MADE FOR YOU BY YOU

JPG magazine is a San Francisco based publication that is taking a new personal approach to what a photography magazine is by featuring photos and stories almost entirely from its online community of photographers, who can easily be you. Its tagline is “Your World in Pictures”, and that’s exactly what JPG is all about.

Celebrating its nineteenth issue and two year anniversary this month, the online community of photographers that JPG has created around the world is growing strong, showing the different ways that the internet is helping print magazine’s vision for itself expand. Photographers who sign up to be in JPG’s online community capture photos based on themes that the magazine has for a particular issue, and the photographers try to interpret those themes in their own distinctive way. For example, the most recent issue has themes of faith, delectables, and night time.

The whole process includes the photographers taking pictures, and then uploading their top photos on the magazine’s website, where the online community votes on their favorite ones. Then, the JPG editors look at the photos with the highest votes, and filter them down until they reach the most captivating, innovative images that best tie with the theme. Finally, the best of the best are proudly published into the magazine for thousands to marvel over. The photographers that are chosen get 100 dollars, a free subscription, and of course, bragging rights.

For their last twelve issues, they’ve had over a million photos submitted, and over 180,000 photographers in their online community. The photographers are from all over the world, having their top ten cities be London, at the top, followed by New York, San Francisco, Chicago, West Hollywood, Toronto, Brooklyn, Sydney, Seattle, and Melbourne. Having JPG take this approach to its publication is giving an opportunity for cross-country collaborating and building a close relationship with the magazine, giving people the feeling of being apart of something big.

Not to undermine the work that’s put in by the JPG staff, but the community of photographers are truly the heart of the magazine, while the staff are the ones who take care of the skin and bones of production. This approach to a photography magazine is different because other magazines on the newsstands with them are usually “how-to” guides on taking great pictures, how to use a certain type of software, or a catalog of new camera and gadgets. JPG does include tips on photography or special photo-related projects at the end, but isn’t their main focus.

Flipping through the pages of the magazine, you don’t only see amazing pictures, but you can also learn about those who are behind the lens and the subjects of the photos through the captions or interviews. The captions the photographers write either give a history or information on the photo and sometimes give an inside scoop of what it took for them to get that perfect shot.

Seeing all the different images and getting to know the little back stories from the photographers is like going on a mini vacation for only 5.99, because the photos are potentially shot of anything, anywhere at anytime. Just in their recent issue, you can see photos from Slovenia, Italy, Sri Lanka, and Puerto Rico.

For example, in their recent faith issue, someone going through the magazine can learn about different religions, ways of worship, sanctuaries, what parts of the world believe in what just by looking at the pictures and captions. JPG is amazingly a celebration of art, culture, people, and expression all in one trying to fully engage its audience through the power of imagery.

JPG’s tone and voice changes from issue to issue based on their themes, but range from hilarious to intimate, chilling to heart-warming. Opening JPG is the world through the eyes of the featured photographers, but gives other readers a chance to step inside a realm they’ve never seen before or change your own perspectives of looking at the world.

Check out their website at:
www.jpgmag.com
(Photos used in this blog were taken from the JPG website, and were submitted for the FAITH theme for the recent Dec/Jan issue)