40-year-old photo publication and staple of the industry, is shutting down.

Emerald Expositions announced that as of today, Photo District News (PDN) will no longer publish content.

What we do know is that yet another industry icon is closing its doors—the latest in a series of high-profile shutdowns and partial shutdowns that include names like Popular Photography and, more recently, Imaging Resource.

Nostalgia is warm and comforting. The future is challenging and often more scary. A reverence for icons can give way to excitement about the new and untried, and often that in turn will lead to new icons. It can also lead to turning away from icons which can be healthy, and the continuation of a natural cycle between rest and agitation.

 

Photography as we knew it is dead. Long live photography! Same is true for a lot of things. That there’s always something new is nothing very new.

It isn’t about icons.

It is about something good.

The icon is a byproduct......

Quality transcends Trend.

There is nothing new under the Sun.....

A good photograph is Timeless.

Not only is nostalgia warm and comforting, but it also wears rose-tinted glasses.

 

You'd be amazed what people are nostalgic about.

 

I was going to give examples but didn't want to embarrass others or myself.

You'd be amazed what people are nostalgic about.

Or not ...

Or not

 

I'll see you and raise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L9b2ifwqlQ

 

A classic case of what is known as "Ostalgie"

Like Angela Merkel (another young East German 'babe', Nina changed over time

 

 

Now there's NOSTALGIA:eek:

When I was young and first interested in photography, I had a subscription to Popular Photography,

at least for a few years. Also Popular Electronics.

 

More recently, I would read Popular Photography in our library, and was just a little sad to

see it disappear.

 

I now have a subscription to Outdoor Photography, as a gift from my father.

The most nostalgic occupations on the planet.

Archaeologists.

Photographers.

Can you imagine being BOTH......

 

Everything does seem smaller than you remember it though.......

We are homesick most for the places we have never known.

--Carson McCullers

Not bad.

My own photography can certainly be motivated by and can express nostalgia. More often, I'd say, it's less about what was and more about what can be ...

 

Every photograph is of the past.

 

;)

Every photograph is of the past.

I'm often less concerned with what it's of than what it shows and what it can be about.

In any case, “the past” is not nostalgia. Nostalgia is a particular take on the past. If a photo is of the past, that doesn’t mean it has to do with nostalgia, though it may.

There is no “if” a photo is of the past.

That may disturb certain emotional comfort.

But it is true.

Nostalgia is a healthy mental trait.

Edited February 1, 2020 by Moving On

The point, for me, is not whether a photo is “of” the past but how important or not that may be to the photo ... and that a photo’s being “of” the past doesn’t make it nostalgic.

Granted....

I'd never heard of PDN (or RF or WPPI) but from the website, it looks to have been a great magazine and a loss to people who currently subscribe. I have no idea what prompted its 'retirement' but looking at the 'news' and 'about/timeline' sections of the emeraldexpositions website, it somehow doesn't surprise me.

 

What did surprise me was that Emerald Expositions - a "leading operator of business-to-business trade shows" - acquired PDN some 20 years ago and has published it since then. Presumably to attract visitors to its events. The 'News' section relates that Emerald made a loss of $20M in the 3rd quarter of 2019. I also read (elsewhere) that Emerald's share price dipped 40% in the 12 months months up to september 2019. December saw a 'leadership transition'' and the appointment of a new CFO at Emerald Expositions.

 

So it doesn't surprise me that some activities and costs are being cut.

Perhaps less to do with photography than the survival of print media generally. Liked PDN but must admit it had a multitude of online competition. Still, magazines can secure and thrive in the right niche. Conde Nast publications like The New Yorker got with it and turned itself into a media platform to meet a far wider audience than the magazine alone apparently ever did.

Every photograph is of the past.

 

Both the photographs and the old cameras are the only kind of time travel I do. It's my version of Proust's Madeline.

I gotta have a cup of tea......

Nostalgia? Sounds like the cameras I carry around most of the time. Generally an F2 with an MD-2. Manual everything. If I want to go crazy maybe an F4S or an N90. I grew up on that and Tri-X and honestly it’s still my favorite. Digital is very handy but some days....

 

Rick H.

Nostalgia elicits both happy and sad in me. Something for a good session of therapy. Edited February 6, 2020 by vrankin

Both the photographs and the old cameras are the only kind of time travel I do. It's my version of Proust's Madeline.

My daily Madeline of late......