Black+White Photography Magazine July 09 Back Issue

Yes, this really is our 100th issue! The time since our first issue has gone by in a flash but when I look back, so much has changed. Technologically, black & white photography now situates itself in a far bigger place than it did back in April/May 2001 (our first issue) and that’s because digital photography has allowed many more people access to creating black & white images than it did when the darkroom was the only route. Consequently our readership has grown and expanded and we have grown with them. It’s been an exciting, and sometimes daunting, journey with a huge learning curve on the way. But what it does mean is that black & white photography is very much alive. To celebrate our 100th issue we wanted a cover image that would make you smile and when we came across this picture by Rankin from his Rankin Live! exhibition (see B&W’s Exhibition Choice on page 16) we knew we had to have it. When I first saw the image I was fascinated by it. Having a bit of a soft spot for taking pictures of people myself, I know what happens when you point a lens at someone, and to get this woman to completely give herself to the camera in this way is not an easy job. Now I know Rankin is a superb photographer but having looked at a great deal of his portraits I knew there was something special about it. It has the complete abandonment of a snapshot – something I’m interested in. So to learn that this was a picture of Rankin’s wife, Tuuli, came as no great surprise. It captures a moment of total intimacy and openness in a way that no posed portrait could – and it says so much about the woman herself, which is surely the main undertaking of a portrait. By the time we reach issue 200 it will be February 2017 and technology will have moved on again – Black & White Photography will arrive by cybermail (hologram version of course) – but it won’t have solved the problem of how to take a really good picture. Only we can do that.