I’d not before come across ‘The Classic‘, a magazine launched by French dealer and fair promoter Bruno Tartarin and the London based collector and writer Michael Diemar at the end of 2018 and now it its third issue. Again thanks to Michael Pritchard for mentioning it on the British Photographic History blog.
The Classic is a free magazine, dedicated as its name implies to classic photography, and is distributed free at leading photo fairs when they have been able to take place. You can also take out a subscription to be sent the two print issues each year at a price which reflects the high production quality and likely audience.
But you can also download all three editions of the magazine from the web site without charge. And of course if you have something photographic to advertise, the magazine offers the possibility of single or double-page adverts which make the free magazine possible.
Probably I’ve missed it before because I’ve stopped going to photo fairs such as those in London and Paris for various reasons. I’m a photographer and not one of the wealthy collectors and dealers for whom these fairs are designed and run, and there were times at each of these where I was made unwelcome by a few of the those I talked with about the work on display at their booths – at times because I clearly knew more about it than they did.
And though I did enjoy seeing new work, much on display always turned out to be the same old and often uninspiring work by well-known names, sometimes work that had the photographer still been around they would surely have prevented being shown.
I think too that these shows have encouraged some of the worst aspects of contemporary photography, with too many stands showing extremely large and rather empty images. Of course the larger the square footage the higher the price (and the dealer’s cut), and these are images largely produced to decorate corporate foyers where content puts work at a disadvantage.
There are also some minor health reasons. I find standing around tiring and eventually painful, far more so than walking at a normal pace. There generally aren’t many places were you can sit and look at work in photo fairs where exhibitors pay high rates for space.
But if you are missing the photo fair experience, The Classic will provide you with a little respite. And if you have an interest in photography, particularly historic photography, you will also find part of it an interesting read. You can download the three issues from the web site as I have done and there are articles in them all worth reading.