Stack Magazines

"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 relationship with women. Narco by Lina Ibáñez presents images of the various actors who have played Pablo Escobar in film and on TV, and comes complete with a plastic baggy of white powder (Colombian corn flour, not cocaine).

“From weakness you make something strong...” Laurent Laporte is editor and founder of Where is the Cool?, the French magazine that presents readers with an eclectic and totally original selection of things that it has decreed are cool. In this conversation he shares his thoughts on turning weakness into strength (he’s not a journalist, which is why you won’t find long written articles in the magazine); the ongoing struggle of independent publishing; and why this thing absolutely has to be a print magazine.

"Magazines were magical to me – they transported me to somewhere else..." Marvin Scott Jarrett launched Ray Gun in 1992, working with the designer David Carson to create one of the most radical and influential magazines of the decade. After becoming disillusioned with the music industry in the late 90s (he didn't like boy bands) he went on to launch Nylon magazine in 1999, pioneering a publishing model that embraced both print and digital. He's now released a book with Rizzoli looking back at Ray Gun, showcasing some of its most famous artwork and locating it within the music, fashion and design cultures of the 90s. He was in London to promote the book at the end of May, so I caught up with him to speak about his career so far, and how he threw himself into magazine making, learning along the way.

"Satire is an interesting weapon, but it's been co-opted by the establishment." Freddie Marsh is one of the editors of The Fence, the satirical magazine that launched in London earlier this year. In this conversation Freddie explains why he and his fellow founders were inspired to produce a new satirical magazine, why it's important that politics is just one part of what they cover, and why The Fence needed to exist in print.

"You're constantly trying to break it..." Seb Emina is the editor of The Happy Reader, the literary magazine made for Penguin Books by the publishers of Fantastic Man. The 13th issue is out now, featuring Hollywood star Owen Wilson alongside Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, and Seb dropped into the Stack office to speak about the making of the magazine, and why its simple structure encourages him to play with ever more ambitious and eccentric editorial ideas.

"We have money all of a sudden!" Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff is the editor of gal-dem, the magazine made by women of colour and non-binary people of colour, which made an immediate impact when its first print issue launched in 2016. They've been working hard since then to increase their reach, for example with their takeover of The Guardian's Weekend magazine last year, and this week saw the release of their first book, I Will Not be Erased. I caught up with Charlie to speak about the rapid growth of gal-dem, including the funding they received earlier this year, which is allowing them to embark upon "gal-dem 2.0" – the ambitious next stage of their development.