Thumbing through magazines
My friend Lauren and I had been trying to meet up at a stranger’s basement in Brooklyn for the past few years.
I swear it’s not as weird as it sounds — it was to thumb through old dusty magazines.
This basement (and first floor) is the home of High Valley Books and full to the beams with rare, imported, and out-of-print magazines.
It was my birthday weekend and I treated myself to two magazines and one zine.
The Face issue #42 from July 2000 features Chloë Sevigny on the cover, an interview with Aaliyah that asks “Is there anything she can’t do?” and an essay about Prince William attending a rave.
The editor’s note includes this beautiful list:
Six modern dilemmas to consider in this, the month of July:
When you can download Madonna's new music from the internet, in ten minutes, before anyone at her record company has heard it, three months before it gets played on the radio, is this progress? Or is it just taking the fun out of everything?
Is the video for 'The Real Slim Shady' the greatest pop moment ever? And how long before Eminem transfers to the movies?
They're turning shops that sell records into shops that sell mobile phones. Does this make any sense to you?
The zine, not to be confused with a magazine, is the hand-bound work of photographer Andreas Laszlo Konrath from 2009. A simple but beautiful presentation with roughly a dozen photos of a punk kid named Joe.
Do you also miss flipping through magazines?
It was a Newsweek subscription that first introduced me to photojournalism and set me on my career path. Spin was to discover new music. Before that, my childhood was spent with Highlights and Ranger Rick.
I still receive a couple at home — Interview and Aperture. If I were rich I would get more. I also love when photographers self-publish their stories or portfolios in magazine form.
I’m always looking for recommendations.