I tend to take my time over the RPS Journal. One month into this issue, and multiple cups of coffee it is time to take stock. What did I see, appreciate and learn?
I don't "see" whitespace, font and design, my eye focusses on content. Although the images catch my attention it is the words that mean more to me. I tend to appreciate mostly the things I can learn from my reading.
As always with content as wide ranging as The RPS Journal there is stuff I find uninteresting and stuff I find riveting. There is stuff I feel goes too far and not far enough. For me that is a part of the attraction. A few examples.
I gain little from "My work is influenced from photographer A,B, C and D" unless you tell me why. Similarly "My work has been exhibited in gallery D, E and F". What I do appreciate and learn from are articles that tempt me to look further into their work and even better when they educate me on the choices they made in their technique. I found two wonderful examples in this edition.
Gavin Bell took us through the imagery of Igor Siwanowicz, winner of this years RPS Scientific Imaging award. There was enough about the techniques here to entice me to research Igor's work further. But as I have a scientific imaging background the attraction of that article was not wholly unexpected.
But my favourite article this time came from a completely unexpected direction. Lucy Davies introduced me to the work of Linus Sandgren, winner of this years Lumière award for his accomplishments in cinematography. This is not a field that normally attracts me and the only moving imagery I have done is medical. But the words did it for me, with apt descriptions of the film format and processing choices. I really felt I came away with a better understanding of Linus' practice.
What did you think? Let us know by an email to rpsjournal@thinkpublishing.co.uk .