Fotopedia’s visual storytelling iPad app has won praise in the past, for the quality of the photos, the presentation in app form on Apple’s tablet, and for its ability to visually transport you to a faraway place via detailed photosets. Now the startup founded by former Apple scientists is turning its magazine-like photography app into, you guessed it, an actual digital magazine. And they’re doing it via another popular iPad app. Starting Tuesday, Fotopedia Magazine will be available via Flipboard, the iPad magazine platform that is aiming to be the “newsstand of the future.”
Fotopedia Magazine debuts Tuesday on Flipboard and will be updated multiple times per day. The presentation of detailed photosets will be Flipboard-style swiping through pages. The content will be familiar to anyone who’s used Fotopedia’s iPhone or iPad app before: extensive sets of photos of far-flung people and places with detailed captions. The photos are a mix of snaps from professionals and amateurs that have been curated by Fotopedia’s staff. The main rule for being included, besides taking eye-popping photos? Be able to tell a visual story with context. Submissions have to be “well documented enough” to make the cut, said Jean Marie Hullot, founder and CEO of Fotopedia, in an interview last week.
But Fotopedia Magazine won’t just be photos of popular monuments and landmarks. It is “focused on travel culture, but also street art, street festivals and other things that show you world culture,” said Hullot.
Right now, Fotopedia says it has about 1.8 million visitors collectively each month among its properties. It’s very intentional that a company obsessed with navigating the world via images is taking magazine form. Fotopedia wants to be more about inspiration and learning about new places than other travel apps that are photo-centric and a more utilitarian in their purpose. Hullot and Senior Vice President Christophe Daligault say they wish their product to stand out from that crowd.
“I kind of think we pioneered [photo-centric travel apps],” said Daligault. “Jean Marie has always been clear that this is what we’re good at: Showing you things and letting your interact with it. We’re not going to try to help you book a hotel or flight or find a restaurant. Other people do that very well…this magazine is to help you discover things you may not know existed.”
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