Magazine Culture
A way to dive into London's soul
Dear Traveller Friends,
This is a free postcard I send once in a while on places, people, books I recently discovered and loveā¦ I hope you will enjoy it!
To receive The New Voyager monthly Travel Letter and The New Voyager City guides, subscribe below.
I'm writing from London, where I'm staying for a few days, visiting things (very) slowly and walking everywhere!
Magnolias and wisterias are in bloom around the city, radiating an energised spring energy!
My first day here turned out to be an unexpected tribute to print cultureāan easy, laid-back way to explore British culture.
I spent a couple of hours browsing the ground floor of Magma in Covent Garden, flipping through stacks of magazines and picking out a few to bring home.
I discovered some off-the-beaten-path travel issues -Fare and Advanture Magazine- and revisited a few favourites -Hello Lunch Lady and Positive News-.
Later that afternoon, I went to the exhibition āThe Face Magazine: The Culture Shiftā at the National Portrait Gallery - a vivifying retrospective with colourful scenography, dotted with quotes from artists, that allows the visitor to grasp how the groundbreaking British magazine shaped culture in the 1990s.
I loved that The Face's name comes from the 1960s mod subculture and describes āsomeone with the right clothes, the right haircut, and right taste in music.ā (!)
Founded by music journalist Nick Logan and published a year after Margaret Thatcher came to power, The Face revolutionized magazine publishing (and journalism) by giving photographers, stylists, and art directors the space and freedom to be bold. It quickly became a free-spirited expression of street culture, fashion, and art, which is palpable through the exposed artworks.
Photographer Janette Beckmanās quote on one of the walls sums it all up very well:
The Face was not just a fashion magazine or a music magazine. It was about what was happening on the streets and the intersection with music and fashion.
Now we all know that is where culture begins. The Face was the first magazine to feature this, and it captured that very special time in the UK.
The exhibition opens with a collage of magazine covers and a looping video set to a Daft Punk soundtrack. From there, visitors can wander through themed rooms, exploring the music scene, fashion and nightlife.
In the last room, a series of portraits of icons like Kate Moss, David Beckham, and the Spice Girls stand alongside lesser-known ones of Thom Yorke, Ryan Gosling, and Edward Norton.
This journey into the magazineās life wraps up with more contemporary artwork using new technologies and this quote by Art Director Lee Swillingham stayed with me.
We werenāt using technology for the sake of it; we were using it to create a new visual language.
The exhibition (until May 25th) is a stimulating dive into the creative souls of the 1990s and a fun way to enjoy Londonās arty culture that I highly recommend!
I left inspired, wondering what could be groundbreaking in todayās world, saturated with a constant flow of images. Iād be curious to know Nick Loganās view on social media and where he thinks counterculture stands nowadays.
Below, I share three places I love in London to stock up on magazines.
Please share yours if you have any!
With love,
Emma, xxx
Where to buy high-end magazines in London
Magma
It is an incredible, arty bookstore with tons of Japanese trinkets, cards, puzzles, illustrations, books for kids, cookbooks, and guidebooksā¦
The ground floor is dedicated to magazines, a treasure land in itself!
News & Coffee
I love this old-school truck serving good coffee and selling arty magazines in Kings Cross! Grab a cappuccino and something to read, and sit by the canal.
Shreeji News Agent
La crĆØme de la crĆØme when it comes to a newsagentāproviding highly curated publicationsāin one of the chicest streets in the city! It also hosts a reading room, a space for events and exhibitions, and a coffee shop serving pastries.
Also MagCulture in Clerkenwell is a bit of an institution and a temple for magazines!
Great recommendations for magazine shops -thank you!