Jolie's April Issue Goes to Print This Friday!

I encourage friends to check out Jolie magazine's special spring fashion issue featuring apparel from stores around the city! Styling by Ja'maal Mosely and Lisa Arnold. Photography by Elaine Floyd Photography. Models by DeAbreu Modeling Consulting www.deabreumodeling.com. The location is a newly renovated Lake Murray Marina and Yacht Club opening soon. Issues hit the streets next week so don't miss it!

Elaine Floyd

A Great (Pink) Light Has Gone Out

There was once a Law and Order episode where the murderer threw his victim into the pit at Ground Zero to cover up the crime. Upon investigation, the police and lawyers determined that the victim was never near the trade towers on 9/11--she was murdered several days after the attacks. The killer used a national tragedy to throw police off the trail. Thank goodness for the moment when the truth is revealed (complete with eighties synth-violin.) I just love a good arrest.

Today the McClatchy publishing company laid off over 1,600 employees nationwide. You might remember them from when they bought out Knight Ridder a while back. I remember them from when I had to renew my contract as a freelance photographer with Jolie magazine. Yes, I'm a small part of all this. Jolie is a specialty publication under the marketing department under The State Newspaper under the McClatchy company. You could say I was as far at the bottom of the food chain as you could get. Oh, but it was a blast! Shooting for them was my first real photography gig, a "gig" that ended up lasting about three and half years. I always thought the day would come when I would stop receiving calls and work would dwindle. I certainly screwed up enough to warrant the wrath of at least the color printing people. Such is the fickle nature of the art world. Something new and better is always out there. Something that's not me. Fortunately, I developed a good professional relationship with one of the art directors. Before long, I was one of about three photographers in rotation for that one publication. I kept my fingers crossed and hoped things would stay the same. Work improved as I gained experience and trust.

Last week I had what was probably the most successfully executed fashion photo shoot for the April issue. Everything came together for the perfect day. The weather was beautiful, if chilly. The models survived by huddling in blankets between shots. Our location was the newly renovated Lake Murray Marina, a diamond in the rough with thinly painted wood, warped docks, and boats that could have washed in from a flash flood. It was charming. We used a new lighting technique to expose for the strobe light instead of the ambient light. At times it really made the colors pop. I was so excited about the photos that I put one on my i-phone to show friends, even though I knew I couldn't show anything until the issue came out officially.

Meanwhile, someone in a corporate office in another state who does not read or see Jolie magazine (except in stark statistical form) decided that everything we'd worked on was expendable, and worse, a liability. At least on paper. He or she didn't notice that Columbia natives are more often seen flipping through Jolie and Skirt than cooing over The State newspaper. But I digress.

Jolie magazine was the original vision of one distinguished Columbia woman in 2005. Since then it was passed around, inherited by cold, undeserving legal guardians who sent it to boarding school the minute it got old enough. The magazine, eventually left in the capable, enterprising hands of McClatchy for a bright new future, was just thrown out with the dirty, financially abysmal bathwater. That means no more blithe coverage of local events, no more stories of empowered Columbia women, and no more advertising for businesses whose products were routinely featured inside and on the cover. The hot pink magazine racks that once lined the streets and sprang up outside shops in the Vista will soon be spray-painted and recirculated elsewhere in some grim ritual, the trappings of downsizing. Once it's ugly effects were felt only when I reached for the store brand toilet paper. Now I have lost 80% of my monthly income and creative outlet overnight. A creative outlet is a very sad thing to lose, especially if it paid for a new camera every once in a while. Not to mention it paid; period.

I mourn with the 30 Columbia employees who were laid off, most of them in creative talent and ad sales. McClatchy blames the troubled economy. However, I think it actually went down like this: McClatchy murdered about 1,600 jobs. Then they tossed them into the chaotic debris of national headlines screaming "Recession! Cutbacks!!" That was enough to cover their rear ends for the time being. Cutting specialty publications will save money, sure. But what if your "fun" stuff is actually doing better than your "serious" stuff?

In the end, Jolie was always going be the fall guy for mistakes made in other areas. It's easy to blame something pretty for messing up the really serious business of news reporting. Getting rid of life's little excesses makes you look good in the news. They had to lay off someone, and it might as well have been the guy designing layouts around Handbag of the Month. News is the priority. News news news. Of course, McClatchy is too busy trying to bail out their newspapers to realize that no one is reading them. People are picking up speciality publications like Jolie because inside there is always good news, no agenda, and nice pictures. You can't blame a city like Columbia for liking pretty pictures. There will be plenty of time for reality to hit us in the face every day. At least once a month we could relax outside at Gervais and Vine with a glossy new Jolie magazine on our table. Shoes; shoes are harmless good fun. Some of us delight in the little diversions of local fashion trends and upcoming social events. That's what some of us want. Now, thanks to the McClatchy company, some of us would like our jobs back.

This does not look good for Columbia, SC. I would encourage a well-established Columbia native to save Jolie magazine and it's employees if it could be afforded. Buy the whole thing and do what you want with it. Just keep it going somehow. It's a sad derelicted victim of many things, none of which was disinterest.