News

Winter Pictures 2012 and some website updates

A note from editor Andy Adams

Hello All,

2012 is off to a great start and I wanted to touch base with some website updates as we round the corner into February. Thanks so much to those of you who have emailed with kind words about the site, your support means so much and it reminds me how connected our community really is. Our Winter Pictures 2012 feature wrapped last week: you can learn more about this year's artists by clicking the “Photo Details” link in their slideshow caption. Feel free to comment on their photos — I’m sharing your feedback with the photographers and many of them are responding to our readers from inside their posts.

If you haven’t already seen them, take a peek at this month’s interviews: we’re featuring conversations with Kelli Connell, Richard Barnes and Darin Mickey. And there are some smart videos profiling photographers Sarah Sudhoff and John Coffer as well as original motion pictures by Simon Biswas, Brian Lesteberg, Susan Worsham and Rafal Milach in the Motion section. I’d love for more people learn about these image-makers, so please share the posts with students and colleagues who would enjoy them.

In other news: We launched our first solo exhibition in the Flak Photo Galleries: a selection of tintype portraits from photographer Keliy Anderson-Staley. In support of her gallery, we’re teaming up with Light Work to give away ten signed copies of her Contact Sheet issue this week. It’s a lovely piece of work, so I hope you’ll make time to enter the drawing — Submission deadline is Thursday, February 2.

I’m also excited to introduce a new feature we’ve been developing: the small slideshow gallery you see up top. We’re planning to present the photography discussed in Flak Photo’s Features, Books and News sections with this new approach. Big thanks are in order to the Flak Photo Beta group members who tested our demo and helped us iron out the wrinkles this week. The way we look at photography online is changing rapidly, and it’s important to us that you’re able to enjoy Flak Photo when and where you want it, so we’ve built the slideshow with mobile and tablets in mind. In addition to navigating the old-fashioned way with your mouse, you can swipe the pictures on your touchscreen. Give it a try next time you’re away from your desk; we think you’ll like it.

Some of you have suggested that it should be easier to find photos or artists in The Collection. We agree and are planning to improve how you search and browse the archives. To begin with, we’ve proofed the 1,500+ images in the collection — with significant help from members of the online photography community. Sincere thanks are in order to Cécile Poulain, Samuel Glazebrook, Adam Neese, Willson Cummer, Connor McNicholas and Laura Chenault for graciously volunteering to help us with the process — See their handiwork at FlakPhoto.com/Collection.

Finally, I wanted to invite all of you to join us in the Flak Photo Beta group. We’re using Facebook to share behind-the-scenes website updates and also to listen to ideas about how we can improve upon the work  we've done so far. There are more updates coming later this year and your feedback will help us make this experience even better. You can find us at Facebook.com/Groups/FlakPhotoBeta.

I hope the New Year has been a creative one for all of you – As always, I’d love to hear about what you’ve been working on. You can contact me at any time via email, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook.

Best,

Andy Adams
Editor • Producer • Publisher
FlakPhoto.com

Posted on Sunday, January 29, 2012.