Gomma
A high-quality production magazine with an excellent collection of imagery portraying renowned photographers as well as emerging talents blended with a hint of humour and cheekiness.
London, UK
Po Box 52215, SW16 2ZT
Email: info@gommamag.com
- Category: Photography
- Periodicity: Annual
- Language: English
- Format: 210 x 270 mm
- Circulation: 9,000
- Price: £ 5
- Web: http://www.gommamag.com
Founded in 2004
Gomma was formed in 2004 by 4 artists aspiring to create a new publishing space for photographers. After almost 3 years the team has grown to 8 members and a string of contributors and supporters. The website gommamag.com, initially intended to be only a presentation of the printed magazine, has become a popular daily updated portal dedicated to photography, visual arts and design. It's now on its third edition, Gomma V3.
-Gomma Magazine is a magazine entirely dedicated to the art of photography.
-Gomma Online is an online platform for photography, visual arts and design.
Exclusive Interview
Dare and risk.
What is your magazine about?
Photography.
Who’s behind the project? Tell us about the founders, their backgrounds and their motivations!
Luca Desienna, Alessia Bassani and Enrico Zulian.
Photography and graphic design backgrounds.
Aim: to publish a magazine that showcases high quality photography,
mainly reportage, fine art and portraiture.
How do you produce one issue? How much time do you spend on it? How big is your team?
Since the team is very small and everyone involved is working on other projects,
we are currently producing 1 or 2 issues per year,
the process is quiet long and it starts by launching an open call through gommamag.com, then there is the selection process, the editing and the printing.
What have been the important steps in the life of your magazine?
Distributing it !
What are the key ingredients for the success of your magazine?
High quality photography.
High quality production.
Keep advertisements to a minimum.
Dare and risk.
Friendly attitude.
Promote photographers rather than the magazine itself.
What are the difficulties you are confronted with? What would be “the” thing to help the magazine to improve?
Distribution!
Being able to reduce the cover price.
Where do you want the magazine to be in five years?
An established and no-fuss publication about photography,
that is welcomed and viewed not only by the photographic enviroments.
A publication that is known to be creative and cutting edge.
Tell us about your audience! Who are the readers of your magazine?
27% Amateur Photographers
35% Professional photographers
21% Media professionals
10% Visual Artists
06% Other
01% Not specified
Is remaining independent important to you? Is it part of the strategy?
100% !
We want to keep operating the way we are operating now, freely and creatively.
What’s your relationship with advertisement? Does it influence your content? Do you care about advertising-driven-editorials?
This is a new area, as we just started evaluating and dealing with potential advertisers.
Do you think that magazine readers still need to watch TV?
There is no need to watch TV anyway! Even if you don’t read magazines!
What is your relationship with your printer? Does he play a main role in your development?
Yes, it’s very important.
They’ve been very helpful and friendly with us.
Which magazines influence you most? What are you looking for in other magazines?
From the next issue our aim is not to be influenced by any existing publication.
What are you looking for in other magazines?
Boldness. Simplicity. Contents.
What do you think of your issue 01, when you look back at it?
Daring, ugly but beatiful!
Unconventional.
What question did you never ask in your magazine but would have liked to?
Answer:
We’d like to be more political, but you can’t move too much away from the original idea, the original concept, ...which, in our case, didn’t allow us to be involved politically. The main aim remains: 100% Photography.
How many magazines do you buy / get / read each month? Do you qualify yourself as a maniac?
It’s a funny thing because you must look at other magazines all the time in order to avoid publishing the same contents but in the same time you don’t want to be influenced by the other publications’ choices.
I enjoy viewing magazines that are bold and solid, stylish without being complicated,
The less is definetely the better for me.
E-mail interview from “03.10.2006”. © Colophon2007.com – Mike Koedinger Editions SA (Luxembourg)
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