I’ve been quite the magazine enthusiast pretty much from the moment I could read – I went from subscription to subscription: Roald Dahl, to Doctor Who, to Top of the Pops. Getting a magazine in the post was always the highlight of the month. When I found my love for photography, this meant my teenage gossip magazines quickly turned into piles of Hunger Magazines, where I’d dream over Rankin’s flawless studio portraits, or Wonderland so that I could still get a bit of celeb culture whilst finding my portraiture inspo. So, you can perhaps imagine my excitement when the biggest magazine shop in the UK opened up just 20 minutes away. My house is quite quickly becoming an archive full of magazines, with topics from embroidery to Formula One.
I recently discovered two magazines in particular that I wanted to share with more people, and specifically, creative people. Creative women!
Womankind is an ad-free magazine which explores the meaning and identity of women in today’s society. It features leading journalists, authors and artists who speak on one common topic; what it really means to be a woman. Whether this be in terms of art, philosophy or culture.
In this issue: In her work titled Interiors, Danish photographer Trine Søndergaard photographs a renaissance castle uninhabited for 50 years. For Søndergaard, the starkness of the rooms – devoid of people, decoration or alterations for half a century – was oddly captivating. The rooms existed in a state of waiting, of ‘what next?’ For Danish philosopher Kierkegaard, too, it was this state that he dreamed of. “Pleasure disappoints, possibility never,” he declared. “If I were to wish for anything,” it would be for the “passionate sense of the potential”. By paring back, and making space, we welcome possibility. By clearing space in our lives, we make way for the new.
In Her Studio explores the creative spaces and lives of female artists, illustrators, designers and makers. This insight into studios and works from across the world is so inspiring; and seeing a sort of ‘behind the scenes’ at the spaces in which artwork is created is something I find really interesting. I’m a very nosey person when it comes to interiors, so having the chance to see these creative spaces sort of makes up the perfect magazine for me!
In this issue: Artists showcase the places where they create and share the thought processes behind developing their spaces. Art quilter Meghan Nespeca shares her cozy creative space.. Kim Thomson shares the charming, rustic shed where she makes her jewellery and painter Michelle Boy explores floral and landscapes in her light-filled studio.
