep the Norwegian "Fotografi", but it seems to have been hijacked by curators. Lots of fancy talk and almost no pictures. I'll cut it one of these days.

 

[JohnWolf]

Don’t forget those many back pages of store listings in Pop Photo and Modern Photo in what must have been five point type. I spent a lot of time there fantasizing and figuring what I might actually afford. Cambridge and 47th St. Photo were my goto shops. Not sure if they even exist anymore.

John

 

[p.giannakis]

Another big bonus of subscribing to photography magazines were the discounts on certain extras such as photography books. I have a couple issued by Kodak but my favourite is a book containing the pictures of a Greek photographer called Dimitris Harissiadis.

These pictures feel so familiar to me, I feel like I have visited those places and met those people. I got it back in 1994 and whenever I flick through its pages it always evoke good memories.

 

[Erik van Straten]

A long time ago I subscribed to a wonderful Swiss magazine called "Camera". The reproductions of photographs contained therein were beautiful. Yet something was missing from that magazine, namely information about how the photos were created and about how the magazine's subscribers themselves could achieve such results. The photos were also very neat, but you forgot about them as soon as you closed the page. I imagine the magazine is long defunct.

Erik.

 

[p.giannakis]

A long time ago I subscribed to a wonderful Swiss magazine called "Camera". The reproductions of photographs contained therein were beautiful. Yet something was missing from that magazine, namely information about how the photos were created and about how the magazine's subscribers themselves could achieve such results. The photos were also very neat, but you forgot about them as soon as you closed the page. I imagine the magazine is long defunct.

Erik.

The lack of context and my inability to figure out how to do them myself was one of the reasons why I stopped buying the French Foto. Not that it wasn't there, it's just I couldn't read French.

 

[Freakscene]

The lack of context and my inability to figure out how to do them myself was one of the reasons why I stopped buying the French Foto. Not that it wasn't there, it's just I couldn't read French.

I’m a bit of a hoarder. My smart phone and a translator have made me glad I kept a lot of things. I don’t mind going slowly.