Interview with E&A Magazine

nik.mercer — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:49:18 -0800

Brooklyn's Studio Von Birken has been editing and publishing E&A Magazine since early-2005, and Anthem finally had the chance to discuss with the studio the publication. Pick up Issue No. 6 (Fall/Winter 2007) right here.

What exactly is E&A and what is its ultimate purpose?

E&A, short for Editor & Art Director―The Glossy Zine is a bi-annual newsprint publication with content being centered around "Fashion, Pop & Art". We just started out with the first issue and thought it was a good change from the work we had been doing until then at Studio Von Birken. We work as Art Directors for Fashion & Beauty, and were looking for something that was a bit less air-brushed and less commercial in a way.

You've been publishing on a biannual schedule since 2005 and already have worked with or been promoted by some amazing people, including Helmut Lang, Colette (Paris), Nom De Guerre, Jason Crombie, Richard Prince, and plenty more that, frankly, I'm not especially familiar with, but whom I'm now deeply interested in. Firstly, how do you select these folks, and secondly, how do you get them to work with you?

It's different with every issue, it's quite random actually. Usually we come up with a theme for the issue first, and then start talking to people we like. Most of it stays close to home. Naturally there are a lot of young & upcoming people, who we love to work with and with whom we started building up the zine. It all happened quite organically from issue to issue, we don't go out looking aggressively for new collaborators, but rather see what happens.

I like the aesthetic of the magazine. It's all at once sophisticated (large-format, beautiful photo editorials, delicate and elegant type) and banal (newsprint, two-tone printing). In this day and age, why did you go for this aesthetic as opposed to something completely over-the-top (a big glossy like V or something)? Indeed, your URL is http://www.theglossyzine.com―are you deliberately poking fun here or working in jest?

We wanted to make it a zine as opposed to a magazine, so it needed to be cheap. And we love newsprint! In regards to the name, The Glossy Zine: It was never meant to be ironic, we think it describes what it is quite straightforward; it's glossy in terms of it's content and images and it's a zine in regards to the way it's done, no budget, no advertising, no four-color print. But we do like that it is a paradox. Plus, in times of extreme energy consumption & in a culture of waste it only made sense to us to try it on recycled paper, to see if that would work, too. We think it does.

I love the actual style in which the magazine is printed. At times, it's very high-resolution, but my favorite pages are the lower-resolution ones; they look almost pop-arty or like a Lichtenstein piece or something. Any conceptual basis for this?

I think over time we just started pushing the options that newsprint has a bit more, we really started to like the half-tone aesthetic a lot. So it came from experimentation, like the whole magazine itself, it's just one big experiment. And yes, this look does actually hark back to Pop Art, when screens & dots had their big moment. Issue 4―The Hecho En U.S. of A. Issue [F/W 06] worked with this theme the most.

My two favorite lines in the latest issue [No. 6] are, "Why Is Less More?" and, from the Helmut Lang interview, "How strong is your interest in aesthetics compared to concept?" Both of these lines are particularly intriguing and speak volumes about your character. Care to answer the former question and address the latter in a more explicative manner?

The question occurred to us in the context of Maurice Scheltens' story: We thought his story turned out very beautiful, the background had become the hero itself, which is unusual for still life photography. Something is great when you can't add to or subtract from to make it better. We are not real minimalists, almost all of the previous issues have been very layered, but this time around we were in the mood for clean & calm. In regards to the second question, we think Mr. Lang gave a good answer on this one and we are not far from it. Concept & Aesthetics best go hand in hand, just like Haensel & Gretel.

Broadly, in what direction are magazines and journals headed? Are they simply dying out? Are they being embraced by more and more niche audiences? What purpose do they serve in an Internet-based era?

The interesting thing is that people have been calling magazines dead for so long but every week there's more out there. Especially the little ones, the labors of love, they have a really big moment. I think the big ones are kind of in trouble, from what we hear, but you know, most of them have no spirit left in them, they are just too boring, predictable & commercial and they have to deal with all that new media. We need the big ones as a common denominator, but the small ones, based on our work experience they are needed, as well―mainly as creative fodder―as they are more out of sync with the commercial machine and thus often more inspiring. For all commercial advertising or packaging jobs we do, we always pick up odd publications along with the mainstream.