Announcing BLUR 24
BLUR 24 will be online 1 December. Until then, here is a glimpse of what you can expect.
ACE + IMPOSSIBLE:
GALLERY AND CONTEST | Together with Ace Hotel, Impossible has not only created a beautiful Film Edition but also presented the superb exhibition “24 hours at Ace” presenting Impossible artworks by artists such as Adam Goldberg, Chloe Aftel, Elijah Wood, Pat Sansone and many more.
For a follow-up show in August 2012 Ace is collecting submissions of everyday and exalted Impossible images at an ever-evolving gallery at acehotel.com/impossible. Ace’s ad hoc panel of romantics and analog enthusiasts will co-curate a physical gallery show at Ace Hotel New York in fall 2012, comprised of selected shots from this community gallery.
Come check out the growing collection and pick your favorites or submit your own.
Designer in Action
Germany is discovering BLUR thanks to Designer in Action web portal. Danke Deutchland! 
“25.09.2011 | Das internationale E-Magazine »BLUR« hat eine neue Ausgabe herausgebracht. Die PDF-Datei umfasst 209 Seiten mit Fotostrecken und Interviews.
Gegründet wurde das digitale Magazin 2007, um die kreative Fotografie zu fördern. Es soll gleichzeitig einen Treffpunkt für Fotografen aus aller Welt darstellen.
BLUR 23 is online
New issue of BLUR is now online. Find out here what to expect in BLUR 23 and download your PDF magazine issue here
Blur newsletter
BLUR NEWSLETTER is now available! Make sure you don’t miss any new issues of your favorite PDF magazine BLUR. Subscribe here to our newsletter and we will keep you informed.
Thank you Caborian
In August most of BLUR’s readers (around 3.000) came from Spain courtesy of an article featured on the website of a photo association Caborian. Thank you! J
En agosto la mayoría de los lectores de BLUR (aproximadamente 3.000) fueron de España por cortesía de un artículo publicado en la página web de la asociación fotográfica Caborian. ¡Gracias! J
Editorial column, no.22
Finally, the time has come for the Blur exhibition. I say “finally”, because this idea goes back 3-4 years, since the very beginnings of our magazine. I’ve bothered many people about it, but regardless of how good it sounded as an idea, things never went ahead as planned. Obviously we needed the right editorial team: Tomislav, Ivana and Tea, who turned this dream of mine into reality. They did their job by professionally organizing a big and demanding exhibition, a real treat for every true photography buff.
We named the exhibition Blur Photo 011, and it is a selection of the photos we’ve published in the past year. Recently, while talking to a person who has never read the Blur magazine I had to explain what’s so special about our photo magazine, and also about the photos at the exhibition. The question came immediately after discussing the camera I was holding in my hands, so it wasn’t difficult to follow up on the issue we just discussed.
You need the right tool for the job – as everyone who ever tried to do a demanding job can tell you.
Unlike many other professions, photography is actually in its essence not that demanding, so it’s strange how some photographers are willing to spend endless hours discussing tools. Of course, we cannot simplify and banalize the issue completely, because there are different photography tasks and processes – some are more and some less demanding.
There are no rules, but regardless of the tastes and differences, somehow today we get an impression that photography is always overshadowed by the photographic tools. Whether we speak of photo magazines or web sites, the quantity of material dedicated to tools, when compared to what is dedicated to the photographer or photographs themselves, is simply unbelievable.
In Blur, the tools are irrelevant. Here the tools are secondary, compared to the photos and photographers. We don’t really care what you used to take that photo and how the photo came to be. Our philosophy is quite simple: we provide the space for the photographer and his/her photos regardless of the tools used to produce the photo. The focus is only on the creativity. And, who would have thought it: such a simple approach was enough to make us unique, and we get so many different photos in one place. Therefore, this exhibition is interesting and different, and should be seen, even if only online .
Robert Gojević | founder | editor in chief
Japan
In light of recent earthquake and the following disasters in Japan, the staff, authors and the collaborators of BLUR magazine express their sincere and heartfelt sympathies to the people of Japan. To all Japanese people and in particular to our friends from Japan whose photos we have published, or are yet to publish, we wish a speedy recovery. Our thoughts are with Japan and with the Japanese people.
Editorial column, no.21
Maybe to someone it will look a bit ridiculous when I say that we in BLUR magazine strive to be like the Enterprise crew from Star Trek. As silly as it sounds, that’s the truth. On one hand, we like the idea of presence in an infinite space, in our case the cyber world, which allows us to collaborate with authors from all parts of world and to address to readers from around 180 countries. On the other hand, the crew of this spaceship was successful because the team consisted of people of different cultures and backgrounds. Therefore, BLUR magazine entered the 2011 with a bigger, multicultural team. In addition to the already well-known colleagues from Croatia, BLUR is now collaborating with Mark Sink from the U.S., future editor of Wet Plate, Jennifer Rumbach from Germany, future editor of the Instantion, Michael McAllister from the U.S., proofreader, and Jennifer Henriksen from Canada who has been editing the Playstick section from recently.
Given the aim of focusing more on the infinite space that the Internet technology enables, from next issue BLUR magazine will be issued in English version only. At this moment Croatian independent cultural scene is in a difficult stage and our statistics show that most of the Croatian readers prefer to download the English version, which is why we, until further notice, decided to suspend the Croatian edition of BLUR. We believe how most of our loyal readers from Croatia will not feel this necessary change, while our international editorial board will get more capacity to conquer the cyber world.
In the end, it is my pleasure to announce a great treat for all Polaroid fans; the exhibition “The Best of Polaroid photos” in photo gallery Lang in Samobor. Beside the thirty authors who won our last year’s competition, we will present the works of our Instantion editor, Jennifer Rumbach and a series of photographs ‘Famous Faces’ by Mark Sink, recorded in the 80-is, in which he captures many celebrities from the showbiz and the art world of New York.
Robert Gojević
editor in chief
Editorial column, no.20
Samobor is a small idyllic town near Zagreb where the only professional gallery specialized in photography in Croatia is situated. It is called photo gallery Lang. Although small in its size, the gallery is truly grand because of its expertise and contribution to Croatian photography. Moreover, many famous cultural institutions would be envious of the gallery’s rich and high quality program.
BLUR magazine has been successfully cooperating with the gallery for several years now, recognizing in it the potential and the kind of driving force that also motivates our team members. Therefore, in order to help this unique Croatian house of photography, BLUR magazine is the gallery’s official media sponsor and creator of its website www.fotogalerija-lang.com.
It is in this gallery, courtesy of its program advisor, Mr. Želimir Koščević, where BLUR magazine will organize an international exhibition of Polaroid photography entitled The Best Photo which will be staged in March 2011. On this exhibition 30 small masterpieces selected by our expert panel among several hundred photographs from all over world will be presented.
Since most of our readers around the world probably don’t know much about Samobor, I must emphasize that this is a city with rich history in photography. Fotokemika is a name surely familiar to every analogue photography fan. This worldly known manufacturer of photo films was established exactly in Samobor in 1947. Also, it was in Samobor, back in the 1924, where Tošo Dabac, a master of Croatian photography which we presented in BLUR magazine and through web site www.tosodabac.com, firstly came into contact with photography.
However, only some people know that Samobor has another great icon of Croatian photography which comes from the very end of the 19th and the early 20th century. This is a stereography photographer Franjo Bahovec; an entrepreneur, world traveler and passionate amateur photographer who, apart from very intimate photos of his wife and photos of his city Samobor, did some amazing historic shoots of large cities such as New York. This extremely interesting and valuable legacy, until today, has been presented to the public on two exhibitions in photo gallery Lang. It is our great pleasure to announce the world premiere of Franjo Bahovac’s work that we will extensively present in the following four BLUR issues.
But let’s say something more about our twentieth issue. There is a very good reason why BLUR is read in the whole world and why some professionals think of it as the best online photo magazine. It is because our team is driven by a desire of providing high quality content from various aspects of photography, world expansion and internationalization of the editorial – with the aim to create a unique photo journal. We are proud to announce our new editor of Playstick, Jennifer Henriksen from Canada, also known as Holga Jen, a photographer and a passionate toy camera user. In addition, we are introducing a new section called Wet Plate where we will present the truly mystical and romantic works shoot with this antique photo technique. Finally, we decided to give another perspective of the world of photography which is why we interviewed Suzanne Pastor, a respected collector of photo artworks who revealed her experiences in the photography market.
Enjoy!
Robert Gojević
editor in chief
Editorial column, no.19
How time flies… It has been exactly one year since we made some changes in Bulb’s editorial team, which resulted in an unexpected name change, but also introduced some novelties in the structure of our magazine.
During the whole year we have been working a lot, and in most cases the results exceeded our expectations. Although personally I never doubted the success of BLUR project, statistical indicators, which always tell more than only words, justified my trust and gave me even more confidence. So let’s see together what has been done during the last year.
We ‘legalized’ BLUR magazine by registering a non-governmental and non-profit association F.U.C.* (Photography Association CREATUS), which is the official publisher of BLUR;
In collaboration with cinema Europa we launched a successful program FULL CIRCLE (HR: PUNI KRUG) with the aim of supporting the talented semiprofessional and amateur photographers. Until now, we staged four exhibitions within the program;
In collaboration with Archive Tošo Dabac that works within Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb we created a photo exhibition Zagreb, now and then;
We organized two international and one local photo competition;
We were an exclusive media partner of the Dutch The Impossible project that brought Polaroid photography back to life;
We created a web page dedicated to the great Croatian photographer from the 20th century, Tošo Dabac, which is available in both Croatian and English;
We designed and launched the web page for the professional Croatian photo gallery Lang from Samobor;
We published four standard BLUR issues and one special edition dedicated to Polaroid. All in all, around 2500 pages;
We have been enjoying (and still are) great media attention. In the last year we had around 200 media announcements and several interviews in print media, on the radio and TV;
Finally, as the result of above mentioned actions, we registered over 450.000 page views from around 160 countries form all over the world, and 50.000 downloads of both Croatian and English versions of BLUR magazine. However, taking into consideration also other distribution channels, such as e-mail, USB etc., we believe that the actual figure is much, much larger.
Having in mind that in 2009 BLUR was recognized as one of top 40 photo magazines in the world, no doubt that now we are reaching the very top!
What is next, how to continue? Today we are much smarter and more experienced, because , besides the many successes, we also had some failures that shook us up from our somewhat immature fantasies. And despite all the challenges, we became more realistic and stronger, more confident in what we do. Our team has grown again, and we are looking forward to new success stories: we certainly do not lack any plans, wishes and ambitions.
Editorial column, no.18
Probably until now I have never starred so long into the screen, trying to write editor’s word. I thought of many different opening lines, however, nothing sounded suitable. Some close friends would say that I became a bit numb after becoming a dad again, because all these sleepless nights and sudden change of lifestyle left a big impact on me . Luckily, a good organization and many interesting photographs and projects that we received enabled putting together of this issue much faster then usually. We even have a lot of materials ready for the next issue. I am especially delighted with this because it meant no stress and last minute actions, which left us enough time to upgrade some things to a higher level. Still, regardless how good planner you are, there are always some unexpected rules of nature that influence the editorial and which can always destabilize a bit something that is patiently being built. Therefore, some actions that we undertake may seem as an analog photographing where you never know what the end result will be like.
I would like to thank specially to the readers that write to us and send us their comments, so I find it necessary to give them some answers to the two questions we most commonly receive in our editorial. The first one is when BLUR will be published in print version? Never say never would be a good diplomatic answer to this question . Still, I must admit how I was never overwhelmed with this idea since it would imply many compromises which would change BLUR into something completely different. Therefore, we continue with the same tempo and system, and time will tell if we need to do something else. My vision concerning BLUR was in line with development of technology and current economical situation, when print is no longer sustainable. Not to mention the ecological benefits of an online magazine. So, an online magazine and photo exhibitions, a good ratio of virtual and reality is our strategy we stick to also in the near future.
Other most frequent question was connected to transformation of old Bulb issues into pdf format. Due to limited team capacity, we are in no possibility to invest additional efforts into this action. However, we thought how an interesting compromising solution could be to establish a section Reprise in which we would publish some authors from previous Bulb issues, but refreshed with more and/or new photos. The first Reprise is available in this issue when you have the opportunity to see an interview with Denis Gržetić and portfolio of Tatjane Krstić. Enjoy.
POLAROID Special Edition
Polaroid was invented as an attempt of simplification of the process reserved only for the masters of the dark room, and although it had a great ambition to become a serious competitor of the classical photo development, it never achieved it. Still, Polaroid gained big popularity and many users and fans. It announced something in which later digital photography succeeded, which are practicality and mass and simple usage. Due to its imperfections, Polaroid photography never seriously endangered analogue one, but it is because of them that it was always perceived as artistic. This is also the reason why Polaroid company, through its history, very often hired artists and professional photographers in its campaigns.
However, the circumstances have drastically changed with the introduction of digital photography, which caused a revolution by enabling photographical expression to all users regardless of their previous knowledge and education concerning photography. The photo industry experienced a real boom, while instant analogue photography, because of its inability to respond new market needs, disappeared. In June 2008, Polaroid company globally stopped the production of instant film by shutting down its factories in Mexico and the Netherlands. This moment was followed by numerous demonstrations and disapprovals of nostalgic Polaroid users all over the world, which motivated Impossible B.V. to start up an ‘impossible’ mission of saving Polaroid photography. Today, 22 of March is a great day for artistic and photography scene, as it is the day when The Impossible Project, after facing many challenges and troubles, became possible and successfully launched their new instant films compatible to the old Polaroid cameras.
In order to celebrate this great moment, BLUR magazine created a real Polaroid treat – a special edition in which all details about the ‘freshly’ produced films will be revealed, where we will show test photographs shoot on the new films, but also present a new section INSTATATION through which we will be presenting work of many Polaroid photographers, and which will, we believe, become a ‘must see’ for all instant film lovers.
Within this special issue, we have also presented some more intimate photographs since Polaroid was know, to many, as an ideal method of shooting small personal home photos. This safe system, through which it was hard to make uncontrollable and unwanted copies, enabled more relaxed photo shooting. To the ladies, it offered a guarantee of privacy in order to get rid of their extra clothes, and its imperfections enabled safe hiding of their identity. Although, probably, not so many of these photos will be sent to our redaction, we still keep our fingers crossed. In the meanwhile, with the aim to encourage those who possess this kind of photos, we have published two Italian masters of Polaroid erotic.
At the end, in order to conclude this great Polaroid story, in December 2009 BLUR started up a big international photo competition entitled The Best Polaroid Photo. Of course, the intention of the competition was never to gather all ever best made Polaroids, since due to the logistical reasons it would be quite impossible. Instead, it offered a quite subjective approach and experience of these works. There were no strict criteria and guidelines upon which exactly these 30 photos were selected by the jury, as we were ruling based on our personal preferences, the same we asked you to do. Beside the jury, the final decision was up to you so that you could also, in this way, participate in this historical moment.
We would like to thank al participants of the competition and voter for their supports, as well as congratulate all finalists and winners.
Editorial column, no.17
In times when the crisis impacts all social levels and rarely leaves anyone unafflicted, BLUR magazine boldly goes forward. We decided to increase the number of pages, introduce more optimism, celebrate beauty and creativity and to deliver all of this to your home free of charge, no matter in which part of the world you live in. It only takes scrolling your mouse three times, clicking, and there we are .
We decided to talk less; i.e. to publish the textual content in an ideal amount, suitable for screen reading, and to provide more visual experience, while bringing more diversity by reserving space for different photographic styles and techniques.
And while many are still surprised about BLUR being a free-of-charge magazine, we opted for another ‘costless’ program created for Croatian photographers entitled FULL CIRCLE. It involves a process of selecting a few authors whose work continuously attracts our attention and which we believe should receive more media attention. Through this project, BLUR yet again opposes the phrase stating ‘nothing in life is free’ and proves that ambition, good work and quality will always be recognized and awarded. In collaboration with our partners, Cinema Europe, Prizma, PlanB, Borovac & Bence and the web portal fotografija.hr, selected photographers will enjoy completely free exhibitions of their work in the very centre of Zagreb! The first author to be exhibited as soon as middle of March is Jelena Balić, a young but very talented photographer originally from Split. Besides free exhibiting space provided by cinema Europe, Borovac & Bence ensured the best prices of printing and cassation, while these costs will be fully covered by Prizma, distributor of photo equipment. However, in order to ensure full and complete support, it is necessary to achieve media attention. Therefore, PlanB will feature selected authors by presenting them through a monthly interview plus photos basis, while photo web portal fotografija.hr will create a section FULL CIRCLE. In addition, BLUR magazine will carry out detailed reports from all exhibitions.
Furthermore, we published the first website dedicated to the master of Croatian photography, Tošo Dabac, in Croatian and English version, and set up the first online web photo gallery dedicated to artistic photographs of Zagreb entitled ZGB ART.
As the main media sponsor of a specialized photo gallery in Croatia, Lang Gallery in Samobor, we enabled the free construction of their official website.
Besides BLUR magazine becoming a main media sponsor of Lomography Croatia, it will provide media support for the European project Urbanautica that will organize exhibitions all over Europe during 2011. We hope that they will make a stop in our territory as well.
As a proud exclusive media sponsor of the Impossible Project, we are impatiently waiting for 22 March when the first new instant films will be officially launched. This gave us a reason to issue a special BLUR magazine edition dedicated to the event and Polaroid photography in general.
This year began with many new projects and interesting collaborations. We are pleased that, despite the difficult times, we can still find reliable partners who appreciate and recognize high-quality photography. Having them around, it is easy to have an optimistic view of the future.
Polaroid photo voting
The Best Polaroid Photo – it is time for you to choose!
Last month an international competition of a Polaroid photos finished. It was organized by BLUR magazine in cooperation with The Impossible Project, to mark a great come back of instant film. Contest theme was open; we asked you to send us your favorite photo, the one you believed could win the title The Best Polaroid Photo.
The response was excellent – we received over 500 entries that came from all over the world! Official panel, composed of members of BLUR magazine and The Impossible Project, selected the best 30 photographs which will be exhibited in Zagreb and presented in a special BLUR magazine edition dedicated to Polaroid.
Additionally, we decided to award top 5 photographers with:
- prize: Polaroid camera SX-70 Sonar OneStep + 2 packs of newly produced Instant film
- prize: Polaroid 600 Once Classic camera + 2 packs of newly produced Instant film
- prize: 3 packs of newly produced Instant film
- and 5. prize: 2 x The Impossible Project T-Shirt (M or F)
Now it is up to you to choose The Best Polaroid Photo and to decide which authors will be awarded with these attractive prizes. All you need to do is to go to THE BEST POLAROID PHOTO take a look on all photos and place your votes.
End of March, within special edition of BLUR magazine dedicated to Polaroid, we will announce the happy winners and awarded photographs.
We would like to congratulate all selected photographers and thank everybody for participating!
VOTE HERE!
CONTEST TIMELINE | THE BEST POLAROID PHOTO
01.12.2009. – Official start of the contest
10.02.2010. – Photo submission deadline
20.02.2010. – Panel decision
01.03.2010. – Publication of the best 30 photographs on Blur web page. Start of the voting process of the readers 20.03.2010. – Closing of voting process of the readers
22.03.2010. – Publication of the best 5 photographs and awarded authors
Editorial column, no.16
It’s already two years since we started. Although we constantly face fast creation and even quicker disappearance of various instant magazines, we believe that our persistence is recognised by all true lovers of high quality photography. And we guarantee that this is only the beginning.
We began as a free internet magazine, and we plan to keep it that way due to numerous advantages: we avoid high cost of distribution fees, we cross all territorial borders and reach every single part of the world in the best way, free of charge. However, 2010 is the year of big changes for BLUR magazine and our Photography Association Creatus (F.U.C.) because, abstract internet world aside, it is for the first time that we wish to act realistically and tangibly. Therefore, led by the main mission of our association, we are trying to create more exhibition space in Croatia and we plan to organize and set up several exhibitions.
Our first steps were a modest presentation of the founder of Croatian modern photography, Tošo Dabac, which was also the first online project making available the work of this great name in the world of photography and culture to everyone.
The Photography Association Creatus is involved today, whose members, among others, are Želimir Koščević (gallery Lang), Petar Dabac, Marina Benažić (Archive Tošo Dabac) and Iva Prosoli (Museum of city Zagreb), and who definitely know the work and life of Tošo Dabac best. Moreover, everything will be ‘spiced up’ with a special photography contest.
Recognitions and praises were unselfishly coming from different parts of the world, so besides being placed among 40 biggest and best online photo magazines in the world, BLUR magazine very soon became the exclusive media sponsor of The Impossible Project. This international collaboration granted us with the best possible birthday gift – organization of a big analogue photography exhibition entitled THE BEST POLAROID PHOTO. Apart from including the biggest ‘shoots’ of The Impossible Project into the contest, we will provide some really attractive prizes that will highlight, in the best way, the rebirth of instant analogue photography art.
To be honest, I never expected such splendid development and future for our project. We never lacked ambition, and I believe that we will continue to meet interesting people and collaborators who want to contribute to making photography world better.
In this optimistic mood, BLUR magazine wishes all readers from all around the world a Happy New Year!
Robert Gojević
POLAROID photo contest
Blur is proud to be the exclusive media sponsor of The Impossible Project, which is re-inventing analogue integral film for vintage Polaroid cameras in the former Polaroid factory in Enschede (the Netherlands).
The company of Polaroid stopped producing the instant film in June 2008, and the expiry date of the last films produced is 9 Oct 2009. After this, it will no longer be possible to purchase instant film – and Polaroid photography would thus be dead and gone forever.
But there is hope – The Impossible Project will launch new instant film materials in 2010. In the beginning of 2010, they will present a b&w analogue integral film for all SX70 and 600 camera models, and colour film will follow in summer, and by the end of 2010 they will bring Image film for Spectra cameras back.
To support this special photographic and artistic moment, Blur magazine, in collaboration with the Impossible Project, is organizing a big international contest of analogue instant photography under the name THE BEST POLAROID PHOTO.
The panel, consisting of leading team members of the Impossible Project and Blur magazine, will select 30 best photographs. These will be presented on the website of Blur, where readers can vote for the BEST POLAROID PHOTO. The five selected photographers will be awarded with attractive prizes, courtesy of the Impossible Project, and the best 30 photographs will be displayed in an exhibition in Zagreb.
More about the contest: http://www.blur-magazine.com/contest/
CONTEST
A gift from BLUR magazine – book of photographs “Marginalije”!
It is quite easy to participate! Just answer the question: In how many countries is BLUR magazine read? – and send us your answer via online submission. The fastest reader with the correct answer, or the closest to the correct number, will win the latest book by Stanko Abadžić “Marginalije”.
The contest is on from 1 Dec to 31 Dec 2009, and the lucky winner will be announced on BLUR web page and will be contacted via e-mail.
Send us your answers at:
VOX POPULI BLUR 16
Internet is a place of free promotion for every photographer. It is easy to use, the expenses are relatively low and it is the way to act ‘big’, without any territorial limits.
However, is this enough for any more ambitious, serious and successful photographer? Can photography be fully experienced over the monitor or one needs a high quality, big sized print out? Should such photographer also exhibit in galleries? And if so, should these galleries specialize in photography?
And this is where the following question pops up: What if this space doesn’t exist in your city? Who should take this into account? Is this only the responsibility of city halls and their departments for culture? Or do you believe that some people from photo industry, such as producers and distributors of photo equipment, specialized photo magazines, famous photographers, should get involved in solving this problem too?
Send your answers to vox@blur-magazine.com, and the best ones will be published in our next issue.
IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT
The Impossible Project inspires Polaroid to re-launch Instant Cameras
Over the past 12 months, The Impossible Project has generated an incredible number of press reports, events and discussions about the fascination of Instant Photography, and particularly about its quest to keep this unique and captivating kind of photography alive – by re-inventing a new analog integral film for vintage Polaroid cameras.
Accomplishing this mission and running the former Polaroid plant in Enschede (NL), The Impossible Project is pleased to herewith announce a history-making cooperation between The Impossible Project and Polaroid: The new licensee of the Polaroid® Brand – The Summit Global Group – will relaunch some of the most famous Polaroid Instant Cameras and is therefore commissioning The Impossible Project to develop and produce a limited edition of Polaroid® branded Instant Films in the middle of 2010.
Summit Global held a press conference on 13th October 2009 in Hongkong, outlining their plans to re-produce some iconic Polaroid Instant Cameras and to bring them to the market in 2010 in a strategic relationship with The Impossible Project.
The Impossible Project is proud and excited that its ambitions and all the relentless work that has already been invested are now becoming the foundation for Polaroid’s comeback as a producer of Instant Cameras.
Large-scale production and worldwide sale of The Impossible Project’s new integral film materials under its own brand will already start in the beginning of 2010 – with a brand new and astonishing black and white Instant Film and the first colour films to follow in the course of the year.
Editorial column, no.15
They claim a picture says a thousand words, as in the case of our current front page, where a photograph by author Mathieu Richard-Arcouette perfectly symbolizes the new situation our magazine faces. But, if you haven’t already noticed the new design of our web page, you must have seen the domain name. In case you proceeded automatically, as most of us do while we surf, merely to downloaeved the latest issue, we have a surprise for you.
Is there anything strange about the logo you are so used to? Same dimensions, identical typography, equal number of letters, however – a different name, which is a bit more blurry than before. Even three letters match, but they are in a different order. Why, what for, and what happened?
…every change hurts a bit. We all somehow subconsciously know this, which is the reason why we are afraid of changes and often unnecessarily try to postpone them. Despite possibly creating wounds that slowly heal or leave bitter aftertaste, changes are necessary because they are the only path to improvement and progress
It is quite obvious that, despite the change, we didn’t want to break the links to our, now former, Bulb magazine. Otherwise, we would have chosen a completely new name, visual identity and made whatever changes. On the contrary, we decided to nourish the tradition and if you take a look to what the editorial staff blurb says, you can see almost all collaborators are still there. Our family even grew so that our common project could do better and have greater results.
Snake has always been a symbol of change, and as it sheds its skin when it becomes too small, we too had to make certain changes in order to improve. However, every change hurts a bit. We all somehow subconsciously know this, which is the reason why we are afraid of changes and often unnecessarily try to postpone them. Despite possibly creating wounds that slowly heal or leave bitter aftertaste, changes are necessary because they are the only path to improvement and progress. Krešimir, co-founder of Bulb magazine, will no longer be on the Blur team and will face new challenges by running the Bulb association. Given that Krešimir was the one who suggested the Bulb name, and us being such gentlemen, we let him keep it. We would like to thank him for all the effort and work. In front of us there are now new goals and paths which will, we are convinced, justify necessary changes.
But let us go back to our first thought that a picture says a thousand words. Is it always so, is this an undisputable rule? Imagine, for example, a photograph where you see two lovers hugging, an aesthetic and artistic love scene that hides more than it reveals. Everything fits perfectly, a photograph worth admiring.
Suddenly, as the seed of doubt arises, followed by a negative cliché of a half empty instead of a half full glass, the perception of the same love scene changes. All of our moralistic, philosophical and diabolic alter egos have something to say. Perhaps this is a man that cheats on his wife, or vice versa? Maybe it’s a man with 2 women? What if one of them changed his/her sex, or if this is actually a man with a blow-up doll… If it would make any sense, or if we had more time and space, I am convinced we could gather more than one thousand words.
On the other hand, we are completely immune to and not affected by important things which we should constantly question, react on and think about, yet we remain utterly apathetic. We can not but wonder if photography and photographs should act in this manner as well? Despite the difficult economic situation, time when everybody cares but for material interests, when there is no class and everything seems so tacky, while media constantly bomb us with rubbish and depression, a bunch of workaholics volunteer and try to further improve this magazine.
Despite possibly creating wounds that slowly heal or leave bitter aftertaste, changes are necessary because they are the only path to improvement and progress.
Robert Gojevic, editor in chief
VOX POPULI BLUR 15
The world of photography is full of subjective and endless discussions: black and white or full color photography, filters or without, digitally processed or a set of harmonized settings, analogue or digital film… One could go on forever. And, of course, there is personal experience behind every answer, as well as personal experience, emotional attachment, but also rational argumentation.
We would like to know about your thoughts and opinions. We plan to present a new theme, a new question in every issue, and you can send us your statements and explanations that support these or otherwise via e-mail or by using contact form. We will publish most interesting answers in our next issue.
This time we were inspired by a brave ‘Impossible project’, founded by a group of enthusiasts that will reproduce analogue instant film.
When asked what the reason behind the challenge is and why they believe the project will not only be possible, but also very successful, they said:
We believe in Polaroid as a strong and unique counterpart to digitalized world that we’re living in. The Digital Revolution completely changed the perspectives, possibilities but also the character of photography. After some years of playing and experimenting with their new digital cameras, people began to miss some aspects of analogue instant photography which they had not been aware of before – or even complained about.
They started longing for real pictures which they could touch, feel and smell. Looking at all the “perfect” and clean digital pictures, they remembered more and more the good days when every single picture was an experiment, an unpredictable adventure, slowly developing in the palms of their hands. They even had to accept the fact that they started missing the high purchase price of analogue Instant film as they found out that it really helps taking good pictures when carefully pushing the trigger, aware of every “click” costing real money. Polaroid film stands for unpredictable visual adventures combined with a splendid retro-style feeling.
Our questions:
Do you think instant photography is by certain properties more valuable than digital photography? What are the advantages of Polaroid cameras when compared to digital ones? There are great numbers of loyal users of Polaroid technique worldwide. Do you believe the retro aspect of instant film can create a new fashion ‘boom’ in photography world and increase Polaroid art scene further? Would you, besides your digital camera, also appreciate having a Polaroid one?
Send away!
Impossible Project
Polaroid re-positioned itself from an analog Instant Film Production Company to a global Consumer Electronics and Digital Imaging company, with new high quality mass products. Shutting down factories in Mexico and Netherlands in June 2008, production of integral Polaroid film was globally stopped.
In October 2008, the company of Impossible B.V. founded the ‘Impossible project’ and acquired the complete production plant in Enschede (Netherlands). They engaged the most experienced team of Integral Film experts worldwide, aiming to re-invent and re-produce analog instant film. Since some important components of Polaroid film do not exist anymore, this ‘impossible’ project is focusing on the development of completely new film that could also be used on vintage Polaroid cameras. The first prototype is expected as soon as October 2009, and production is planned to start beginning of 2010.
Blur magazine is proud to be an exclusive media sponsor of the ‘Impossible Project’. The magazine supporting and ‘celebrating’ artistic photography, it is always a pleasure for us to encourage such courageous and historically important undertakings which will, we are convinced, not only succeed but lead to a true cultural revolution in the world of photography. In this issue you can read an exclusive interview with Florian Kaps, executive director of the project, and find out all the facts related to the ‘Impossible Project’ as well as how to contribute to its success. More on this on page XY. In addition, our next issues will continue covering this topic – we will inform you about the development of the project itself, survey the history of Polaroid film, current projects done using this specific technique and introduce the work of one Croatian Polaroid photographer.
For further information related to the ‘Impossible Project,’ please visit the official web page:
http://www.the-impossible-project.com!
Smashing Magazine
Smashing Magazine announces 40 best online photography magazines – and BLUR is one of them!
Whatever country we live in, we’re probably all familiar with the well-known photography magazines available in our newsagents and bookstores. The UK has Practical Photography, France has Photo, the Italians have Zoom and the Americans have American Photo. What you may not know is that there are many more photography magazines that are only available online. And some of them are good, very good.
That’s the great thing about online publishing. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and just about anyone with a PC and an internet connection can take part. The difficulty lies in putting together a quality publication, something that rivals the best commercial magazines for content and quality (we hope you think that Smashing Magazine just does that!)
As an introduction to the wonderful world of online photography magazines, we put together a list of the biggest and best that we could find. You won’t find these magazines in your local bookstore, they’re only available online. From photojournalism to portraiture, from landscapes to lomography (and everything in between), you’ll find the most amazing photography and discover the work of some of the world’s best photographers, both famous and unknown. Dive in and enjoy their work.
What does Smashing Magazine say about BLUR magazine (ex-Bulb magazine): Brings the work of creative, but lesser known, photographers to a wide audience.
Check the whole list on http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/04/17/40-amazing-online-photography-magazines/