Tuesday 4 January 2011

PORTFOLIO: contemporary photography in Britain.


Over the crimbo holidays I became aware of the demise of PORTFOLIO MAGAZINE. It has been on my magazine purchase list for years so I'm gutted to see it go. Not the cheapest at a tenner, but it only came out a couple of times a year and was packed with some good writing and production values as good as any. If I had one criticism, and hey it's me so of course I have, it was that they sometimes played it a bit safe with the photographers chosen. I rarely came across the work of a photographer I was not already aware of and not seen in plenty of other publications or online. I think it's safe to say 'emerged' rather than 'emerging' was order of the day. Still going to leave a big whole on the shelves of quality magazine shops.

2 comments:

marcus doyle said...

I am surprised at the downfall of Portfolio as it is indeed a quality mag. Just goes to show even with oodles photographers trying to get in the magazine and the mountains of submissions its still not enough..
I guess its a case of why spend a tenner, why you can see the work on line for nowt... Personally I will spend the tenner..
Oh, Happy New Year.

mark page said...

I will spend the tenner as well,and have done my nice pile of Prtfolio magazines will be ice to look back at and may be of interest to someone one day. Hey Laura Noble was in our gallery the other day having a meeting. Not found out why yet. And yes happy new year.