Friday, September 21, 2007

JPG Magazine

Another online art project that I'm really digging is JPG magazine.

JPG is an online user-submitted mag full of articles and photos. All written, taken and submitted by anyone who wants to. The JPG community then votes on the best images and stories, and they get included in the next edition.

With digital photography and sites like Flickr being so popular these days, you can easily forget about the beauty of a nice, un-photshopped image that you can hold in your hand.

The great thing about JPG mag is that it isn't just an online publication. JPG brings their idea to real life by printing a new issue every two months.

Issue 12 is out this week. You might want to take a look.

Here's what they say about themselves:
JPG is not just another photo sharing site - it's a community that's come together to create a photography magazine.

Here at JPG, we're all about "imagemaking without attitude." That means we want JPG to be a positive experience for everyone. This isn't about photo snobbery or pixel wanking. It's just about the joy of photography.
Each issue contains 3 photographic themes ... in the next edition they are:
  • Passport - Travel photography off the beaten track.
  • Gravity Powered - Capturing the action of extreme sports.
  • Tools of the Trade - What gets the job done?
... and a whole heap of other themes that you can submit a photo to for future editions.

Like Threadless, having the 'community-vote' feature is a good one, and a handy filter to weed out the not-so-flash user submitted work.

3 comments:

Daydream Lily said...

I'm see a theme with communities voting. A friend showed me one for animation.
http://www.channelfrederator.com/

So the questions then is..
1. How do you get the community large and diverse enough to make sure the votes aren't biased.

Just a thought....

Ben Rowe said...

Thanks for the link Liss ...

Yep, you see my theme. I think that's the direction I'm heading in.

You're right, the challenge is to get enough people into the community. Which won't be easy.

Justin George said...

There was some major controversy about JPG mag earlier this year...

http://www.powazek.com/posts/534

http://www.hchamp.com/other/archives/001173.html