After a couple of beers last night, I had a silly idea. I'm not entirely happy with the Web as a showcase for photographs: the resolution and speed are way too low, you don't get the pleasure from a real physical object, and so on. So here's the silly idea: how about becoming photo-pals? It's just like pen-pals, but we swap black-and-white postcard-sized photographs. To keep the costs down, just print on Ilford Postcard Paper or similar, put a stamp and my address, your return address and a message on the back and post it. Sure, the picture will get slightly mauled by the postal authorities, but that is part of the charm.

Do respond to this note if you have already tried this, or can see problems with it. If you like the idea, just send me a photo-postcard, and I'll send you one back, anywhere in the world. Any subject matter. If it works well, we can keep up a correspondence.

Alan Gibson

22 Caxton End, Eltisley, Cambridgeshire, PE19 4TL, Great Britain.

Legalese stuff:

This is a non-commercial, non-profit idea. Copyright remains with the original copyright holder, and no reproduction rights are given. No contract is offered or implied.

Don't send anything that a postal authority might interpret as "obscene" or otherwise illegal.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), April 20, 1998

Answers

What a great idea! The creative power of beer is amazing, it is an important part of my darkroom chemistry.

-- Andy Laycock (agl@intergate.bc.ca), April 20, 1998.

An excellent idea! You'll get a card from me shortly. So will everybody else who joins Alans Photo-pal club.

Martin Glader Slalomgraenden 4 FIN-02700 Grankulla Finland

-- Martin Glader (martin.glader@mesvac.fi), April 21, 1998.

An excellent idea! You'll get a card from me shortly. So will everybody else who joins Alans Photo-pal club. (I forgot the commas to separate the rows in my address in my previous reply. Sorry! Here it is:)

Martin Glader, Slalomgraenden 4, FIN-02700 Grankulla, Finland

-- Martin Glader (martin.glader@mesvac.fi), April 21, 1998.