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FRONT AND BACK cover photography: Ray James models: Atma & Diana
WELCOME Welcome to the pilot episode of Afterparty Magazine. The idea for this ‘zine was born out of a love of lo-fi, analogue film photography. The happy accidents, the experimentation and the creativity. We wanted to try and capture contemporary style and fashion on a medium that feels more connected and more real. Vague terms with a vague meaning, but you have to try.
That’s the reason for this pre-launch, pilot edition. It’s far easier to present the visual style and tone we were searching for instead of merely trying to explain it and ending up with circular definitions and something that’s far too esoteric.
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The truth is that Afterparty doesn’t know what kind of a magazine it is yet. It professes to be about style and fashion, but gets way too hung up on the photography, it celebrates the analogue aesthetic while presenting it to you on a digital device and it calls itself a style magazine while presenting a rough, unstylised, plastic lensed vision.
credits
NEXT PAGE & PAGE 34-35 model: Mia D Love hair stylist: Holly-Louise
WORDS Celine Carrell , Ray James
PHOTOGRAPHY Ray James, Strato, Celine Carrell
ARTWORK & LAYOUT Celine Carrell
MODELS Atma, Mia D Love, Jade, Jenny, Amy, Ash, Gabrielle, Daisy, AndrĂŠ, Ellis, Julie, Tovey, ElleBeth, Rayne, Rebecca Goldie, Laika and Nel
ALSO FEATURING Estrany, Diana B, Demari, Mina
Julia Adams, Holly-Louise
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STYLISTS
stay in the sun
model: Jade Lyon styling: Julia Adams
street style
photography: Ray James model: Julie Dumont
ANALOGUE IS....
It’s about expectation and waiting, because instant gratification is no fun. It’s about exploration, not perfection. It’s about falling in love with and celebrating flaws and happy accidents. It’s about the contrast of something perfect and ideal against something raw and unprocessed. It’s an attempt to create some feeling of permanence and authenticity in a disposable world. It’s because the process is sometimes more important than the result and it’s because it’s hard, not because it’s easy. GET INVOLVED....
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Fashion photographers and artists, we want you to get involved with Afterparty Magazine. For future issues, we’ll be showcasing a range of lo-fi fashion editorial work from the analogue photography community.
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Submissions will be open to anyone (details to appear on social media as soon as this issue goes live).
PREVIOUS & NEXT PAGES photography: Ray James model: Gabrielle Doll Facee
STYLE IS....
Style isn’t about trends and fads, it’s something very personal to you. It’s the unique way you are, the way you are, the way you look and your attitude that defines your style. If fashion and analogue are the raw materials, then style is the end product. And that style is something that can shine through the glossiest of magazines or the trashiest of lo-fi lenses. GET INVOLVED....
We’re also looking other creatives with a love of the analogue photography aesthetic to get involved with Afterparty Magazine.
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It’s not all about the medium, so if you’re a designer, model, artist or performer and want to be featured, then we’d love to hear from you.
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lost in the morning
photography: Ray James model: Amy Farrant
a fashion edge
photography: Ray James model: Jenny Fisher
double down
photography: Ray James model: Ash White
instants
An exploration of analogue style would be incomplete without including Polaroids. Although originally designed by Edwin Land to be instant photography for the average person, it was almost immediately appropriated by photographic artists as a new medium with a distinct look. In the decades that passed, very little has happened to stop that. Not even Polaroid themselves withdrawing from the market slowed things down as a new kind of Polaroid film was re-launched in 2008 as “The Impossible Project”, gaining more popularity than ever. It’s not difficult to see why as Polaroids are a unique, expressive medium unlike any other.
Having said that, the reasons for Polaroid’s continued popularity doesn’t have to be anything epic or even logical. We simply shoot them because we love them.
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Aside from the look, perhaps it’s that Polaroid experience that’s part of the attraction. With a camera in every phone and millions of snapshots uploaded to instagram every day, photography is in danger of becoming banal; every image just another picture. Artistic pretensions aside, even the most throwaway Polaroid snapshot can seems more real and tangible.
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stratographic
photography: Strato models: Rayne, Rebecca Goldie, Laika and Nel
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Who are you and where are you from? I’m strato from Glasgow. But you can call me Bill. How did you get into photography? I got into photography after I stopped playing in bands and needed something else creative to do. I’d always been into taking pictures for fun so thought I’d figure out how to do it properly. Didn’t quite manage that so ended up doing what I do instead :)
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What’s the attraction to analogue photography and Polaroids specifically?
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Ooh Polaroids. Well, for one it feels more raw, more real. In a way it takes away the Photoshop element where you can take a so so picture and dress it up in editing. Whatever your Polaroid looks like is the final image, and that is actually really refreshing. Also the limitations of that little square make you think more. What can you do to make it fun or interesting?
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Do you have a “process”? How do you decide what to shoot and where? I don’t have a process I just mess around. If I’m lucky then my model will have an interesting outfit or look that makes it easy to think of what to do. Sometimes I’ll see an image in my head and try and make it work or I’ll see something out the corner of my eye and think “that’s cool”. Any photographic heroes (in front or behind the lens)? Guy Bourdin is obviously someone I admire. Joe Mcnally is also a photographer that makes me think “wow” when I watch him work. I wish I could have shot Bettie Page back in the day, she was awesome. Oh and Chas Ray Krider is another of my favourite photographers.
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Any random life advice you’d like to share?
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Just do what you do. Don’t get stressed about things and remember that everyone has off days. I also try and keep away from drama and gossip, Best just to smile and be happy.
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scrapbook
photography: Ray James & Celine Carrell models: Ellis, Daisy, AndrĂŠ, Tovey, Elle-Beth, Mia and Gabrielle
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to be continued
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www . afterpartymag . com twitter.com/AFTERPARTYmag instagram.com/afterpartymag facebook.com/afterpartymagazine
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