American Photo

The is a mostly about glomore photos and photo journalism. If you are not intrested in this area of photograpy than this is not the magizine for you. Lots of ideas about interior photograpy, and model photography. A lot of writing about the buzz in the photo world. Also quite a bit about photographes bios or resume, not a lot about there technique. Yet it is only 13 dollars a year and I see an image in each issue worth paying 13 dollars to see in each issue. There are a lot of ads, but good ads which are quite entertaining.

Not a techincal or method guide in any way.
good overview of the newest and best equipement.
Also good photo book reviews
Good political photoessays too.


one of my favorite photo magazines   April 19, 2002
adead_poet@hotmail.com (Austin, tx USA)
20 out of 21 found this review helpful

American Photo is one of my favorite photography magazines. It's beautifully made and full of great articles. There is some technical pieces in it, but what I really love about the magazine is that it isn't just a technical magazine (like Popular Photography), it's issues cover artists and events happening. I feel all photographers, regardless of whether you are a novice or an advanced professional, should subscribe. The only fault I can find is that it comes out bimonthly and not every month.


Better titled "American Fashion Photography"   August 27, 2003
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I subscribed to this magazine hoping for a good, general overview of the field in this country, with product reviews, tips, etc. The product reviews and tidbits are helpful, but I've become increasingly tired of the fashion photography focus and more particularly with the glamour shots on every issue's cover. I'm not sure if they're trying to compete with Vogue, but there's a lot more to photography than yet another shot of a model or an actress. How about some landscape, portraiture, abstract, historical, architectural, aerial, or underwater photography? Please? They seem to have forgotten who their audience is, and frankly, the helpful and informative bits are outweighed by the narrow focus on fashion media and photography.


Glam and Gear: Unexciting   April 8, 2004
Jeremy (CA United States)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

The magazine is mostly glamour photography and gear reviews.

Even if glamour photography is what you're interested in, however, the articles are generally biographical, not instructional, in nature.

The gear reviews are typical of magazine reviews in that the reviewers don't want to bite the hand that feeds them. Consequently, virtually all reviews will be very positive, which renders them fairly useless if you want an honest feature by feature analysis and comparison to the competition. If that is what you want, find a good website (like dpreview).

If what you want is to lust after all the almost-latest gear (without actually knowing what's best) and fashion photography that you can't do (because the magazine doesn't teach you), this is your mag. Otherwise, get your gear reviews online and your fashion photography and portraiture from pro mags dedicated to those topics.


Hackneyed   July 15, 2003
Michael J Edelman (Huntington Woods, MI USA)
15 out of 20 found this review helpful

American Photo began as a magazine devoted more to photography than to gear, as an alternative to the gear obsessed magazines like Pop Photo and Photographic. It has evolved into a magazine that divides its pages between equipment obsession and cheesy "glamour" photography that tries for art and delivers soft core porn. No stars.