IPS; Knowledge & Enquiry; Publications

Ryan Mckendrick
Feb 1, 2021
6 min read

This blogpost looks at queer publications, using visual and contextual analysis to identify key features of queer magazine and zine creation. This allows me to strengthen my knowledge of queer print publishing, and begin to identify techniques applicable to my own process.

Elska Magazine

Elska is a magazine dedicated to sharing the bodies and voices of a diverse cross-section of queer men from around the world, presented through honest photography and personal storytelling. Their works take form as print magazines each made in a different city, E-mag formats of their flagship magazine, and a companion zine Elska Ekstra which documents the behind-the-scenes creative process.

The print magazine takes a simplistic, image-focused approach, which allows for the subjects to be prioritised. The style of photography varies based on individuals, which allows for a diverse representation of communities which narrates individual personalities. There is often a sense of intimacy captured through nudes, in bedrooms, and pictured in private environments - this creates a sense as an audience we are peeking into the lives of individuals.

The E-mags recreate a similar layout, yet this does limit experimentation in terms of the white space as seen in the published versions.

Whereas the behind the scenes zine, narrates an increasingly intimate perspective, primarily photographing subjects nude, and capturing shots peeking within the environments subjects are photographed within. This provides an audience an intimate glimpse into the lives of the individuals. These portraits are darker, with more shadows and deeper colours of purples and red, further emphasising the mood.

Elska also create postcard prints for select editions, these are interesting as they act as visual archives which document personal moments between the photographer and subject, and allow the audience into that connection. This also shows how the images are able to act alone aside from graphic layout.

I think Elska magazine is really interesting in terms of their use of portraiture photography and minimalistic image-centred layout. However, conceptually I think it doesn't succeed in creating a diverse representation of queer men, as the majority of those pictured are cisgender and stereotypically masculine. I do want to look into the photographer, Liam Campbell, further in my portraiture research to further analyse the photography composition.

Sister Magazine

Sister is an intersectional feminist bi-annual publication, although not specifically a queer publication their intersectional politics allows for discussions of queer issues and representation of queer individuals which I feel is integral to my study.

What i find interesting about Sister, is that their publications adopt a fluctuating style and layout, which is often consistent within each edition. However similar to Elska, Sister tend to take an image-centred approach, prioritising their subject's identities. Test use is simplistic which allows for easy reading, and combines with the imagery.

Whilst their interior designs may differ in style, Sister adopt a consistent layout with their covers, adopting brand identifying graphics such as the shadowed text, key font, logo, and structured linework. This subsequently makes their editions immediately recognisable to an audience.

Message in a Bottle

Message in a Bottle is a project created by Queer Zine Library and Queer Newham aiming to celebrate LGBTIQ+ identities throughout the UK with a series of zine making workshops. They write of the project:

As the project grew, we invited participants across the UK to respond to the wider themes of a message in a bottle, using zines, art, words, and photography to share secrets, send messages, and create connections. During lockdown those themes of connection, community, and belonging took on new meanings, shaping the project in ways we hadn’t anticipated. - Queer Zine Library

I'm really interested in how the project focuses on ideas of connectivity between queer folk through national lockdown, something which visually inspired my own ideas of illustrating connections in queer space.

JC Newham, Coronapocolypse:

“This zine shares snippets of my experience of living in Newham during Lockdown in 2020. The original meaning of apocalypse is "an unveiling or unfolding of things not previously known" and it's only through exploring Newham during the coronavirus pandemic that I've really got to know my new home. After a number of personally difficult years, this period of stillness also gave me time to explore much more than Newham and I'll be exploring this in a longer form zine in the near future, inspired by the Message in a Bottle project.”

This zine uses scanned road maps really interestingly, including slight scanning blurs and aligning the map segments out of place, which enables us to see the creator's personal connection to the maps. This is interesting as it creates a visualisation of physical space, the use of maps/ floor plans could be something I consider in my own works.

Billie Blossom, Memory of Mills:

“This zine presents a mixture of memories and dreams of the Millennium Mills, a derelict factory complex in my home borough of Newham which I've had a fascination with since being a teenager. As much of Newham has been redeveloped beyond recognition in the past decade, the empty lots of the Docks were a familiar place. They were both a playground and a kind of muse. Now, with those poised for redevelopment as well, I'm examining the psychogeographic relationship between me and the place, and the lingering feelings about it.”

In contrast to Coronapocolypse, Memory of Mills uses high contrast black and white imagery to convey a darker relationship between space and the creator. The overlaid imagery creates a sense of time, their grainy monochrome quality emphasising this. The text use in this zine is simplistic and seemingly haphazardly placed insinuating a sense of confusion in the creator's feelings of the space. This zine is interesting to me as it I can consider the context which can be deriving when ageing images, which would need consideration of mood.

Drøme

Drome are an independent queer focused magazine addressing key social issues in their editions. Each edition takes on a key theme, speaking to queer and marginalised individuals to give voice to a queer community. They are also involved in activist work to support their wider community, including donating all profits to Black Lives Matter.

The above photos are from Drome's Fluid Futures issue, which collaborated with non-binary designers, models, and photographers to create a high fashion style print which centred non-binary identities. Drome centre individuals in their design by positioning models against plain shadowed backgrounds with a focus on the models and their outfits.

Drome present their text in a simplistic manner, in basic font and against white background, I feel this allows for a further exemplification of the thoughts of the subjects, prioritising their voices.

Drone's cover designs keep a consistent theme, again centring individuals, positioned in front of text with dark backgrounds to emphasise their form. The use of a specific font allows for brand recognisability for an audience, and creates a consistent theme throughout editions.

PANSY mag

PANSY is an online fashion magazine which aims to break gender binaries within men's fashion, and promote femininity, queerness, and androgyny in their editions. As they are an online publication their design centres around web design and internet presence on social media, this is interesting for my own study as it relates to my ideas of space translating to online.

Like Drone, PANSY take a high fashion style, using plain backgrounds to emphasise their models. Using grain filters allows for PANSY to keep a print style whilst using online publishing. Their shoots have a sense of outrageousness with extravagant make-up and outfits, representing queerness through unapologetic self-expression.

I think the above shoot is particularly interesting as it focuses on an idea of fitness, a theme in a number of my case studies, the consideration of props allows for an application of theme, and gives me ideas of how to incorporate props into my own shoots. Like other researched magazines, PANSY use image-centred layouts keeping their publication visual.

Plastik

Plastik is a magazine which focuses on visual and cultural arts showcasing queer folk founded by Eli Rezkallah, a visual artist and photographer.

Plastik's spreads are again very image centred, focusing on pastel colours, especially pinks, baby-blues and lilacs, this adds a clean and polished look to the layout. The simplicity of text presentation allows for the text and image to lie simultaneously without one overcomplicating the other.

Photography in Plastik is experimental, playing with positioning, sets, and make-up to create intriguing and original shots. The layout of the spreads uses colours within the image, or contrasting the image to further compliment the imagery used and add emphasis to specific features e.g. the models blush which is highlighted with the hot pink background on the opposite page.

Like Drome, Plastik use iconic font to create brand recognition for their varied covers, most covers play with images to create interesting conceptual pieces, whilst the similar font and layout allows for a consistency between editions.