Visitors to the World Press Awards will be able to preview EI8HT, the first international, subscriber-funded, independent magazine dedicated to photojournalism, which is launching officially in London on 22 April 2002. The magazine serves as a platform for photographers to showcase the work increasingly overlooked or under-represented in existing media.

EI8HT draws on the talent and professionalism of award-winning photographers and publishes inspiring and thought-provoking photo-stories that offer a new perspective on the worldview.

The brainchild of former New York Agence France Presse photojournalist, Jon Levy, EI8HT is the culmination of over three years creating and working on the internet site, www.foto8.com, winner of the 2001 European Online Journalism Awards, and is the first example of a magazine spinning off from a website. Since its launch in 1998, the web journal has established itself as an outlet for photo-stories and a forum for photojournalists to communicate to a wider audience.

"The success of foto8.com proves there is a demand for reportage that tells a story well," explains Levy. "In the celebrity and consumer-dominated world in which we live today it has become apparent that the mainstream media often lack the capacity to report independently and in depth on challenging social and political stories. EI8HT will provide dedicated journalists with a new channel for expression."

"I believe photojournalism is a vital social commentator on our world," continues Levy. "It is a valuable tool of communication which allows us to look into, as well as at, the lives of other people, to learn about their world, and in the process to define the issues that are important to us."

The launch issue features European asylum and immigration – an in-depth photo-documentary on clandestine immigration, following eastern European asylum seekers as they attempt to evade the frontier police in Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary; exclusive photography and editorial from Two Steps from Heaven, the autobiographical novel by former Soviet soldier serving in Afghanistan Mikhail Evstafiev, now Reuters photo editor in Washington DC; the Latino reconquest of Los Angeles; Haiti – 10 years on and the Last Hat Factory – a stunning industrial portrait from the former East Germany.

Future issues of the magazine will focus on topical and important photojournalism that challenges and informs the way we view our world.

EI8HT will be published quarterly, and is available worldwide by subscription only, at an annual rate of £22.

For further information and photography, please contact:
Helen Vickers or Suzi Nealson
Ash Communications
112 St Martins Lane
London WC2N 4BD
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7240 6005
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7240 8005
E-mail helen@ashcommunications.com