Source (photography magazine)


Source is a quarterly photography magazine published in Belfast. It is distributed throughout the UK, Ireland and internationally. It is the longest running photographic review in the UK since the closing of Creative Camera magazine in 2001 and is comparable to other international photography titles such as Aperture in the US, Camera Austria and Katalog in Denmark.

History

Source was first published in 1992 as a newsletter of the organisation Photo Works North. This organisation had been set up the previous year to promote photography in Northern Ireland. The first editor was the photographer Paul Seawright.
From 1995 Source expanded its remit to include review coverage of exhibitions across Ireland and the UK. Since 2002 it has also included extensive reviews of photographic publishing. In 2007 Source published its 50th issue and was relaunched in a new format with additional columns and more review coverage.

Coverage

Source is primarily concerned with social, historical or aesthetic uses of photography rather than technical or amateur photography. The magazine deals largely with art photography, in exhibition or book reviews, essays or in the portfolios of photographs it publishes. These portfolios are selected from submissions, including those from photographers who have attended the regular portfolio days the magazine has run at venues around Ireland and the UK since 1997.
However, as well as art photography the magazine is also concerned with other non-artistic uses of the medium and has in the past published essays on subjects such as police photography, pornography, satellite photographs, children's book illustration, copyright, photography and literature, and the history of photography. This approach is typified by two columns that have run since the magazine's relaunch in 2007, discussing photography in relation to 'advertising' and 'law'.