Welcome to the New photo-eye Magazine!

Over the last several months I've thought about what I might say on the occasion of our launch. It's been difficult, the urge to celebrate is conflicting with my instinct to see this as simply the first step on a long but gratifying road. My hope for the magazine's new incarnation is to continue on the path of our physical predecessor, to create a forum for furthering the consideration of the photographic book as art form. It's a lofty goal, but one I'm confident is possible given the array of fantastic contributors we've lined up and the incredible feast of wonderful publications coming out with an almost intimidating frequency.

The biggest change in moving online may be the ability to engage readers and photography connoisseurs directly, through our blogs and article comments. One thing I've learned during my time at photo-eye is the depth of our audience's interest and knowledge. The conversations I've had with our readers and customers have consistently been a high point of my job, and constitute a discourse I'm eager to see flourish on a much larger scale. So I'll take this opportunity to both celebrate the beginning of the new photo-eye Magazine and invite you to take full advantage of our new format by weighing in on—and expanding the discourse surrounding—the ever growing world of photography books.

I also would like to take this opportunity to thank Rixon Reed, photo-eye's founder, director and executive editor, for his humor and patience throughout the months of design and programming, Sarah Bradley for her invaluable work as copy editor, Ben Lerman and Melanie McWhorter for their tremendous help and input, and the rest of the photo-eye staff for their help and understanding throughout. And of course, an extra special thanks to all the wonderful writers and photographers who contributed to this issue and made it what it is, it's been a great honor.