Dear Reader,

I started the We Can't Paint Blog in December of 2007 as a way to connect more deeply with photography and the growing number of web savvy photographers around the globe. Being that I am a Canadian artist I have found this community, most of which is made up of emerging photographers like myself, to be both an inspiration and tremendously helpful, an aspect I have since observed as clearly lacking in my own home country. It was with these thoughts, and the encouragement of an increasingly heavy readership, that I decided to expand my blog into what is now the We Can't Paint Network.

My vision for this online space was to create a multi-layered experience with the photographic medium on the Internet beyond the structure of a web log. Not only was it important to me that I still promoted the work of so many incredible emerging photographers, but that the intended expansions counteract the continually refreshed, and somewhat limited, configuration of photography blogs. The ability of these spaces, while needed more than ever in our current global economy, lack the reexamination and sense of permanence that is so intrinsic to a media such as print. Artist's work, book reviews, and interviews, have all become "flavors of the day," stacked upon each other and eventually buried in the monthly archives. Quite simply, these notions were troubling and I seriously questioned my role as author of the We Can't Paint blog. How do we, the next generation of photographers, curators, bloggers, and viewers, encounter and treat work in a realm which is (whether we like it or not) becoming as popular as the gallery experience? The answer to this question was Wassenaar, my vision for an online photography magazine.

Wassenaar is an Internet specific publication that focuses its curatorial eye on emerging photographers, photography books from established, independent, and self-publishers, as well as interviews conducted by bloggers. This simple formula, while structured much like a magazine, takes the ethos and subjective freedom of blogging by existing as both absent of commercial interests and free from a specific template. The ability to take risks in an online space means that the following issues of Wassenaar may only focus on a specific artist, type of photography, a single book, or even simply feature a collection of artist portfolios. In short, Wassenaar aims to be an online magazine that reflects its place within the web as an entity that continually evolves, never forgetting that this form publishing is indefinable.

I want to thank all the contributors for allowing me to share their work, books, and ideas. Your persistence to offer new and changing opinions about the medium of photography gives us all the inspiration to add to a growing and dynamic online community.

Kind Regards,

-Noel Rodo-Vankeulen Founder/Editor
Wassenaar Magzine
We Can't Paint Network