I tried to get over on the establishment a while back. I signed up for a free magazine subscription for what by virtue of its title, sounded like an intriguing publication. I sat down in my favorite
chair to peruse this magazine, starting with an editorial by the editor/family member/owner. I didn't recognize the name, so read on because the subject interested me, "How the conventional manufacturers of
photo products are doing nada to support the industry and promote photography", and therefore, according to this sharp editor, they were the reason for the ongoing demise of conventional photography as we today
know it. I read his words (it was a guy) & pondered as best I could what he was saying.
I continued through this very well done, glossy publication to see what other bits of interest I could glean from the pages. Then to my astonishment, this publication wasn't the brain child of some
very well off & well intentioned artist, philosopher, or other denizen of the publishing world,
but rather the very calculated promotion of one the the more notorious "Gray Marketers" in NY State. For those of you who don't know what "gray" means, it can be compared in principle to the job pressures put on the United States from low cost product/labor from countries/companies which are either copying, ripping off, or transferring products priced for one market based on economic realities (usually markets that could never pay for a product that the rich industrial nations can because of their standard of living etc.) & transferred to anther market where profit can be realized. I am by no means an economist, but I do know that the gray market has done more to undermine the efforts of manufacturers to make a fair profit from what they make, market & sell, than all of the supposed lack of marketing the photo mystique. Gray marketing isn't illegal in the true sense of the word, but for a gray market ........... entity to use the profits derived from this somewhat unethical way of making money around the establish distribution system, use this money to unashamedly promote it business, won't get my subscription to their magazine.
If you want to subscribe to the magazine, e-mail me & I'll tell you where to contact them.
