Artichoke Thistle, Spring Transition, copyright 2026 Douglas Stockdale –
At the end of September I had announced that one (or more) of pigment transfer prints had been selected for inclusion of The Hand magazine’s issue #54, while I would not know which exactly until I received my copy of this issue. The magazine arrived while we were on our Oregon wedding road-trip, but then I had over 350 wedding candid photographs to edit and tweak. Thus, providing a shout-out of which pigment transfer print that was featured just had to wait until that was completed. Done on both accounts.
I had been occilating on what to do with The Hand magazine submissions after issue 55, which is what I am pre-paid for, as you need to subscribe to submit. A nice gambit to get subscriptions. I have been fortunate to have my alternative photographic projects featured numerous times for past couple of years, and while I have enjoyed the recognition (& validation) of my creative endeavors, galleries have not been exactly beating a path to my door. In fact, I have not had a print sell as a result of it being featured in this magazine. So what’s my personal take-away for submitting and being featured?
First part, maybe The Hand magazine is not on the various gallery’s watch list and those who obtain the magazine are mostly those who want to submit, not art buyers? Which might also be the same situation as a couple of the other art magazines that feature alternative photography, such as Obscura and Analog Forever; small art-photo distribution. I suspect that all of these art-photo magazines are similar in nature as the constant-open-call photo galleries; the featured artists do not sell very much of their work during these exhibition events (although I do have to say that is how I did sell one of my cyanotypes a couple of years ago). I think that you (and they) would like to think otherwise.
Second part, does that really matter? I enjoy creating art and as an exhibiting-artist, having outlets to share my work as well as having deadline goals seems to work for me. Same as discussing my art projects on this blog.
Selling artwork these days is a complex and multi-layered (multi-channeled) process. I know that if that’s really what I wanted to do that there is a ton of work I could do to make it happen. What I have learned about myself over the years; art can be a fun challenge to make, sometimes art can fun to market (e.g. writing about it on this blog, sharing on IG, getting into magazine and exhibitions), while I am not a big fan of the actual selling transaction process. Okay, I will admit that I have a day-job, so figuring out how to pay the rent is not one of my issues and likewise I can afford most of my art equipment and supplies. So maybe one day someone will get inspired to represent me again and want to sell my artwork. Maybe. LoL
So bottom line, it has been fun to be included in The Hand magazine and I can see that I will probably submit again for a while as a creative PR outlet for my artwork. I know that the magazine does have a broader distribution than this blog and my IG so being featured does help with my artistic visibility (such as if I are NOT featured, my artwork does not get seen). Likewise, I have made some nice some personal connections as a result and that too has been another wonderful aspect of being featured. win-win.
I probably should check out both Obscura and Analog Forever submissions, so maybe get those on my radar as well. Okay, now that I have the wedding photos edited and made this shout-out, it is time to think about my pigment ink transfers that have been on hold since the end of September…
Cheers!
Doug
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