February 26, 2008
Monocle anniversary
Congratulations to Tyler Brulé and everyone at Monocle, which this month celebrates its first anniversary.
No big changes to the magazine, but two interesting pieces from Brulé; first, his editorial on the back page is typically self-serving but this time makes some interesting points about why he launched Monocle with a print edition and not solely online. ‘We believe that in a world often preoccupied with chasing the next digital revolution there is considerable scope to innovate using more traditional tools and communication channels’.
He goes on to argue for a return to craft, something picked up in an earlier piece in the issue, where Brulé compares the results of digital and analogue photography and concludes that skin tones ain’t what they used to be. Apparently in Japan, home of the most successful manufacturers of digital cameras, magazine photography remains primarily analogue, while we in the west have casually forgotten that craft in our rush to embrace new technology.
This is an almost forgotten subject, it’s taken for granted that images are digital now, and not enough attention has been paid to the consequent drop in quality. So congratulations again to Monocle for raising the issue.
7 Comments
Comment on February 27, 2008 by richard says:
Comment on February 27, 2008 by marcus says:
All part of what i call the ‘digital devolution’.
Word brought the ability to ‘design’ to the masses, now digital cameras have de-mystified photography in the same way. Polaroid is going out of manufacture, photographers are stock pilling photographic paper and the bar hasn’t been lowered, it’s been dropped. Ok, so you may have struck a nerve here… Perhaps there is something special about an image trapped inside a black box, not to be seen by the subject until printed – but I have not had one decent digital portrait shot in the 8 years I have been commissioning. (br)Tyler is right about skin tones but what about the beauty of the portrait. There is no effort if the subject can ‘approve’ the shot 5 seconds after it’s taken… they are just hi-res party snaps. Film please.
Comment on February 27, 2008 by marcus says:
ps: happy anniversary Monocle.
Comment on February 27, 2008 by Mark says:
Have you seen what they did with the spine?
This one goes to 11. (well, 20)
Comment on February 27, 2008 by Peter says:
I am not really convinced that this is an acute problem right now. If there is a professional behind the lens and a decent chain of calibration in place, results can be great no matter if it´s digital – i can vividly remember a lot of analogue photographs on my desk with skin tones off any chart. The roots of the discussion for me are still at the old crafts that died more or less with the Mac and us designers being silly enough to do the jobs of lithographers and typesetters along with our own, plus the decline in budgets to do intensive proofing. And as much as i like Monocle: there are still lousy profiled pictures in every issue. As long as men look like monkeys in my own magazine, i would not complain about missing craft too loudly.
Comment on February 28, 2008 by LondonLee says:
The craft is still there it just depends if the magazine has the resources and time for proper pre-press work. At my previous magazine they put a lot of care into those things and used a bureau for proofing that knew their stuff color-wise. The magazine I’m at now it’s mostly done in-house, it looks OK but my old eyes notice the difference sometimes.
I still use some photographers who shoot film and I love getting actual prints or transparencies from them but if you’re getting shitty skin tones from a digital shooter it’s their fault, not the technology.
Comment on May 9, 2008 by Professional Glamour Portrait Photography – Stuart Riddell Portrait Design says:
I must say this is a very inspiring post for me. Thank you for this. Interesting read.
