Dear readers, it’s so nice to see you again. Although the silence of photographs is part of their beauty, the voice of Le Journal was silent for too long. To Barbara, who kept asking, ‘So when are you coming back?’ our united and determined team answers: mid-November 2013. Lift up your hearts, then, and best wishes to The Eye.
Since its inception, Zineland has examined the world of zines, these underground, specialized and semi-artisanal publications that play an essential role in contemporary photography.
This week’s focus is a pleonastic, meta-object: the magazine Magazine.
After ten years, the quarterly is no longer available for free. The thirteenth issue introduces a new formula that seeks to capture the style of the day, from fashion, media and the arts to brand image and strategy. Magazine hires inexperienced and seasoned writers alike, with established photographers (Charles Fréger and Kerry Dean in the latest issue) collaborating on interviews, analyses, still lifes and fashion spreads. The simple A4 layout strikes an admirable balance of text and image. It’s a fine example of a publication with a clear tone and aesthetic, ranging from in-depth analysis to light and entertaining content.
With its utilitarian title, Magazine summarizes the questions posed throughout Zineland’s history regarding the status of the image and publication in the digital age. The magazine is anchored in the history of objects and their uses. Since the dawn of the digital age, the choice of paper for a new publication has been seen as an eccentric gesture towards the past. But it is also a profession of aesthetic faith, an arty totem at the center of micro-communities of readers. Today we start a magazine the way one used to start a rock band, to get one’s friends together, to be noticed, to seduce girls, boys and customers. This year’s Paris Photo, which once again offers a prominent place to photo books, makes no mistake about the unifying power of simple objects.
Magazine
114 pages
5 euros
