Join the visual cult: Five mailing lists you’ll actually want to subscribe to

Mailers are the heir apparent to a throne once ruled by blogs; everyone has a newsletter these days – from big brands to the individual with burning opinions that need to be shared. It makes sense of course – you can lead a horse to the best, sexiest blog in the world, but you can’t make it drink. Bring Mohammed to the mountain instead!

For our Darklight Pro community, this month has been all about building strategic, effective and engaging mailers for your subscribers, so we thought now would be a great time to point to some of the newsletters already in existence which feature brilliant, insightful content on visual culture and the creative world. Direct to your inbox.

[Oh, and, you can also subscribe to Darklight Art… since you’re already here *cue pop-up* ?]

The British Journal of Photography’s Sunday newsletter includes a round-up of essential reads from the week prior, from the world’s oldest photography title [founded in 1854, BJP is only a few decades younger than modern photography itself, so you know you’re hearing from the experts].

Taking its name from a 1912 Kafka quote [“Time is short, my strength is limited, the office is a horror, the apartment is noisy, and if a pleasant, straightforward life is not possible then one must try to wriggle through by subtle maneuvers.”], this Substack by Mason Currey explores the creative process, the dreaded creative block, and the various tactics used by creatives over the years to realise difficult projects in the face of innumerable distractions.

Len Gordon’s Art Plugged has art world news and interviews yes, but it’s their extensive focus on NFTs and digital art which will keep you coming back for more, even if it’s just to help you get your head around it all.

From new-gen creative strategy studio MORNING comes this newsletter: a monthly curation of digital trends and cultural goings-on, Burn After Reading –– so called, one imagines, because happenings in the online world move at such a pace that trends burn out and die in the time it takes to read an email. Today’s meme is tomorrow’s fish-wrapping. Anyway, this is a must-read for those looking to keep their finger on the pulse of what’s hot/what’s not. 

A community project launched by Andy Adams [of viral social media fame], FlakPhoto contains celebrations of artists past and present, musings on visual media, and more, all with a passion for photography at its core.