Welcome to the inaugural issue of Grainpress Magazine.

I began this project with the hope that there is still a place for a film photography magazine in a world dominated by social media. Despite the increasing demands on our attention and the challenges that face publishers in today's landscape, I think it is something that people might like.

Grainpress is inspired by the magazines that first opened up the world of photography to me, publications that provided a window into the world of serious photographic work. The standout, in my eyes, was Camera & Darkroom. Every month I eagerly awaited a new issue and with it new secrets. It educated and encouraged me, opened new vistas, and made a real contribution to photographic culture.

I'd like Grainpress to be a modern equivalent.

Realistically, film photography is a niche market. It is not marginal in the way it once was, but today’s economic landscape creates difficulties even for major film and digital brands, let alone a scrappy independent publisher. But I am hopeful that there is enough interest to make this endeavor viable.

There are two main areas covered by film photography that I think demonstrate the need for its continued support and practice.

Photographs, although they are not transparent views of real things, produce something that is: the negative. In a world where reality can often feel like it is slipping between our fingers, and where it is becoming harder to determine if an image used a physical source, film is a lifeline, a stamp of veracity (if not truth). That we have a negative we can hold in our hand is a small thing but one with large implications and consequences.

The second factor gravitating in film's favor is the history of the medium itself. The practice of analog photography brings us closer to its history, which is a living history, and is in that way an interesting springboard. At some point, when we look long enough at a portrait in a Daguerreotype case, it ceases to look like an archaic shadow from the past and more like somebody who is just like us. Photography has the uncanny ability to make the past present.

Photography is a rich and expansive medium and my love of analog photography is in no way meant to be a slight against digital capture or digital tools and their innovations. I am in fact a hybrid photographer in practice. Although I spent many joyful hours in a darkroom watching images slowly emerge into existence from the developer, I don't currently have a darkroom. It would be nice if I did, but we carry on the best we can.

And that is the spirit in which I present this inaugural issue of Grainpress, which I hope will grow over time and perhaps even become sustainable. In that same spirit, think of this first issue as a blueprint, a window into a possible future. Readers will shape what that future becomes through submitted work, article pitches, social sharing, feedback, financial support, and enthusiasm.

If we are successful, a year from now Grainpress will have blossomed and developed into a richer and more useful publication than it can be today.

I hope you can join us on this journey.

GP