Art Zines Rule! Part One

The cover of SHOOT, issue No. 5. It's out now.

Sure, these days media-wise it’s all about blogs, podcasts, viral video and content that gets zapped wirelessly to you wherever you are... Or is it? Strangely, in this age of bluetoothy, iPod-toting, cell phone-camera-carrying 24/7 techie mania, there’s still something to be said for a cool magazine to hold in your hand.

The new issue of V Man (the big glossy, gorgeous men’s style/art tome published by the folks at Visionaire) highlights this notion in a little piece in its pages about the re-emergence of arty ’zines, specifically those which target the gay aesthetic. We gays love a good magazine, and we love one even more that has hot, artful photos (of guys, clothes, or guys in clothes—or not).

Each day for the rest of this week I’m gonna highlight a ’zine that’s blowing my dress up (so to speak), and that’s worthy of your attention. Check it out, if you will.

Today, have a look at SHOOT, the frequently published artmag by Brooklyn-based photographer, Paul Mpagi Sepuya (who’s work has also been seen in Butt, They Shoot Homos Don’t They? and Scrub). Just out is SHOOT No. 5, which is (duh) the fifth issue of Sepuya’s strikingly simple, ongoing premise: Straight on portraits of men (in No. 5, the artist himself is his subject) which reveal the beauty of the subject, as well as his hints of character, fragility, and masculinity/femininity, and which also encourage us to examine just how we perceive portraiture and the male image. Or, as the artist (who's on the cover on his own issue No. 5, seen above) puts it: “My projects focus on the role that portrait-making plays in the understanding of relationships and of the challenge of the static photograph in defining these dynamic relationships.”

And yes, they’re just some cool, delicately beautiful shots of guys shirtless (or nude). Nothing wrong with that, either.



The cover of SHOOT, No. 4.

You can buy the new issue of SHOOT in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto or Berlin. Or you can order it on Sepuya’s site. You can also browse through many of his other works, too.

And you can currently see a piece of Sepuya’s work in the show “When Fathers Fail” at the Daniel Reich Gallery in New York City.

Keep your eyes on him.

Nico, as seen in the premiere issue of SHOOT.