Digital BW, The Print

It's a continuing source of hearty chuckles to pick up B/W 
Magazine from time to time. I love to watch the subtle ways that 
they continue to bash digital technology with one hand, and 
somehow manage to accept advertising dollars from companies 
that use digital techniques, with the other hand.

* Page 22: Funny ad from some photographer's group in Long 
Island that have "dedicated themselves to preservation and 
furthering of classical BW photography", blah blah blah. 

Then in the next paragraph they brag how their members' work 
will be digitally archived via CD, DVD, and the Internet.

I wrote them a very serious tongue-in-cheek letter suggesting 
that they all sell their computers and only correspond via manual 
typewriters and USMail.

* Page 7: Publisher again makes note of their continued 
defiance of digital photography. Even though they've featured 
photographers who use digital, this came from a prior promise 
before their philosophical shift. 

* Page 65: Magazine accepts money from full-page 
advertisement from a company called Ataraxia Studio, which 
claims to produce long lasting digital prints with pigments.

* Page 69: Magazine accepts money from full-page 
advertisement for A&I Lab in Los Angeles, who mentions their 
Iris and LightJet printing services.

* Page 142: Magazine accepts money from full-page 
advertisement for Camera West store, which mentions their 
stock of digital cameras.

*Page 144: Magazine accepts money from full-page 
advertisement from PhotoVillage.com, featuring wide range of 
film scanners, scanning services, and Piezo services.

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You can't have it both ways, folks. If you're gonna take a stand, 
take a stand; but with both your mouth AND your pocketbook.

Yet, having said all that, it's still a FINE magazine. One of the very 
best on the stands. But it just makes you wonder what's 
motivating this fear-based policy of resisting digital technology. 
Can't we all just get along?

Just my opinion,

Mark Tucker, http://marktucker.com/

(cross-post)