Professional Photographer – November 2021
English | 93 pages | pdf | 17.98 MB
Welcome at Professional Photographer Magazine November 2021 Issue
PPA has been sitting on a little treasure trove here at Atlanta headquarters that you’re probably not even aware of. We haven’t intentionally kept it hush-hush, but until now it’s not been something we could share with every member. And it wouldn’t have been right to allow only some of you a taste of these riches. It wasn’t even until several years ago that this cache could be made available to members.
In a small storage room in our Peachtree Center offices, we have squirreled away copies of PPA’s member magazine that reach back more than 100 years. Each
year’s issues since 1911 are bound in leather volumes—some years into more than one volume since the member magazine started out as a weekly.
This collection represents 110 years’ worth of history, knowledge, and best practices since almost the dawn of American photography. Just think of that. All these magazines have been preserved for over a century, through a dozen relocations of association headquarters in various cities, passing through the hands of what was sometimes a tiny staff. It’s remarkable that so much care was taken to preserve PPA history over such a long period of time by so many individuals. And I don’t think it was the result of anyone’s job description; I think it was born of devotion. How else to account for the preservation of this professional record through time, place, and personnel?
Technology made it possible to shine a light on these gems and share them with you. In what turned out to be a multi-year project, bound volumes were carefully disassembled by hand, each page scanned while keeping the issues intact, and the magazines were then rebound in their original historic covers. Exceptional care was taken at each step, with everyone involved aware of the project’s historic signifi cance.
Originally published in 1907 as Abel’s Photographic Weekly, your member magazine has taken a variety of names over its history, as has the association itself. The purpose, though, has remained a constant: helping members remain current on trends and techniques, showing how to be a better photographer, offering business tips, and providing inspiration from fellow photographers.
Today, these volumes are available digitally on the PPA website. We couldn’t be more excited to share PPA’s history—and the history of photography itself—through these magazines. The archives (1911 to 2007) are available as PDFs. As always, Professional Photographer Magazine issues from 2008 to today are available as digital editions.
You can access all of the Professional Photographer digital editions as well as the historic archives at ppa.com/ppmag/digital. A word of caution: Dipping into the archive is like going down a magical rabbit hole. You read one article and suddenly a couple of hours have passed. It’s fascinating to see how much has changed in 100- plus years … and how much has stayed the same in the work and lives of professional photographers. •
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