Space Miner
By editor/designer/photography lover Laura Brunow Miner.
From the California Roadtrip Photostory by Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek.
Austrian photographer Daniel Gebhart de Koekkoek came across the pond for my Phoot Camp last October, and then spent weeks after travelling the US. I love the California he’s captured in this series.
Time Capsule by Michael O’Neal
“Even though my parents just moved from New Jersey to Florida, they took an important part of the old house with them. Dad’s old red Craftsman is more of a time capsule than a toolbox, and it immediately transported me back to my dad’s garage. Grease, Gojo hand cleaner, old coffee cans filled with nuts, bolts, washers, and fuses of all shapes and sizes — a vivid picture with an accompanying scent. The lid to the toolbox is always open, displaying a collage of important photos adhered with yellowed Scotch tape. They hold special meaning to my dad, and now, to me. Since I can remember, my dad was always working. He would work all night as a diesel mechanic in Manhattan, driving the empty highways while I was sleeping, then go straight to another job in the morning as a freelance contractor. I remember having to tiptoe around the house when I got home from school, so as not to wake my dad. I know he did it all for me and my brothers, so we could have the things we needed to succeed. My mother always told me, “Your father has hands of gold,” but I never realized how much of an artist my dad was until I became an adult. Until now, I never realized how similar we are. Fixing cars never interested me, but I have inherited the desire to make things better and beautiful, and to create something from nothing. Dad and his toolbox taught me to be my own artist.” -Michael
Every two weeks I will release a new showcase on Pictory, and when I do, I’ll post a favorite image here to remind you to go check it out. This one is from Coming Home, an image collection of the houses we grew up in. Also, check out the awesome guest design from Tumblr member Matthew Buchanan!
Yes, I too love Pictory. I can’t help but note I concept tested the (almost) exact same idea a couple of months ago. See here: http://pixtories.com (even a similar name!). All worked well and got great feedback on it so I was gearing up to do a proper execution (ie not Posterous)… when several of my friends/colleagues sent me the Pictory Mag site with some bemusement :). Seriously though, the design and layout and ‘themed’ approach which Pictory delivered is quite exceptional and is a great example (hopefully not just to me!) that LOADS of the concept IS in the execution. Not to mention, you’ve gotta move extra quick in this day and age when an idea is pretty much worthless until its proper realisation.
(Poor guy. Naturally there’s room for both of us! I should mention that for months I had mini-freakouts thinking the same had happened. “AH! Smithsonian just launched a ‘Bigger Picture’ blog! Oh wait but it’s not like Big Picture. Whew.”)
The Few, The Proud by Shauna M. Stewart
“The Marine Corps boot camp graduation ceremony in San Diego was awe-inspiring throughout, but when the troops fell out and ran towards each other at the end, none of us could catch our breath. It was a beautiful display of love, of change and remembrance, of fear and joy. Here, the new Marines had just been released to see their families. At that moment, I realized that the tough times I was struggling with didn’t matter compared to this bigger picture — and became aware of just how much I loved my brother, even though we had never really gotten along. Six months later I packed up for California in my own move of change and fear and joy. This picture has served to remind me of a beautiful person in my life who transformed himself for the greater good, and who continues to grow even through the hardest times.” -Shauna
Every two weeks I will release a new showcase on Pictory, and when I do, I’ll post a favorite image here to remind you to go check it out. This one is from Lfe Before Your Eyes, a collection of Pictory members’ most meaningful photos.
Little stories are the internet’s native and ideal art form.
Lead Down the Garden Path by Robert Otani
“Looking south down Hyde Street from a balcony in Russian Hill, I thought of all the people drawn to this beautiful city from afar for its promise. Not everyone finds the reality as perfect as their vision. Just like in any city, there’s no shortage of melancholy, unrealized dreams, lost fortunes, and lives ending too soon. But in San Francisco there’s also a persistent optimism that stands out even in the midst of hard times. New things are always being created here.” -Robert
Every two weeks I will release a new showcase on Pictory, and when I do, I’ll post a favorite image here to remind you to go check it out. This one is from San Francisco.
Young Guns by Ian Aleksander Adams.
“While on a 10-day Birthright Israel trip a few summers ago, I watched tanned rollerbladers in Tel Aviv, slept with Bedouins in the desert, and hiked to time-worn military encampments. I saw children bathing in waterfalls, walls covered in bullet holes, and people of diverse origins and mindsets. Even the heat was unpredictable, but I often found myself bizarrely comfortable. There was one constant, a harsh reminder of how far I was from home: We were guarded at all times by teenaged veterans of multiple conflicts. (The military drafts nearly all 18-year-old citizens.) Our protectors thought of the assignment as a vacation, though their weapons spoke otherwise. I didn’t feel threatened by the soldiers or any outside force — the only thing that scared me was that I eventually found it all so normal.” -Ian
Every two weeks I will release a new showcase on Pictory, and when I do, I’ll post a favorite image here to remind you to go check it out. This one is from Overseas and Overwhelmed.
What we’re approaching here is what was once “content” being stripped of its nutritious value and being processed into “content product”. See where I’m going with this? I could see, over time, readers realizing how many empty calories, in the form of news “snippets” or meaningless photos, we’ve been consuming on the web and there being a counter movement.
I’ve seen the term “slow blogging” show up a few times around the web recently in different contexts, and it definitely comes to mind now. I could see a parallel on the web to what we’ve seen in the food industry, where the early adopters seek out whole, local, organic… content. From the source. On the site it was designed for, from the person who wrote it. Or at least prepared in a way that shows respect to the ingredient.
The Evolution of the Magazine
As the possibility of an Apple tablet or other e-magazine platform looms, everyone is talking about the future of the magazine.
Stunning photos, careful design, and thoughtful prose: they aren’t going away. But with the subscription model left behind, advertising revenue dropped off, and the Internet providing unprecedented access to information, magazines are faltering.
Robin Sloan was kind enough to call Pictory, my recently launched project, the future of content. But I think what he really meant is that it’s the present. Sports Illustrated and BERG have put a lot of time and brainpower into creating really impressive examples of future possibilities, and rumor has it that Gannett spent a year with IDEO developing the experimental online magazine The Bold Italic.
Meanwhile, I’ve been in my sweatpants next to the cat food bowl for the last eight months working on Pictory. They did massive user research studies to discover that online users are missing high design, large photos, and editorial polish on the web, and that people respond to personal, human stories. I thought about what people would care about seeing in an online photo magazine, and we ended up with some of the same conclusions.
Pictory doesn’t have anywhere near the sophistication or ambition of those projects. By design, it’s simple enough that one person can manage it from her living room. But what it does have (which Robin also alluded to) is the potential to evolve quickly.
I learned to take photographs with a fully manual single lens reflex film camera. Learned slowly. Made lots of mistakes and found out the hard way: weeks or months later. I learned about publications by running a print magazine. Again, made lots of mistakes and found out the hard way: weeks or months later — if I found out anything at all. (Who blogs about a magazine issue? Almost no one.)
Digital photography allows both immediate gratification and immediate correction, and so does online editorial. I get realtime feedback on Pictory from Twitter and blogs, and longer term trending from my traffic analytics. The site has been live for two weeks and I have put out two showcases. Within hours of releasing Overseas and Overwhelmed, thousands of tweets informed me that people were intrigued by the idea of culture shock, but a few thought the words were the weak link in the package. On my next release, Twitter told me that people liked the words better in the new San Francisco showcase, but a few found the tone overzealous. (A love letter to the city! I’d never thought of it that way.)
I have a simple, working prototype out in the world, and I’m learning fast. I also have the help of an excited group of guest editors and designers, and conversations open with teachers at several innovative graduate programs — and, notably, none of the obstacles that come with corporate backers.
And that’s how a lady in her sweatpants hopes to build the missing link in the evolution of the magazine. Contact me if you want to play: laura at pictorymag.com.
This is what we do, humans. We tinker, and change, and endlessly imagine a more perfect future. And at the same time, we idealize the past. So we’re trapped. Progress’s constant companion is nostalgia for the way things used to be. … The thing we forget about progress: there is no master plan. It lurches forward, in the dark, accidentally, and you’re never sure where it’s taking you. There’s no going back, whether it wants to or not.
At long last, I’ve had a chance to compile the hundreds of amazing photos that went into Phoot Camp. Check them out at phootcamp.com!
Untitled by Dan Busta
For GPOYW (Gratuitous Picture of Yourself Wednesday), this shot of me from Phoot Camp. (I love making s’mores) That backdrop behind me was held up with two knives stuck into trees.
Phootree by Steph Goralnick
Steph captured this great shot on the last day of Phoot Camp when most folks had gone home. Click through to see the names/URLs of everyone in the photo. (Hint: I’m at the top.)
I’ve been invited to Phoot Camp by Steph Goralnick
Phoot Camp is on! I’m hosting this invite-only photography retreat this weekend, and yes, I’m living in spreadsheetland between now and then.
Check out the official Phoot Camp website for photo fun, now and after the camp. Also want to thank Arlo/Artists for providing the website platform the site is built on.
