Stack Magazines

"Why can't we talk about identity in a way that brings people together rather than divides us?" Luc Hinson is the editor and co-founder of Between Borders, the new magazine that aims to straddle some of the dislocations that are currently dividing Britain. The project began in 2017 and was inspired in large part by the fallout from the Brexit vote, and after publishing online for a couple of years and gradually figuring out their editorial voice, they’ve released their first print issue, themed around transit, a familiar subject they use as a way of uniting very different people from very different backgrounds.

"We take a very deep and holistic view..." Dörte de Jesus is the editor and founder of The Lissome, a sustainable fashion magazine based in Berlin. She became fascinated by the fashion industry while working at Elle Germany, and although she quickly became disillusioned by the wastefulness of fast fashion, she says she felt inspired to champion the people and companies working at the forefront of more sustainable making. In this conversation she tells the story of how she started publishing online, before moving into print while making some major changes in her personal life along the way.

"We believe these stories deserve to be told..." George Wright is the driving force behind The New Issue, a new print magazine published here in the UK by Big Issue North. The Big Issue helps homeless people by recruiting street vendors to sell copies at a profit, which the vendor then keeps, and The New Issue is dedicated to helping the same people but via a different route. It’s intended as a slower, longer read; it’s more expensive with higher production values; and its quarterly publishing schedule allows the team more time to find and develop the stories they want to tell. In this conversation George speaks about the motivation behind the new magazine, and how they're reaching readers without selling on the streets.

"Obviously it was just me in my bedroom..." Joel Seawright is the man behind Rotten, an extraordinary magazine that reveals and comments on the process of magazine making. Joel left school aged 15 and struggled to find work without any qualifications, but he knew he loved photobooks and started playing around with the idea of making a magazine as a way of working with the photographers he admired. He had no experience of publishing; he felt like he didn’t have a voice; and moreover he felt like he needed to prove himself to his dad and show what he could do. The result is a magazine unlike anything else I’ve seen – scrappy and handmade, funny and opinionated, it’s intensely personal but also intended as a general demonstration that these days virtually anyone can make a magazine.

"There are lots of horrible assumptions and stereotypes around disability and I just wanted to smash them all to pieces..." Claudia Walder is the editor of Able, the magazine that provides a platform for people with a wide spectrum of disabilities and chronic illnesses. She was diagnosed with ME when she was just 23 years old, and in this episode she speaks about the frustration and shame she felt at having to stop work and become "a disabled person", and also the revelation that made her want to turn that around and create a bold, confident magazine that communicates a wide range of disabled people’s experiences.

"We're just a big group of friends who make a magazine together..." Daniel Milroy Maher is the editor of Swim, the art and photography magazine that takes a refreshingly unpretentious approach to the work on its pages. As Daniel explains in this episode, the magazine was initially intended as a way to showcase the work of friends, and while it has grown since then and now also includes some really big names, it’s managed to keep that same feeling of easy accessibility.

"I've never found anything interesting to read about soil..." David Reeve and Luciane Pisani are the editors and art director of Where the Leaves Fall, a magazine that focuses on our contemporary relationship with nature. It’s the sort of subject that can easily feel overwhelming, but they explain that they’re on a mission to tell stories about sustainability and the natural world that feel human, and which ultimately inspire readers to take positive action. They’re also keen that their magazine should help give a platform to voices that aren’t normally heard, and so they search far and wide, looking particularly to the global south for local stories about these global environmental issues.

"We wanted to do something that was ours..." Jessica McGowan and Coco Cassibba are the art director and fashion director of photography magazine Primary Paper. The title started without any grand plan – the word they use to describe the process is “impulsive”, as they set out to make something based on the work they love. In this conversation they speak about what they've learned along the way, why print is so important to the project, and why they love not having a client.

Published by a group of British students studying overseas on the Erasmus programme, 34minus1 is a showcase of creative projects made by fellow Erasmus alumni in 2018. The magazine has a political motivation – concerned that Brexit could mean the end of British involvement in Erasmus, 34minus1 was launched to show what British students would be missing out on.

"We don't ever do controversy for the sake of it..." Maria Dimitrova is the editor of Mal, the journal of sexuality and erotics that was started in 2018 by the Feeld dating app. In this conversation she speaks about that origin story, the importance of editorial independence, and how they’re “following the thread”, taking advantage of opportunities as they arise and allowing the project to take its own direction.

"The web is ephemeral – a server goes down and you're gone..." Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee is a filmmaker and the executive editor of Emergence Magazine, the California-based title that explores our relationship with the natural world. Published in four online issues per year, and then in one beautiful, thick annual print edition, it's an ambitious and forward-thinking publication that wants readers to slow down and reflect on the way we live. In this conversation Emmanuel explains how he came to be editing a magazine that operates at the meeting place of ecology, culture and spirituality; why it was always essential to the project that there should be a print output; and how they go about transforming their stories into print.

"The cover is the playground for design..." Ariane Spanier is the designer of Fukt, the magazine for contemporary drawing. She makes it it along with her partner Björn Hegardt, and it has become renowned for its fantastically creative, fun-loving covers. Their current issue won Cover of the Year at the Stack Awards last week, and Ariane dropped in at the office the day after the ceremony to speak about the process she went through in creating an eye-catching concept that embodies their take on the theme of systems. In this conversation she explains why she’s attracted to such a playful design style, why she thinks it works so well for the cover of this magazine, and how this long-running title has changed over the 20 years it has been published.

"We're not National Geographic..." Josef Shaw is editor and designer of Bumble, the magazine that raises awareness of the plant and animal species that are currently under threat, and offers simple, practical things that readers can do to help. It was started last year by Josef and editor-in-chief Rachel Nellist, and in this episode he tells the story of how they funded that first issue, how they’ve managed to make it self-sustaining since then, and how they started out aiming at younger readers, but found that they have a broader readership than they expected.

"I see the appeal in holding something..." Karl Henkell is editor-in-chief of Record Culture, the magazine that visits vinyl lovers in their homes and studios. Long interviews give them the space to talk about their passion, and they're photographed surrounded by piles of vinyl, giving a lovely intimate picture of who they are and what music they listen to. In this conversation Karl talks about his first impulse to create a print magazine, his pursuit of the perfect interview, and how he's working to put Record Culture in front of the right readers.

"These are the stories you won't find in Singapore's mainstream narrative..." Pang Xue Qiang is one of the founders of Meantime, the magazine that explores the history of Singapore via the love stories of its citizens. It’s a lovely, sweet and affecting magazine that also has a deeper purpose hidden just below the surface – flying below the radar of Singapore's strict government controls, it specialises in telling tales that you wouldn’t hear in the country's mainstream narrative.

"It's not looking outward for approval..." Helen Jennings is editor of Nataal, the magazine of global African creativity. Launched online in 2015, the project grew steadily until last summer the first print edition hit shelves around the world, immediately impressing with its lavish production values and its fresh approach to the fashion, music and visual arts coming out of Africa and the diaspora. In this conversation Helen speaks about the new sense of confidence she’s seeing amongst young African artists and creatives, and why, when they finally started working on the print product, they really didn’t have any choice but to go all out and make something spectacular.

"People actually read magazines!" Anna Broujean is the editor and art director of Club Sandwich, the Paris-based title that uses food as an absurd and accessible way into exploring anthropology, sociology, psychology and other social sciences. The first two issues were published in French, but issue three, dedicated to the humble pickle, features both French and English. In this conversation Anna speaks about the ideas behind her eccentric magazine, the reason why they decided to add English, and why she has been pleasantly surprised by the results.

"Sometimes it just needs to be big..." Ben Clement is the founder of Good Sport, the magazine that launched out of Melbourne in 2014, fusing sport with art, food, fashion and other facets of popular culture. In this conversation he explains how his love for sport and his career as a photographer came together to create the magazine, how it has evolved over the years, and why sometimes sports photography just has to be big.

"It's for the people who love dusty record shops..." David Holt is one half of the joint venture that is bringing cult music magazine Wax Poetics back to record and magazine shops across Europe this summer. Created by its original editorial team, the magazine, which was launched in 2001 but switched to print on demand in 2018, will return to the format that was so beloved of music enthusiasts, and the relaunch begins with a collector's edition that combines archive material from the vaults with fresh pieces on London's thriving jazz scene and 90s acid jazz. In this conversation David speaks about his original interest in the magazine, and why he thinks the time is right for its return to the newsstand. This is the last episode of the Stack Magazine podcast for a little while, but we'll be back in September with a new season of conversations with independent magazine makers.

“We love pregnant men!” The first Temple Arles book fair was held in the South of France last week, and we were there selling some of our favourite independent magazines. Organised as part of the photography festival that has been held in the town for the last 50 years, the fair included some extraordinary photo books and zines, so we took the opportunity to speak to the people behind some of the most striking titles. Brilliantly bizarre, the three zines we picked out embrace the ease, accessibility and unpretentiousness typical of the format, using their unassuming pages to explore unique obsessions: Album by Eline Mugaas and Elise Storsveen uses a vast archive of found photography to create unexpected associations between images, challenging conventional ideas on subjects like gender roles and encouraging the viewer to question what they see. Boyz II Men is a collection of photography shot by the artist Thick Nina, exploring the formation of masculinity and considering the role of men, often in relations