[Previous entry: "INFLATEABLE BOAT ....... wreckage"] [Next entry: "UNUSUAL FISH ......from the world of intense pressure."]
18/09/2006: "FATHOM ARTWORK ......... never published"
Roy Bisson was fathom magazine’s talented Art Director in the era when the two of us worked together under the guidance of Gareth Powell, a genius publisher with several other publications showcasing photography, travel, food, motor cycles and more.
Roy Bisson selected my efforts as underwater photographer, writer and advertising salesman and advertising copywriter.
Roy as an artist had much authority over how space a story warranted.
This was a double-edged sword. It made work easy for me.
I did not always agree with the choice of pictures selected but always left the final decision with the Art Director.
In some cases a strong story was reduced to less pages than what I preferred.
Rarely did a story stretch into more space than was justified. Roy kept the action tight.
It did happen once. I was spending a lot of time traveling aboard the private research vessel El Torito.
Walter Starck and I were making a film off the coast of New Guinea. The story of this expedition was published in issue Number 9 and given a bit too much non-diving cultural space.
There was no publishing deadline. Editions went to press whenever they were ready with artwork and importantly sufficient advertising - which was never a problem. A luxury few magazines have enjoyed.
For our proposed sharks ID guide that was to appear in the fathom annual, a planned yearbook that never eventuated beyond about 50 pages of artwork.
Inspired by Sharks and Other Predatory Fish by Peter Goadby, (a big game fishing writer) whose tiny but wonderful handbook with line drawings of all the main shark species taught me the simple formulae for identifying the main group of sharks.
The tail and dorsal fin differences between white pointer, grey nurse and the whaler sharks (now commonly called bull sharks). All very elementary stuff now but years ago it was cutting edge knowledge
Incredible, but proof of progress with general understandings of shark ID.
