#36 new utopias

We understand the phenomenon of Utopia as a problematically broad concept. For this reason we will try to anchor it primarily in the field of political economy, and to present it to the reader through the prism of the most contemporary artistic and theoretical interpretations. Today, the term utopia is often interpreted primarily as a historical term that does not bring much new, and which, in society generally, is primarily related to the past. In the case of visual culture and art, it is particularly associated with modernist architectural visions expressing ideas of the new organization of society. We want to avoid this kind of simplistic approach that buries itself in history. Of course, we cannot ignore some major projects, such as the Black Panthers political movement; Black Mountain College art education; the architecture of the Florentine radical designers, UFO, Superstudio, or 9999; or the projects of Le Corbusier or the Bauhaus school. It is always necessary, however, to offer an insight into how we relate to these ideas today and thus how they are treated in the realm of the image.

Our basis for interpreting the idea of utopia is for us the term commons, or joint sharing. It allows us to play out, in this issue, the search for new utopias in contemporary society. We ask how new possibilities of cooperation, coexistence, and the sharing of resources, information, and commodities are currently reflected in the visual arts (and, in regard to history, what are they drawing on)? We are interested in the fields of community and spiritual life, in new economic networks, radical pedagogy, current visions of the possibilities of the scientific exploration of the world, and in ways of creating new forms of social relations. We would like to try to find answers to what roles and forms of utopia there are in today’s society, which is labeled with so many dystopian terms (e.g. risky or post-truth), and by means of this thematic issue we want to offer a positive survey of possible solutions to current catastrophic data, scenarios and debates. In a time of “permanent crisis,” it is precisely solutions that are so much called for, but they are only rarely presented in art and theory.

From the perspective of visual communication, besides photography, we will also turn more to the new possibilities of depiction that artists work with in order to prefigure new systems of communication and relationships. That is, work with the moving image, video games, and computer animations.

Oath Magazine – Issue 1

Oath presents to the world a curated view of the sweeping frontier of contemporary African photography. We recognise the need to interpret the great scope of photography talent coming from across Africa by providing a much-needed platform for a diverse new generation of photographers. Our goal is to grant visibility to emerging photographers, celebrate overlooked archives, and champion talent. There is a vast amount of photographic output across the continent, yet the platforms through which to engage with it both on home soil and abroad are minimal.

It is our mission to support photographers and help tell their stories by being committed to delivering an exceptional print publication. By creating Oath to inspire and inform, we have in the processes built a strong platform that seeks to connect the photography community across Africa and to open a dialogue with global audiences. Oath is a leading authority on contemporary African photography. Our content is well-researched, carefully selected, and beautifully presented in print format. We are a valuable source of information to anyone interested in photography and more specifically to those working in the field of African photography. Oath published bi-annually and is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

152 pgs, 27.5 × 21 cm, Softcover, 2020,

Foam Magazine #57: In Limbo

IN LIMBO addresses our current state of being, suspended and in vacuum. This issue reflects on how we are experiencing the two main topics of our time — a global pandemic and social challenges — while looking at how this could be a fundamental chance to shift our questions on photography: stop asking ‘what photography is’ and start consciously talking about ‘what photography can do’ and ‘what we want photography to do’. Shortly, we are addressing the emotional limbo, the political limbo, the sudden silencing of all the background noise that put all of us still — and forced us to listen, and act. The contributions in Foam Magazine #57 In Limbo offer written and visual reflections on these questions, while opening much needed discussions around photography’s power and its responsibilities in a climate of crisis. 

By encompassing themes such as representation, curatorial care and the human relationship with nature we hope to sow the seeds for conversations that will transform our perception and use of photography going forward. Next to portfolios by renowned artists including Aïda Muluneh, Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, Wendy Red Star, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa and Vasantha Yogananthan, we are thrilled to present striking works by Widline Cadet, Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo and postgraduate students of The Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. Text contributions, interviews and opinion pieces by leading practitioners such as Mariama Attah, Jaime Lowe, David Campany, Tanvi Mishra, Mark Sealy, Sunil Shah, Alec Soth and Deborah Willis reflect on photography’s crucial role within social movements, while reminding us of photography’s potential to offer solace and create communities. 

CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS & WRITERS 

Mariama Attah, Fabio Barile, Anders Birger, Atle Blekastad, Lewis Bush, Marcelo Brodsky, Widline Cadet, David Campany, Joseph Dodds, Thana Faroq, Marcel Feil, Jakob Ganslmeier, Kata Geibl, Hinde Haest, Taco Hidde Bakker, Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo, Phelim Hoey, Lena Holzer, Federica Iozzo, Marta Iwanek, Batuhan Keskiner, Antoinette de Jong & Robert Knoth, Xaver Konneker, Mirjam Kooiman, Seba Kurtis, Lawrence Lek, Kim Knoppers, Jaime Lowe, Lekgetho Makola, Anastasia Mityukova, Elisa Medde, Tanvi Mishra, Aïda Muluneh, Keiko Okamura, Taiyo Onorato & Nico Krebs, Paola Paleari, Wendy Red Star, Jana Romanova, Aaron Schuman, Mark Sealy, Sunil Shah, Eugenie Shinkle, Alec Soth, M. Charlene Stevens, Alexa Vachon, Daniëlle van Ark, Claartje van Dijk, Deborah Willis, Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa, Vasantha Yogananthan 

298 pages 
Printed on selected specialised paper  
300x230x23 mm 
1118 g 

Ships beginning of October

Issue No. 24

Crossing Borders Again

Europe’s Best Travel & Art Destinations after deconfinement

Biarritz, Basque Country
Mas de Cacharel, Camargue
Villa Cosy, Saint-Tropez
La Colombe d’Or, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Genoa, Liguria
Grand Hotel Tremezzo, Lake Como
Belmond Hotel Splendido, Portofino
Hotel Albrici, Poschiavo
The Dolder Grand, Zurich
Kronenhalle Bar, Zurich
Paris, France

Floragatan 13

Curated By Acne Studios

An A Magazine Curated By special print project in partnership with Acne Studios, conceived as a visual essay by acclaimed French photographer Philippe Chancel revealing the inner workings of Floragatan 13, the former Czech embassy in Stockholm, Sweden transformed into a fashion atelier and corporate office.

On the occasion of the unveiling of the new Acne Studios headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, A Magazine Curated By presents Floragatan 13 Curated By Acne Studios, an
architectural and design survey of this exceptional building and its contemporary usage as a fashion atelier and corporate office.

This 100-page document delves into the building floor by floor, beginning with the sixth level management offices and descending ten storeys through each crucial component of the design and production ateliers including inspiring and communal spaces such as the ground floor library, underground canteen and photo studio. Numerous floors reveal bespoke and site-specific design projects by long-time Acne Studios favourites including a state-of-the-art lighting network designed by Benoit Lalloz, furniture by Max Lamb, and artworks by Daniel Silver. Philippe Chancel’s crisp, exacting photography is accompanied by insightful quotes by Acne Studios creative director Jonny Johansson, architect Johannes Norlander, the Acne Studios teams and external collaborators.

Issue #5: Evergreen Sindrom

The Evergreen Sindrom is a journey we embarked on before our world was enthralled by a pandemic that disrupted our ways of living. It felt like the perfect timing to explore green - a colour that breathes life; in all its forms - considering the moment in time our world found itself. Now, this issue feels more relevant than ever. These times call for industries to rethink processes and values, and for humans to rethink their approach to consumerism, their everyday lifestyle, and contribution to society. The world has slowed down, taking a step back to get a bird’s-eye view of the new reality, and the new behaviours we aim towards.  

In this issue:

Green is, above all, the colour of life. In this edition, we explored life in all its forms, with a particular interest in the evergreen. What does prosperity mean now, how do we manage to continue growing, reinvent ourselves, and change our ways? What is evergreen design? Why is the human-nature relationship so vital? Is it important to talk to plants? When did we lose our connection to the natural world, and did we leave anything valuable behind? What is some of the evergreen wisdom that’s been passed down through generations? We explore all of this within 160 pages of conceptual, carefully-curated editorials, thought pieces and striking visual essays.

Covers by Aiste Ambrazeviciute and Anne Marie Jo.

BEYOND Limited Edition Book

Beyond is a limited-edition book dedicated to photography, art and fashion, curated by Take Care with the art direction of Studio Moretti Visani.

Beyond brings to light the creative process of four artists who work mainly on long term projects. Giovanni Fredi, Kata Geibl, Francesco Merlini, Alba Zari describe their research process beyond the images, showing diaries, sketches, references, techniques.

Beyond includes three fashion editorials. Eleonora Agostini + Miu Miu, Hubert Crabières + MSGM styled by Riccardo Linarello and Alessandro Furchino Capria + Bottega Veneta styled by Roberta Pinna, show three different “behind the scene” of their shootings, among contact sheets, domestic photo sets and mood boards.

Beyond features three unpublished projects by Ronni Campana, Federico Radaelli and Leonardo Scotti that with no words and no captions the three works interrupt sometimes the flow of the book with full page strong images. The three projects can be extracted from the book and be hanged as posters.

PUBLIC Issue 03

Off The Rails - Come As You Are’ Issue 16 straight from lock down.

In Issue 16 we mix it up a little. We look into the world of 'FaceTime Photography' with Tom Mitchell and others, as we find ourselves having to work differently and therefore our content represents that. We speak to MikeFlo and many others regarding the current movement towards Black Liberty and documenting the world around us as this happens. We talk to VEMIX about recreating history, to the extent of the world believing these incredible photoshopped images that he creates are the real deal. Higher Power hit their Brooklyn show bang at the beginning of the global pandemic as they all fought Covid. Drake Alexander takes us on a journey into his world as Savannah McMillan revisits her exhibitions to help the NHS. Artist Tejumola Adenuga blows us away with his dot work while the bold colours and installations of Julia Benz brings life to us all. We welcome back the incredible David Bellemere with a new exclusive editorial with Lola Alcaluzac, as well as new work from George Holz & Mike Miller.

Postcards

A 144 page publication featuring some of the photographs that make our contributors happy. Created in lockdown, it is our ode to travel - and all the beauty and wonder that is out there, just waiting until the world is ready. 

"I’m convinced that to look back like this, while always in part an act of grief, is first and foremost a celebration. The past, humming with the attention we give it, repays us in kind - by reminding us of how far we’ve come. Now, and perhaps for a while yet, this will be our challenge, to take solace in memory."

- Cameron Zeyd Lange
Los Angeles, May 2020

During lockdown in London (having printed Mexico and replotted our issues dedicated to Greece and Wales) I found myself desperate to create. It wasn't about making the lockdown time count, more about finding ways to slow down, look back and seek beauty - and to offer a platform to some of the creatives who have been so generous with their time and talent over the years. And so the team and I began work on Lodestars Anthology Postcards - a 144 page photo book featuring archival work from across the world, paired with musings on life, travel and the wonders of photography.

- Liz Schaffer, Editor
London, May 2020

IMPORTANT MAGAZINE ISSUE 3: VANITY

Issue 3 of IMPORTANT MAGAZINE is exploring the theme of VANITY. As a subject it not only plays to elegance and subtlety with intellectual flair but also individual signatures and elements of surprise. This issue contains an exposé of how we all are apt to create a shell identity on the way to our true selves and the shedding of all other fake IDs. Poetry that grasps the sky and the edge of a letter, feelings that overwhelm words. How do we as humans play with masquerades, movement, comparison, identification arranged as graphic intensity and sensory investigations. Photography and scenarios travel beyond 'mere' vanity to the realm of excellence and revelation. Skin texture and adornments being points to the sublime. All this warped and wefted as images and texts, ancient and modern.

Jezga Vol. 3

The third issue of JEZGA covers the theme Body As A Canvas / Body As A Tool. Exploring two aspects of our physical selves, and the ways these functions are used in artistic practices.

We have collected stories of birth, death, violence, nature, motherhood, love, detox, nature, sanity and warped perception – we want to celebrate the photographers, artists, and designers who daringly connect with their own bodies, as well as those of others, to use them in their craft and convey unique perspectives.

This issue has a reversible cover – split down the middle between 'Canvas' and 'Tool'. Don't worry about picking your favourite, you'll get both.

A Collaboration between acclaimed photographer, Stephanie Siân Smith and featuring models, Lily Jean Bridger, Charle Barker and Lily Newmark. Moonshine & Honey is a collection of images and text inspired by the Greek islands and the mythology that originated there.

Art Direction / Curation / Design: James-Lee Duffy
Photographer: Stephanie Siân Smith
Words by: Lauren Berry
Models: Charlie Barker / Lily Jean Bridger / Lily Newmark
Print Production: Josh Jones
Retouching: Dawn Marie Jones
Printed by: Calverts London
Paper: MUNKEN Pure 
Platform:  ‘Zine

Spaces Between Magazine

Ten Berlin-based photographers. Ten disposable cameras. A kaleidoscopic representation of the metropolis comes together in Spaces Between, IGNANT’s first print magazine. Designed by Deutsche & Japaner, the magazine features work from Alexander Kilian, Arturo Bamboo, Jasmine Deporta, Joseph Kadow, Lukas Korschan, Sarah Blais, Sigurd Grünberger, Silvia Conde, Vitali Gelwich and Volker Conradus.

Risk & Reward

EY! 10. VIVA TEL AVIV! BY DAFY HAGAI!

Summer 2020!

Super-Limited edition of 500 Copies!

100 Pages + 18 Stickers! 

In collaboration with Eytys!

Photographed by Dafy Hagai!

Styled by Victoria Sekrier!

VOLUME SIX: ENDLESS

The stories in this issue explore the theme of endless; deserted landscapes stretching beyond the limits of our imagination.

Through ‘Endless’ we showcase vast, open deserts, desolate wastelands and roads cutting through dunes into the horizon. With visual stories from places such as the Namib Desert, Death Valley, and the Atacama, our pages glow with that fractured gleam of long, intense sunsets. It is easy to celebrate their effortless beauty, but we also explore the reality of what it means to face something that feels endless, and the negatives that can sit alongside this. Sometimes it is just as important to have an ending in sight, to have something concrete to progress towards. We realise that often, we need a beginning and an end to provide significance and meaning, and that the absence of these can result in deep uncertainty.

• This publication is 144 pages, perfect bound and printed on uncoated, 100% recycled paper.

• Ships worldwide: delivery times varying based on location. Please allow up to 3 business days for processing prior to shipping.

• Printed and published in London, April 2020.

Issue #7 – February 2020

Edition Issue #36

In this issue we are going to explore happiness.

The pursuit of happiness may well be the most stubborn of all human clichés. Everybody, throughout human history, has been searching for it, selling it, finding it, and losing it. 

Happiness is what keeps us humans going. What helps us forget the hardships. It distracts us from the tragedy and finiteness of life. Happiness is like the drug that keeps us alive.

Happiness changes and always depends on what situation you are in. If you are oppressed, then freedom is your biggest happiness. If you are ill, health is. If you are hungry, then food is. If you are lonely, then someone special entering your life will bring you the biggest joy.

Happiness is such a big word but is triggered by so many little things. Warm sunrays on your skin. The sound of the sea. The silence during a forest walk. A bouquet of lovely smelling spring flowers. Returning to a cozy home after a long day at work.

Once in a while we need to ask ourselves that question: Are you happy? And mostly we ask ourselves this in the moments when we are not. Maybe happiness is like our compass in life. Once in a while we need to adjust it in order to find our direction again.

limited edition - 1300 copies
180 pages
21.8 cm x 27.6 cm 1,2 cm

perfect binding Softcover: matt lamination - coated paper + gold foil
Inside: Matt coated paper shrink wrapped

Language: English

Heidelberg offset printing

Cover: Swantje Wördemann photographed by Laukart

Toiletpaper

Toiletpaper is an artists’ magazine created and produced by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, born out of a passion or obsession they both cultivate: images. The magazine contains no text; each picture springs from an idea, often simple, and through a complex orchestration of people it becomes the materialization of the artists’ mental outbursts. Since the first issue, in June 2010, ‘Toiletpaper’ has created a world that displays ambiguous narratives and a troubling imagination. It combines the vernacular of commercial photography with twisted narrative tableaux and surrealistic imagery. The result is a publication that is itself a work of art, which, through its accessible form as a magazine, and through its wide distribution, challenges the limits of the contemporary art economy.

Toiletpaper

Toiletpaper is an artists’ magazine created and produced by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, born out of a passion or obsession they both cultivate: images. The magazine contains no text; each picture springs from an idea, often simple, and through a complex orchestration of people it becomes the materialization of the artists’ mental outbursts. Since the first issue, in June 2010, ‘Toiletpaper’ has created a world that displays ambiguous narratives and a troubling imagination. It combines the vernacular of commercial photography with twisted narrative tableaux and surrealistic imagery. The result is a publication that is itself a work of art, which, through its accessible form as a magazine, and through its wide distribution, challenges the limits of the contemporary art economy.

The fourth volume in Jack Pierson’s celebrated Tomorrow’s Man artist book series mixes imagery from all spectrums of the visual landscape into a single mediation on the world around us. Combining archival material together with contributions by emerging and established artists, Tomorrow’s Man 4 continues on where the earlier volumes left off. Mixed together in its signature all over design format this installment showcases historical pen and ink sketches by John Tottenham, hummingbird portraits by Brian Calvin, glazed ceramic constructions by Liz Larner, and deadpan street shots by Trevor Hernandez (better known to many by his Instagram handle Gang Culture) together with contributions by Cali Dewitt, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Lily Stockman, Richard Tinkler, and Evan Whale.

The title, Tomorrow’s Man, comes from an infamous bodybuilding magazine from the 1950s and ‘60s. Reappropriating the publication’s title as well as its retro bodybuilding aesthetic, Pierson takes viewers on a dizzying visual journey encompassing the full spectrum of cultural references. Includes a four large fold-out posters

Published by Bywater Bros. Editions, 2017
104 pages, softcover
10 x 7.25 inches / 25.4 x 18.4 cm