File Magazine: A Collection of Unexpected Photography

[COVER PHOTO: Cornfield on Fire, ©by Narayan Nayar]

Nearly every week new online photo mags appear and it has become very difficult to follow all the links to nepalesian photography of the twenties, relaunches of well-known sites and the birth of brandnew sites.

File Magazine, launched August 1, 2004, describes itself as "FILE Magazine publishes images that treat subjects in unexpected ways. All amateur and professional photographers are encouraged to submit their work to FILE magazine. Alternate takes, odd angles, unconventional observations - these are some of the ways photographs collected in FILE reinterpret traditional genres. We leave the Kodak Moments to the family album, the glossy fashion spreads to Vogue, and the photo finishes to ESPN. Rather than taking the well-trod paths, we veer to left and get a different perspective. Confused? Browse The Collection. The photos say it better than we can."

The people behind File Magazine are apatrick, the Photo Editor, a working photojournalist in Northern California and Beerzie Boy, the Content Editor and Webslave, an Information Developer at a large technology company.

Two weeks ago, File Magazine called for submissions on Photoblogs.org (read the File Magazine submission guidelines). Photos are presented in the "The Collection" and the newly created "Karaoke Camera" ("unlike The Collection, Karaoke Camera has pre-selected categories", Link).

Although File Magazine is not "a photoblog, photo challenge/contest, or group photo album", this might become a place where photo-/moblogging and photography meet (to quote a privately interviewed serious photo editor, researcher and buyer "the place where the stupid art directors from ..... might get new inspirations") and some agencies hunt for new talents and new views ("contributors to File Magazine").

Support File Magazine! => "We are also selling FILE paraphernalia. Click here to buy t-shirts, mugs, mousepads and other crap you don't need. Keep in mind we make little from these and what we do make we use to defray hosting and other costs."
Well, someone who uses the words paraphernalia and crap can´t be wrong.