The thin thread of every story - 6Mois magazine

During the last festival in Perpignan, the international event on photojournalism, there was a queue in front of her desk: photographers from all aver the world with their book or their MacBook Air in their hands to show their portfolios. Marie-Pierre Subtil realized at that moment that 6 Mois, the magazine she founded and directs, << has become a landmark for the world of photojournalism>>.

Photo by Alessandra Sanguinetti

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6 Mois is an idea that was born and grew quickly. The editors are all in two bright rooms of the palace of the publishing house Les Arènes, in the Rue Jacob in Paris. Three young journalists and Marie-Pierre Subtil (Editor in Chief) edit every issue alone.

Cover of the III number of  6Mois in bookstores by March 13, 2012 

Even for this << 6Mois is a biannual magazine. We need time to get things done with great care >> says the chief editor. The first issue came out a year ago and the sales have already exploded in France and abroad. A number every six months, 350 pages, 100 photographs, no advertising (unbelievable, I repeat: no advertising!), an average of 40 000 copies sold and a growing number of subscribers around the world, including Italy. 6 Mois was born in the spring of 2011, among the laughters of the experts who repeated: photojournalism is dead ... you are crazy .. The first run went out immediately and was quickly reprinted. Since March 13 there's the third number in the libraries. Africa is the theme of the cover issue. The texts are still only in French [even if publishers are working on co-publishing agreements with publishers in major local languages], however, nothing of the journal talks about France and the mix of photographers is truly international, if you look at the names of the authors of the second number: a Dane, a Frenchman, an Englishman, a Swede, an American, a Chinese, an Argentine and two Italian photographers [Alessandra Sanguinetti and Roberta Valerio.

Marie-Pierre Subtil 

Marie explains the idea behind the magazine: << We are in the post-globalization. Right in the post-Internet. On internet there are billions of new images every day of every kind and shape. The magazine takes the time to make a selection from the thousands of photographs produced of order and to organize them in a form that tells a story. Readers have learned that this is usefull>>. Marie explains that she chooses the photographs and the 'stories' to be published under a very subjective criterion: << If you strike me, if you touch me, it wiould touch the other >>. Each photo is mounted in a story as long and accompanied by captions that are written as a result of an intensive dialogue with the photographer who took the pictures. << I prefere photographs that come from a personal project of one author and that take time and passion. We are not interested in isolated scoop photos >>. For questions that arise about the subject of the photographic reportage, there is the article that follows each report.Then there is the formula of The World FotoBio or The World of dedicated to the imagery of a photographer. 6 Mois released in March and in October, costs 25 euros. For me it's worth it. Information and excerpts from the article whether the March issue of Elle. 

Photo by Vivian Maier