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Photography

Fascinating Photos of Overcrowded Newsstands Around the World

By Alison Nastasi on

Photographer Trevor Traynor‘s Newsstand Project confirms that the overcrowded street stalls are a universal language. Also, finding the cashier to pay for your newspapers, magazines, and gum is like playing Where’s Waldo no matter what country you live in. The artist, who we learned about on Photojojo, took Instagram snaps of newsstands in Lima, Barcelona, New York, and Paris. The square format frames the stands perfectly, zeroing in on the ad-heavy facades littered with glossy covers and inky newsprint. Grab a coffee, and wake up with more of Traynor’s newsstand photos in our gallery. … Read More

Media

The Rise of the Artisanal Magazine

By Jason Diamond on

Death and dying are so hot right now — or at least it seems that way, if you spend your days trying to comprehend the changes in how we traditionally consume information. Lectures? Those might be D.O.A. Bookstores? Yeah, those could use a burial plot. The book publishing industry? That’s basically a zombie film waiting to happen. Magazines? Oh wow, that’s a really slow and cruel death; causes include a frightening combination of blogs, microblogs, Twitter feeds, Facebook timelines, listicles, and Reddit. The media (which also might be a dead man walking) is fixated on inanimate things leaving this mortal coil; we simply love a good demise. And while it will probably be a very long time till we’re reading exclusively off iPads and Kindles, sooner rather than later, most of our favorite magazines and newspapers will either be completely digital or will have seriously cut down the amount of physical copies they publish. SPIN and Newsweek (who, after 80 years, had to face the realities that “cannot be ignored” as editor-in-chief Tina Brown put it) have already gone that route. While it was a practical financial decision, Brown noted that, “Exiting print is painful, and poignant, for all of us who love the romance of print and the unique weekly camaraderie of those hectic hours before the magazine’s ‘close’ on Friday night.” … Read More

Art

Gorgeous Vintage Magazines Published by Soviet Exiles

By Emily Temple on

Convenient though they may be, the more e-readers and tablets we collect, the more we appreciate the fine design work and craftsmanship that went into the printed products of old — especially those from other countries, which seem ever strange and fresh to our eyes. This week, Christopher King at MobyLives pointed us towards Russians Without Russia, an archive created by designer Fiodor Sumkin, who has collected and scanned a series of newspapers and magazines published by Soviet exiles in Paris, Berlin, Harbin, and Constantinople in the ’20s and ’30s. A little weird and a lot beautiful, if these don’t have you hunting around for an indie journal instead of that iPad, we don’t know what will. Check out a few of our favorites after the jump, and then head straight over to the Russians Without Russia archive for more. … Read More

Design

Trippy ’70s Soviet Space Magazine Covers

By Marina Galperina on

Since 1933, Technology-Youth magazine has been nurturing the young’uns with up-to-date news and wisdom on science, technology, medicine, agriculture, and logic. Then, in the ’70s… whoa. Sure, a bevy of international intelligentsia contributed to the magazine — including theoretical physicist Robert Oppenheimer, “quantum mechanics creator” Werner Heisenberg, and iconic physiologist Ivan Pavlov — but would you look at these covers?! Fantastic. We plucked a few space-themed issues from a gigantic batch uploaded by Socialism Expo because they inspire the strangest illustrations by far. See Soviet spacemen wrestle with mysterious, tentacled alien plants. See Soviet spacemen donning futuristic crystal suits float in iridescent space-travel bubbles. See Soviet spacemen blast off into space, their triumphantly raised fists morphing into Red Stars, because they’re Soviet spacemen, dig?  … Read More

Books

Gorgeous Vintage Japanese Magazine Covers

By Alison Nastasi on

There are 650 incredible illustrations in Book Cover Design in Japan 1910-40, which is currently selling for up to $400 online, but thankfully the rare book maestro behind website 50 Watts has uncovered a copy to share with us. The most-wanted title is in Japanese only, but if you’re not up to par on East Asian dialects, fear not. You’ll only need your eyes in this instance, and our gallery past the break proves why. The colorful, bold, early 20th-century artworks show a range of typography and illustration styles, from modernist-savvy reads to children’s periodicals. In many cases, they are indistinguishable from contemporary designs. Click through for a closer look, and visit 50 Watts for more gorgeous, vintage, Japanese magazine covers. … Read More

Media

A Collection of Vintage Punk Magazine Covers [NSFW]

By Marina Galperina on

Collecting stacks and stacks of strange, raunchy, violent and culturally relevant magazines from the ’50s to the ’80s, Tom Brinkmann has amassed one spectacular treasure trove. Published as Bad Mags, one particular slice of his incredible collection, spotted by Dangerous Minds, is relevant to our interests. Ah, punksploitation. From the music mags and tabloids that tapped the pulse of the late ’70s punk scene like Punk and The New York Rocker to the sleazy nudie rags that cashed in on the punk subculture as a fetish, they run quite the gamut. The old covers with Blondie, Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, and Johnny Rotten are as fascinating as those of fetishistic, stylized (albeit, questionable in their authenticity) pin-ups, so here’s a mixed stack for you to peruse. Check out Bad Mags for plenty more! … Read More

Media

Read Through the Finalists for the 2012 National Magazine Awards

By Emily Temple on

Yesterday, the American Society of Magazine Editors announced the finalists for the 2012 National Magazine Awards, which judge American publications as a whole as well as specific articles within them. Bloomberg Businessweek, GQ, New York, The New Yorker and Vice are all nominated for overall excellence in the field of general interest magazines, Glamour, More, O, The Oprah Magazine, Real Simple and W are nominated for women’s interest, and The American Scholar, Aperture, IEEE Spectrum, The New Republic and Virginia Quarterly Review are nominated in the “Thought-Leader” category.

You should take a peek at those titles at your leisure, and check out the full list of finalists here, but we were more interested in the finalists in most of the major article categories. We’ve put together a handy list for you, with links to the nominated work. Yet again, we were flabbergasted and discouraged by the lack of female writers here — of the categories we looked at, they are only nominated in the Public Interest and Fiction sections. Regardless, there’s a lot of good writing here, so click through to get a handle on the ASME nominees, and let us know who you think should take home the prizes in the comments. … Read More

Pop Culture

Disney Princesses As Fashion Magazine Cover Models

By Alison Nastasi on

Disney’s royalty goes cover girl for Petite Tiaras’ mashup of the Mickey Mouse house’s princesses and popular fashion magazines. Animated beauties like Belle, Snow White, and Mulan grace the covers of Elle, Glamour, and other popular titles. The headlines have also been adjusted to suit each princess’ style. “It Fits! How to Find Your Perfect Heel Size Today,” Cinderella’s copy of Elle mag promises, and Ariel’s copy of Seventeen warns girls to “never trust a sea witch.” Jasmine’s Cosmo cover is a whole lot tamer than we’re used to — and that suits us just fine. Click on for more princess cover girls. … Read More

Media

Are These the Most Influential Magazines of the Year?

By Judy Berman on

Adweek – the advertising trade that recently re-launched with a more populist mission — has released its 31st annual Hot List, counting down what it deems the ten most influential magazines of the year. Now, if anyone had asked us to predict a few of their picks, we would have come up with a completely different list. To be honest, we don’t subscribe to any of the titles that made the cut — although we do often read a few of them online — and we don’t feel like we’re really missing out as a result. So, make your predictions now, see the list after the jump, head to Adweek to read more about each selection, and tell us which publications you think should have made the top ten in the comments. … Read More

Celebrity

A Recent History of Morbid Celebrity Photographs

By Christine Jordan on

Celebrities must get tired of photo shoots really fast. They’ve always got to sit on some swing and pretend to laugh, scowl while an industrial fan blows in their face, or lounge on a fancy Victorian sofa and feign disinterest. And it’s not just the furniture and facial expressions that are boring; eventually, these photos also aid in making their public image go stale. It’s no surprise, then, that so many of them have produced some darker images in collaboration with edgier photographers. Despite how inevitable they may be, the content of many of these violent, twisted, and morbid images have us squirming in our seats a little — should we feel fascinated, repulsed, or offended? After the jump, help us decide with some recent and notorious photos that we can’t get out of our brains. … Read More