LOVE at FIRST BROWSE
We periodically ask a special guest to share with us the three magazines that have meant the most to him. This time is the turn of Piotr Niepsuj, photographer and image consultant.
#1 / Machina
"Personally speaking, this was my first magazine-love. The year was 1996, I was 12 years old, living in Poland and Machina was probably the only source of culture available for a kid like me. They were claiming to be covering pop-culture, but was doing a big piece on Wu-Tang in 1997 or putting Tricky on the cover in 1999 really so pop? I guess it was a good balance and I'd have read it from cover to cover, every month. The claim of the magazine was "we are subjective" and it was filled with interviews and reviews "not only about music" that you'd try to download the same month via dial-up connection. Later on they started adding CDs with a selection of songs covered in each issue and at some point even an annual award. Machina closed down in 2002 (then it unsuccessfully reopened) but until then it had been a real institution and definitely gave a good foundation for my way of thinking about magazines."
#2 / PIG
"Professionally speaking, it all started for me from now defunct PIG magazine. It used to be sort of an Italian equivalent of i-D magazine (they even used the same font) which before the era of widespread Internet made sense. It was founded by Simon and Daniel Beckerman and then run then together with Sean [Michael Beolchini] and was covering all aspects of (counter) culture; from music, to cinema, fashion, books and even independent book publishing; all small realities that were just starting out. PIG was also running a web radio (it started in 2005!) and running a series well-curated and, at the same time, fun parties here in Milan. It really used to be a hub for certain kind of people in that period, something that is now probably impossibile. I owe a lot to PIG."
#3 / MARFA
“I don't really remember how I found out about MARFA, but I guess I saw Erik Brunetti with sunglasses in bed on the cover of the first issue (from 2013) and instinctively bought it online. When it arrived I couldn't believe it. Everything from the kind of the photos that were in, to the text, titles and captions, to the completely wild layout felt fresh and/or fun and showed that new approach to making a magazine. It didn't feel like somebody's portfolio, but rather like a playground for art/fashion kids who know how to party. And it was a party I'd have liked to go to. More then ten years later, Alexandra Gordienko, who founded Marfa and is its editor-in-chief, still keeps it juicy. Even if everything is professional and Marfa is an established reality now, the magazine didn't lose any of it's playfulness and flipping through it seems still like a ride on a rollercoaster (in a good way)."
