Karinandraoul

Recent developments in web tech have allowed anyone to publish an online magazine with the stylistic feel of a print version, rich in imagery and photography and ideally suited for fashion, lifestyle and photographic projects. And this has led to a number of such concepts, including this one, which offers art and style photography with a distinctly sexy feel and a strong leaning toward monochrome both in still and video work.

For me, as an ex-European, the most provocative element of the site's mag is the claim that its images are largely of a standard suitable for posting (or pasting) on walls and treating as serious works of art, rather than being merely the pages of an arty photo magazine that might conveniently cover that hole next to the fridge. Generally, it's not considered appropriate to save your audience the trouble of deciding whether your creations qualify as "art" or not, by telling them, up front; courtesy requires them to be allowed to make that decision for themselves.

Americans, though, are much more easily provoked than Europeans, the image content of whose daily newspapers alone would be sufficient to prompt a roar of outrage in this country. Here, a Page 3 Girl is just a girl on page three, though page five or even six would suffice. And the full influence of Rupert Murdoch, whose contributions to the cause of bringing art to the masses cannot be understated, has yet to be experienced in all its topless glory. So I have to caution you that the content of this site contains many images of people not fully dressed, in the pursuit of a sort of fashionable erotica that wouldn't raise an eyebrow on your average Sun or Star reader (not to mention Nuts, which I won't mention) but may prompt a much-magnified response from the west of the Atlantic.

Aside from that important point, the site offers the magazine in online or print format - $30 for the latter - plus some video shorts, a blog and yes, a tee shirt. It has the widely-used and very convenient issuu.com format for the magazine (see my horrendously long review of the issuu site here: http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.issuu.com#2) and the sort of semi-gloss presentation you might expect from a project of this nature.

But is it art? Ahh.

The flash loads quickly on this site but I find the content to be quite risque` for my taste. Also, the quality of ergonomics gets sacrificed due to the layout and use of the flash. On another positive note, I give Karina much credit for her unique articles and effort to put the site together. It seems overall that the site lacks something and I just can't put my finger on it. I know she could improve things with just a few tweaks here and there. The risque` type of site that it is should be viewed by mature audiences.