LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

Getting the same photographic quality in the printed issues of a magazine that was apparent in the original color slides isn't child's play. To that end we rely heavily on Bob Eckstein and Sally Boggan, our color quality control team. "We do the finesse stuff," says Eckstein. "Look after the nuances." They help managing editor Gilbert Rogin select the photos that will reproduce best, and then monitor each through the various engraving stages. We see proofs of every picture, and often every picture in an issue is sent back to the engraver for further refinement, some more than once.

Addressing this week's Wimbledon cover story, Eckstein and Boggan saw that in one case Martina Navratilova was back-lit and concluded that her face would "print heavy," as they say; i.e., the details wouldn't print as sharply as they appeared on the original slide. So they "opened her up," making her face lighter in order to compensate for an expected darkening on the press.

Eckstein, 30, and Boggan, 35, work as a team, with Eckstein the senior member. He joined SI a year ago, after being graduated from the Parsons School of Design in New York. A well-charted career, right? Not quite. Before Parsons, Eckstein, a native of Jersey City, N.J. earned a degree in sociology at St. Peter's College there. "I had the choice of being a social worker or a policeman," he says. "Some choice. So I got a job with a printer and then started classes at Parsons."

Boggan's route to SI was equally roundabout. She was born in Tupelo, Miss., the birthplace of Elvis Presley, and now lives in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. She was graduated from Ole Miss with a degree in French, an intriguing major, given her heavy Southern accent. "I've been here for 15 years," she says, "and it still won't go away."

Boggan decided she wanted to work in publishing and, quick as that, hopped on a plane to New York. She got a job at Look magazine before it folded, answering mail from readers, served a stint in book publishing and finally landed at Time Inc., where she learned the fundamentals of color control as it applied to magazine ads before joining SI two months ago.

When Rogin saw the slide of the picture of Eckstein and Boggan on this page, he told our color quality team, "Keep the red down in your face, Bob, and Sal, make sure you hold the details in your face and the highlights in your hair." You can bet that Eckstein and Boggan paid extra-special attention to this job.

PHOTO

COLOR QUALITY'S BOGGAN (LEFT) AND ECKSTEIN: WHAT WE SEE IS WHAT YOU GET