Point/Counterpoint about JPG Magazine...
The wife of the CEO of 8020 Publishing responds to Flickr's unofficial JPG Magazine group and points out that a fair amount of context has gone missing. True.
You have heard Derek’s version of how things happened, and it was detailed. And very well written, because Derek is a talented writer. But it was not a years worth of details. That would be a very long post. Conversations that happened did not make it into Derek’s version, and some that did are skewed. Some key facts are omitted. (Such as why Paul took the CEO title. Derek got to be on the board, while Paul did not. In a small company, titles don’t mean as much, it’s really just a title. I feel like Derek left this detail out to make it look more sinister. Which feels dishonest to me.) Some things are closer to the truth if you reverse them. I know this because some of these conversations happened in my living room, or over the phone while I was nearby. Our old apartment wasn’t very big, so I was there for a lot of conversations.
Counterpoint from Flickr user Kristal:
Anyone can look at my life and see that I am an ordinary woman living an ordinary life. I stay at home and take care of my kids. I scrub my floors and do laundry and go grocery shopping. And then I sit at my computer and read about this new magazine, an inclusive publication that doesn't care who you are or whether you know what the hell you're doing. All this new magazine cares about is photography and finding pictures that are extraordinary.
For the first time, I felt like there was a possibility for me to do something great. Maybe, just maybe, I could share my 'hobby' with people who would get it. And I did. And it felt good.
I was published in Issues 5 and 6, both of which were removed from the site along with the story of the creation of JPG. It may not be much to anyone else, but that was the first time I had ever been published. Those were MY issues. It felt like something that was important to me was gone with no explanation. Without the history, JPG is just another slick magazine.
I don't want another slick magazine.
I want the idea. The dream.