Bulb magazine 14

Dear BLUR magazine fans, supporters, art lovers and photography junkies – friends:

During our long journey together, we've done something wonderful; we've created a beautiful digital magazine devoted to the art of photography. Over the years, it has grown steadily in popularity and acceptance. Your continued support, praise, criticism, and understanding have helped us build this magazine to a level of quality that is unrivaled by many much more expensive e-zines and—if we do say so ourselves—many printed magazines as well.

That's because, like you, the editors and staff of BLUR believe that art should be accessible and hassle free. We all believe that art is its own purpose, understood by those of us who absorb each new photographic discovery eagerly and hungrily, and it’s understood by those of you who relentlessly send in photography suggestions and upload your work to be featured for the rest of us to enjoy.

We understand that art has a purpose far greater than financial benefits and far more important than sales figures. From day one, our staff has been a hard-working, devoted team of volunteers. Our editors financed many of BLUR's recurring expenses out of their own pockets, giving what they could, even when they couldn't. Many of our volunteer editors have come and gone over the years, depending on the time they had to spare, and our small core team managed its work as well as it could. We even changed the magazine’s release dates from monthly to quarterly to mitigate the workload and financial strain of the project. But the growth of BLUR has become too much of a burden for such a small team to bear alone, and the struggles won’t be solved by fresh volunteer blood or by spreading the work any thinner. Our donated servers are far too limited to serve the tens of thousands (and counting!) of readers who want our material, and our local team has been impacted by the financial crisis as everyone else has, some working two jobs to support their families with BLUR taking up the precious time left over.

The time has come for BLUR to have a price in order to survive and continue to thrive. But we don't feel comfortable in setting that price. We are here to support art. So, we will allow you, the valued readers of BLUR, to decide how much you're willing to spend for the latest issues of BLUR with a minimum price set at an essentially symbolic $1.00.

The older issues of our magazine, when it was still known as BULB, will remain completely free. They are a part of our heritage, developed with a different team with less emphasis on quality and a somewhat different concept. We consider it a separate beast altogether—a cherished piece of our history that will remain forever available to anyone who wishes to reminisce.

As for BLUR—this is your art as much as it is ours. We respect whatever value you attach to it, and we hope you'll understand and support this decision as much as you’ve understood and supported all the others we've made during the past five years. You helped us get here, and we hope you'll help us keep the shutters clicking for many more years to come.

Thank you,

Your BLUR Team