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Rankin Is Starting A (Fourth) Magazine So He Doesn't Get Bored
There comes a time in every photographer’s life when he must decide whether or not to get comfortable.
By comfortable I mean settle for following the particular style or clients that initially provided his daily bread. Getting comfortable isn’t necessarily bad, but it does compromise a certain artistic quality in the work. Any artist worth his salt would never accept it.
Rankin‘s solution to ward off the paralysis: Make a(nother) magazine. (No, not that one.)
Next month the British photographer and Dazed & Confused founder will publish The Hunger magazine, the fourth of his print-based efforts out just on the heels of his current collaboration with Damien Hirst and a book due out Nov. 8. It’s a move against a consumer culture in mass media that has created apathy about art.
“It’s also about me not wanting to be bored,” he told me recently. “I hate doing the same thing every day. You get to a point where you just feel like you need to push yourself further–I don’t want to be taking the same photograph that I’ve taken 50,000 times before. So many photographers end up taking the same picture again and again and again.”
The biannual magazine will feature established and upcoming people involved in art, design, fashion, drama and music. Its first issue includes interviews with Britt actors Terence Stamp and Michael Sheen along with fashion stories about Kelis, Kelly Rowland, Milla Jovovich and Rankin pal Heidi Klum. Actor Rhys Ifans and PYT Sky Ferreira grace the cover. Rankin says it’ll feel like the old issues of Interview magazine–smart, with great design.
That’s all well and good. But it’s not exactly the ideal time to launch a magazine. Many respected magazines and dailies have folded in the past five years; newsstand sales of consumer magazines were off 9.2% this year compared with the first six months of 2010.
Still, Rankin has a solid chance of succeeding with his latest endeavor. He has repeatedly proven his cultural savvy and ability to conceive a compelling aesthetic, which are likely to translate seamlessly onto the page. He’s also got The Hunger TV, an online forum for filmed conversations and documentaries that launched last week.
It’s a digital component will make the magazine breathe, Rankin says.
“It’s not about reading the interviews, it’s more about watching them,” he said. “I think that process working hand-in-hand with digital is really important. You can’t neglect it, you can’t put it to one side.”
Indeed: Newspaper publishers attracted 20% more visits by adults to their websites last month compared to 2010. Video components are helping lead that trend.
The Hunger will cost £4 for the first issue. It will be available on newsstands that carry other Dazed & Confused publications.
[Images & text via forbes.com]
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