Slightly Lucid is a contemporary photography blog written and edited by Aislinn Leggett, with contributions from Louis Perreault. Both bloggers are photographers living in Montreal, Canada. The blog has been running since 2008 when Leggett made her first post on September 9 of that year. Since then, Leggett has used her blog to review her favorite photographers, display some of her favorite examples of contemporary or historical photography, and even showcase some of her own works.

All in all, the aesthetics of the blog are basic. The background is white, the text is black, and the organization of tabs, links, and articles is fairly simple. But, in its own way, the simplistic format of the blog it makes the site more intriguing. Each article is displayed with a picture. Most of these pictures are in color and the headline images of the articles are the only images on the site. This makes those images stand out more against the solid white background. It brings more focus to the function of the blog rather than the aesthetic satisfaction. Whether it was done intentionally or for lack of creativity on Leggett’s part, it was still a smart move.

The content itself is varied. On the home page, the articles posted are listed from most recently posted to least. Each article is also tagged by a category, such as “Food”, “Night Photography”, or “Panoramic”. If a follower wanted to find more articles on this blog related to that category, he or she would simply have to scroll down a bit and on the right side would be the list of tags which articles receive. Clicking one of the tags will direct the follower to another page with the articles listed under that category. A very convenient format tool, catering to followers with particular tastes.

The tone Leggett sets for her reviews and historical mini-lessons is, for the most part, casual yet analytical. Leggett never speaks pretentiously or journalistically. She simply analyzes the photographs she’s selected to post and writes about their settings, their historical values, and their meaning to her. She also writes about her experiences while interacting with other photographers. She showcases examples of their works on her blog and discusses what the photographers say about their own work as well as her opinion on it. She interacts with a good variety of contemporary artists and the photographs she chooses to display on the blog exemplify that.

All in all, the blog has a fair following. 1385 people on Facebook liked the Slightly Lucid page and it also has direct subscribers (though the public is not privy to the numbers on that information). The blog itself does not host any advertisements so Leggett is not profiting directly from this in any way. She seems to be blogging just for the love of it and every article she writes always has a bit of her personal self slipped into it. It gives the blog a genuine feel, minus the pretentious, artsy, high-nosed tone that is the general stigma of art review blogs.  Slightly Lucid is a good blog to follow for photography lovers of all kinds, especially of the contemporary variety. Even if you don’t know much about photography, quite a few of the articles on this blog might spark your interest.