PHOLUX Journal Edition One

Editor’s Note How to discover the art of self-publishing Welcome to my fi st magazine like photo publication. Why a magazine and not a book? Well, I struggled a lot with this decision over the last few weeks but I’m convinced that this type of publication works best for me at the moment. The idea of a book is not completely banned from my mind, but for the moment it just feels right this way.

I want to give you a brief glimpse inside the process of realizing my fi st printed magazine. I started taking photographs in 2003 when I was still on highschool. I was pretty tempted to see my photos published in newspapers and magazines so I became some kind of addicted to this type of photography.

I shot hundreds of photos every month and all of them shared the same fate. The minority got published, a few made it onto my former website or inside photo communities and the rest died on my harddrive as I didn’t have enough time to give them a second or third look. By the time I felt a little bored and with the opportunity to start studying at university I stopped taking new photos from one day to another and took an almost two year break from photography.

In late 2011 I started carrying a camera with me again, but this time I photographed only for myself.

It almost felt like some my-point-of-view-stories and the beginnings weren’t really satisfying. But as many of those great photographers say: you won’t get better by looking only at the amazing work of others. You have to pick up your own gear and get out to shoot some new stuff ourself.

Shooting new photos, new subjects and new themes brings up always the problem that you don’t focus enough on a special theme or storytelling. You take many pictures, some of them might be pretty good but you don’t create enough context for them. I began to read a lot of travel magazines, especially those on-board magazines airlines tend to publish every month. Some of them are pretty good, like EnRoute of Air Canada or Air France Magazine and they are all available through the internet as a PDF-file or by downloading their own iPad Apps. Highly recommended!

I started shooting new photos with the imagination so see them published in some kind of travel magazine and the fi st thing I realized was that almost 95% of my photos were shot in landscape format instead of the often used portrait format in magazines, especially for the magazine title. It was an important lesson I learned.

From then on I walked the cities more focused. I was able to set my shots in a different context and by planning my last 3 weeks holiday trip I came up with the idea of self publishing some kind of printed work. To be honest, I haven’t printed myself a lot of my photos over the last few years but every print has something special to me because unless you shoot analog film photography you won’t get any I

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physical feedback shooting with a digital camera until you fi ally print your best photos. But what to do with these prints? Setting up a high-quality portfolio would be nice, especially if you want to reach some new clients with your photography and begin to work as a professional photographer. For me as an amateur that’s kind of useless. Giving away these portfolios as a gift s a bit complicated, too and depending on the quality of your prints, maybe a very costly experience that you won’t do very often.

The moment I realized that I needed something to maybe give it away on occasion was when I was walking the streets at a foreign city to photograph unknown people. Some of them don’t want to get their photo taken, especially inside restaurants, cafes and stores people tend to get very distracted if you start taking photos. For those moments I thought it would be nice not only to have a website where these people could see your work but as well some printed stuff ecause not everybody has mobile internet and enough time to look at your work online if you want to take a photo of them.

The fi st company that came to my mind for helping me with my new idea was Blurb. Already famous for the large amount of photobooks photographers make with their incredible tools, they offer as well a very good and affordable magazine type publication. The advantage of a magazine is that it’s cheaper and easier to carry it with you. Those two points lead into a third advantage for you as an amateur. It’s not that hard to give this magazine away as a gift r a memory because you know that you can easily order some new copies for much less money than a high-quality photobook.

My last holiday trip to Argentina gave me a very good reason to fi ally bring this project to life after coming back home. I shot this entire trip with the intention to publish the best shots inside this selfdesigned, self-published magazine and guess what happened?

I came back with a lot more usable photos than ever from a trip. Th s way of focusing your style of photography having this special idea in mind while taking every shot even improved my skills of travel photography. I don’t say that I’m fi ally there where I want to see my level of experience, but with every shot I’m getting better and better.

For those of you who share the same experience in photography and take only photographs to leave them unseen on your harddrives I want to give an advice: Go out and shoot more focused, give yourself an assignment and publish your shots on the internet. Let people see what you do, let them interact with you. But don’t be frightened of negative feedback! It will force you to improve and maybe leave your comfort zone. Some may realize that they can be already proud of their work while others will learn how easy it is to get a learning curve that points high into the sky instead of a mainly staying horizontal for the rest of your life.

I hope you enjoy this tiny piece of art and I’m happy to read your feedback.

Martin

Editor and Photographer

The Editor and Amateur Photographer was born in 1987 in Germany and currently enjoys his life as a fulltime medical student at the University of Freiburg (Germany).

You can fi d his work online at www.pholux.com or on Twitter as @pholux_martin.

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CONTENT 1 EDITOR’S NOTE 3 CONTENT 4 BUENOS AIRES - FADED SPLENDOR 15 BARRIO PALERMO 25 BARRIO SAN TELMO 32 FERIA DE MATADEROS 36 ROADTRIP 4000 46 SALINAS DEL BEBEDERO SAN LUIS 54 BODEGAS LOPEZ MENDOZA 60 ACONCAGUA CHRISTO REDENTOR MENDOZA 72 VILLAVICENCIO MENDOZA 80 PARQUE NACIONAL ISCHIGUALASTO SAN JUAN 90 PARQUE NACIONAL TALAMPAYA LA RIOJA 98 CORDOBA

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BUENOS AIRES FADED SPLENDOR

Buenos Aires has always been a very fascinating megacity which impresses with some high society modern lifestyle as well as a growing amount of poverty. Walking down the streets it’s preferable to take only a small amount of gear or a high quality compact camera without any bag. You have take care of blending yourself into the environment as good as possible for being able to discover the city not like a tourist but more like a local. Speaking Spanish is pretty useful and if you do so, I can highly recommend the tourism guides of the local fuel company YPF. They produce several guides for every region of Argentina including one only for maps and one for Buenos Aires with a lot of insider tips and very good restaurant recommendations. I don’t know how good your travelguides are but I prefer buying one of these instead of bringing one from home. They can be purchased at every YPF Station throughout the country.

Places to visit on a short stay are defin tely Palacio Barolo, where you have a wonderful view over the city from the 14th or 22nd fl or (p. 4-5), a former theatre and now an incredible bookshop El Ateneo which can be found in Santa Fe Street 1860 (p. 6, top) and the Recoleta Cemetery (p.6).

Furthermore there is the former wood harbour Puerto Madero (p.10) with its modern restaurants, hotels and shops. Secured by the coast guard it’s one of the safest places, but you can never be sure! Take care!

You can eat one of the best Argentinean beef steaks at La Estancia, Lavalle Street 941 (p.7, bottom) or enjoy the modern lifestyle of Palermo Soho (p. 15-16), a very quiet and peaceful distcrict with lots of little designer stores, outlets, restaurants and cafes. You can reach it taking the Bus 140 from Correo Central (Central Post Station) to Avenida Córdoba 5000 and Gurruchaga Street or a little faster with subway line B (Subte B) to Malabia station and walk another 5 minutes until Gurruchaga Street.

On bad weather days or if you are searching some antique gifts, ou can visit the Palermo Flea Market (Mercado de Pulgas, p. 17-21), which is located inside an old market hall at Avenida Dorrego and Niceto Vega Street.

(Palermo Hollywood) On Sundays the place to be is the disctrict of San Telmo (p. 25-31), where the old fl a market takes place around Plaza Dorrego and along Defensa Street. There are a lot of Tango dancers and musicians on the streets but take care of the pickpockets!

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Another interesting spot is the Mataderos Festival or Feria de Mataderos. Defin tely a place where the percentage of locals is still higher than foreign tourists. It’s a bit outside the city centre of capital Buenos Aires at the district of Mataderos. You can reach it using the subway line E (Subte E) to Plaza de los Virreyes and from there calling a taxi to Mataderos.

It can be compared with a country festival where there is traditional music, dancing and you can buy everything from leather goods, food, spices, up to clothes and every kind of gear for the famous Argentinean cowboys, called Gauchos.

If you are lucky, you can fi d some of them wearing their traditional clothes at the festival.

Feria de Mataderos takes place every Sunday from March to December.

For further information visit: www.feriademataderos.com.ar

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ROADTRIP 4000 ALTITUDE TRAINING

4000 - was some kind of a magic number on this trip.

A total amount of 4000 kilometers from Buenos Aires to the Andes through the states of San Luis, Mendoza, San Juan and La Rioja. The highest altitude which can be reached by car on this trip is 4000 meters over sealevel.

The streets are in very good conditions, the main roads are Ruta 7, the famous Ruta 40 and Ruta 9. There are several national parks who are waiting for your visit and wonderful landscapes to be photographed. Th s journey can be done in 7-8 days. If you want to discover the country a bit further it’s worth to double the amount of time planned for the whole trip.

On the following pages you will fi d impressions from along the road that you won’t see if you do the fi st and last part of this trip by plane (p. 38-45).

About 20 minutes away from San Luis, the capital of the state of San Luis, you should visit the salt production of Salinas del Bebedero, a salt lake almost in the middle of nowhere (p. 46-49).

A visit to one of the big and famous Bodegas is highly recommended at Mendoza, one of the most important vine regions of Argentina. I went to Bodegas Lopez, one of the oldest and very famous, too (p. 54-59).

You will actually need one day for a trip to the top of the Andes, a look at the highest mountain of South America, the Aconcagua (p. 60-67) with its 6962 meters and a visit to the cemetery of those people who left o beat this mountain but never came back alive.

On the same day you reach the highest part of this trip, the Christo Redentor mountain pass (p. 68-71), where you can decide either to make a few steps over to Chile or stay in Argentina at 4000 meters over sealevel.

The former thermal baths and source of the famous Villavicencio water (p. 72) is a nice half day trip. You can spend the rest of the day at the city center of Mendoza. (p. 73-75).

Two national parks you defin tely have to visit are Ischigualasto (p. 80-89) with its Moonvalley (Valle de la Luna) and Talampaya National Park (p. 90-97), an impressive canyon with a large amount of wild animals.

On your way back to Buenos Aires, a short stay in the beautiful region of Córdoba is highly recommended for a few days of relaxation (p. 98-103).

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THAT’S IT! THE END! Glad you made it to this last page. I hope you like the concept of PHOLUX Journal and I would be very happy to read your feedback and maybe your recommendations for this publication on other websites or even on your own blog!

After editing thousands of photos to fi ally 162 photographs on 104 pages, I’ve fin shed the fi st edition of PHOLUX Journal within 2 weeks. It won’t be the last edition as I’m planning other trips and I’m open for participating photographers, too.

If you want to stay updated, follow my website: www.pholux.com or on Twitter: @pholux_martin.

Thank you!

All photographs are protected by Copyright Laws - © 2013 - PHOLUX.COM - Martin Lux Any use is prohibited without permission, including photos, layout and design. Please ask instead of breaking the law!

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BYE BYE

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