Andrew Hetherington, Photographer

SPD: What year?
Andrew Hetherington: 1985

SPD: What were you up to?
AH: I was a teenager living in Dublin, Ireland. At that time personal style was very much defined by what music you listened to and that dictated the tribe you belonged to; skas, mods, punks, new romantics, metal heads, etc. I was a new wave type and fancied myself as an artist, musician or fashion designer. I couldn’t sing, play an instrument, draw or sew but I discovered photography as the gateway to indulging my passions. I started taking photos of bands I knew and poured through the pages of music weeklies like the NME and Melody Maker for inspiration discovering the B&W photography of Anton Corbijn and Steve Pyke.

SPD: What magazine?
AH: The Face

SPD: What was it that so enthralled you?
AH: The Face was the game changer for me and couldn’t have come into my life at a more perfect time. It was so much more than a music magazine; diverse, colorful content all presented in a groundbreaking way, it wasn’t aimed at women or men but at everyone of all backgrounds. It echoed the cultural and social changes that were happening in the U.K. at the time and became that generation’s style bible for awhile. Fashion, music, nightlife, films; all delivered with just the right amount of attitude through bold design and great photography. It opened my eyes to a whole new world of sub cultures and was my internet; how I found out about latest bands, designers, DJ’s, directors, photographers and stylists. I couldn’t wait for the latest issue each month and would race to the newsagents to pick up a copy.

SPD: Do you know now who the creatives were?
AH: I paid particular attention to the photographers. There was a fresh young generation of British and European shooters who were changing the traditional photo playbook. Rules didn’t seem to matter anymore. Seeing the work of Nick Knight, David Sims, Craig McDean, Elaine Constantine, Juergen Teller, Stephane Sednaoui, Corinne Day, Derek Ridgers and Jamie Morgan blew my mind. But it was also how the photography was incorporated into the design and how they both pushed each other in new directions that really excited me. 

Neville Brody was the creative director from 1982 and he was succeeded by Robin Derrick and Phil Bicker in the 90’s. All legends, who left their mark not on only the magazine world but contemporary design and culture too. The Face also pushed style and fashion in new directions mixing genres and genders in what at the time was quite a revolutionary way. 

I can clearly remember photographs and layouts that left an indelible impact on me. Morgan’s photos of the Buffalo movement; a whole new look juxtaposing genres and styles created by iconic stylist Ray Petri, struck a particular chord. The cover they shot with Felix Howard from May ’85 is the first one I remember. Felix was a 13 year old boy but to quote Morgan "had the face of an elder person. To me, from a photographic point of view, it was a direct kick against the photography that was happening at the time in fashion magazines – pretty, colourful, female images.” Corinne Day’s photographs of a young Kate Moss for the mythical “Third Summer of Love” issue from July 1990 also left an indelible impression and heralded the age of raw and real fashion photography.   

SPD: How does that inform your creative now?
AH: The Face was a constant creative companion for me from 1985 through to the late 1990’s. I treasured every copy for years and years. The photographers I gravitated towards had a distinctive visual style and that is something I strive for throughout my own work. The Face also taught me how photography and design were equally significant in a magazine layout and how they could elevate each other to the next level. To this day I am really excited to see my work in print and to see how the art department uses my photographs as part of the overall design package.

Savana Ogburn, Freelance Photographer & Set Designer

Savana Ogburn: One of my most vivid memories of looking through Teen Vogue as a wee 12 year old was seeing a photo of Tavi Gevinson at fashion week swaddled in a knit scarf and a floral coat. I remember sitting there, probably wearing a Jonas Brothers tee shirt, thinking "how the hell does this fellow 12 year old have grey hair and why is she in Teen Vogue?". Fast forward to 3 years later when I discovered Rookie Mag on the shelf at my suburban Barnes and Noble and, no exaggeration, my entire life changed. I went home, immediately added the book to my birthday wishlist, and began digging through the site's archives. The deeply personal and heartfelt essays spoke about things that were totally taboo (periods, masturbation, puberty, etc), they published incredible early photography from artists like Petra Collins and Olivia Bee, and there were loads of DIYs that spoke to both my crafty Girl Scout sensibilities and my budding desire to look like a riot grrrl. Rookie's unapologetically femme aesthetic paired with the older-sister-giving-you-advice voice entranced me then and is still so comforting to me now. Where else could you read a comic about gender dysphoria, learn about public speaking with KATHLEEN HANNA (!!!), and make your nails look just like astroturf?! 

I credit Rookie with a lot of my interest in hyper-stylized photography and collage; Eleanor Hardwick and Lauren Poor both created wonderland sets (either IRL or via collage) that inspired me to explore with mixed media and sets in my own work. The books were designed to look like sugary sweet, painfully detailed scrapbooks, which I had never seen before and immediately fell in love with. I ended up contributing to Rookie in 2015 and I'd be remiss not to say that their editors (specifically Lena Singer! Hi Lena!) were total angels and saw the potential in my wonky ideas. I learned how to pitch, conceptualize shoots, and make work that I was proud of consistently through contributing to Rookie, and it's that accessibility and platform they give to young artists that's so powerful. I'm so eternally grateful to Rookie for getting me through my teen years and on into adulthood. *Heart eyes emoji* at them, forever. 

Carla Frank, Creative Director & Brand Strategist

SPD: What were you up to? 
Carla Frank: I was young and I was always trying to gain my mother’s love and attention. Achieving such interactions though was nearly impossible – which is how I came to be a dedicated observer of my very pretty yet distant mother. 

Particularly of note in my onlookings, were evident mood shifts when she read magazines. My overwhelmed and stern mother transformed before my eyes into a happy, light-hearted, fulfilled and engaged young woman. She looked so beautiful and carefree in those moments as I sat quietly beside her to see what she was seeing. Sometimes she would walk me through her favorite sections of the magazine and the spectacular features. Sometimes she would laugh aloud at the articles, sometimes call out celebrity names as if she was saying hello to them at a chic cafe. Sometimes she would finger tap outfits she liked while carefully studying them and sometimes she would hug the magazine to her chest when her delightful pastime was interrupted. 

Being an avid reader and born stylist, she created captivating vignettes in small spaces throughout the house. One of her signature styling looks consisted of neat and inviting stacks of her all-time favorite magazines carefully placed reverently. To her they were divine objects. She saved only the finest of her collection for years. 

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SPD: What magazine? 
CF: There was one stack I consistently secretly snuck quiet moments with – Holiday Magazine. 

SPD: Do you know now who the creatives were?  
CF: Yes. They were legendary. Editor Ted Patrick and art director Frank Zachary. 

SPD: What was it that so enthralled you? 
CF: EVERYTHING. The overall wit, wisdom and exotic insights. The daring covers, the transporting photos, the stylish illustrations, the strong type and the use of white space. It was a monthly travel bible created by a group of sophisticates who didn’t necessarily take it all too seriously, which allowed a certain sense of freedom. 

There were two deeply notable characteristics defining Holiday Magazine. The first was that they hired the most famous writers, to travel and write glorious pieces about places. For instance, James Michener on the south pacific, Colette on love in Paris, William Saroyan on Fresno, Ian Fleming on London, Joan Didion on Sacramento and so many more by the likes of Paul Bowles, Jack Kerouac, M.F.K. Fisher, Ogden Nash, Arthur Miller, James Thurber, and Alistair Cooke to name only a few. 

The second notable characteristic was the vision of Art Director Frank Zachary, who became a publishing icon himself. Frank brought together a distinguished group of photographers such as Cartier-Bresson, Steichen, Aarons and illustrators such as Arnold Roth, Ronald Searle, Edward Gorey and John Rombola. With fusion of real editorial backbone, mischievousness and impeccable taste, Frank basically reinvented the modern leisure magazine in America 

Every issue was packed with dazzle, surprise and seduction. Holiday had an insatiable curiosity that created a wide breadth of subjects so it wasn’t just travel it was culture too. There was also a sense of mission, in that Holiday promoted an idea for Americans to make the most out of the advantages they had in prosperity, productivity and happiness. The magazine was pure discovery from cover to cover. 

No wonder why I had the curiosity to travel the world and ended up working at a top travel magazine early in my career. Yet it occurs to me only now, years after becoming a Creative Director in magazines, the deepest subconscious reasons that drove me to magazines in the first place. They brought a world of imagination, delight and refinement to our doorsteps. I wanted to be a part of an elite group who created magazines which could move people the way they did my mother. To be able to produce an enchanting world in which someone could become immersed and seduced into reading the pages and emerge feeling smarter, brighter, and happier was a lot of magic and responsibility at my finger tips. This aspiration and inspiration is perhaps why I’ve poured so much love into every pixel and page I’ve worked on. Perhaps it’s why we all do. 

Jamie Prokell, Creative Director at Men’s Health

Jamie Prokell: It was 1991 and bundled free with my sister’s issue of Sassy magazine came one of the best things to ever make its way through the US Postal system, or at least that is what it meant to me that year. Here was Dirt Magazine, and on its pages were the weird mix of everything that I was searching for, years before the Internet provided a voice for every disenfranchised youth. I was a young boy in High School, awkward and interested in just about anything  outside of the mainstream. Music, can’t find it on the radio? Let me listen. Clothes, only available by mail order from the other side of the United States in a size fives times what it should be? Where do I send the check? Dirt showed up and seemed to hold the answer to all of that. It was put together by a bunch of skaters just a few years older than myself, and with all of the same interests.

It only ran for 7 issues, but in those few issues they had the Beastie Boys, Mr. T, Crispin Glover and a then unknown Jason Lee getting punched in the face on their covers. It was original and was everything I was into.

SPD: What year?
JP: 1991-1993, it only published seven issues. Most of it came as a supplement to Sassy magazine.

SPD: What were you up to? 
JP: I was a kid in a western Pennsylvania Catholic high school. One of three kids in the entire school who skateboarded. Awkward, unsure, and ready to rebel against anything. I was looking for anything that went against the “man,” who to me at that time was mainstream media and organized sports. I had been going through a steady diet of Thrasher, Transworld Skateboarding, Poweredge magazine, and anything printed that mentioned or pictured a skateboard. A world that existed across the United States in California and miles away from where I was at.

SPD: What magazine? 
JP: The magazine was Dirt. A free supplement that originally came poly-bagged with an issue of Sassy. This was the first time I felt, how do these people have all of the answers to all of my questions and interests. Years later I came to understand that something this special comes from a staff of interested and interesting people all working together to answer these questions for themselves. But at that time, this magazine was like a peek into the bigger world, a world beyond Pittsburgh.

SPD: What was it that so enthralled you? 
JP: I had been stealing my sister’s Sassy magazine for awhile, trying to figure out how I could understand girls, and where exactly I could find ones that were as cool as the ones in the pages of Sassy magazine. When just like a wish granted, came the answer I was looking for. Here was a magazine that was all about my life. It talked about clothes, haircuts, music, skateboarding, and girls. But the pages were filled with people who I had become familiar with from skate shops, Thrasher and Transworld Skateboarding. Yes, I thought! This was another skateboard magazine. But this one covered everything that you did while you were not skateboarding. One of my favorite articles, that I still remember today, took Jeff Tremain (who later became famous for producing the Jackass franchise) and slowly cut his long hair into 8 different hair lengths and gave names to each style. They reviewed things no other magazine at that time were: Candy, Shoes, Swatches, comics, hair and girls. And somehow this first issue came to my house, and for free. I felt like I had been chosen. From that point on every time I went to the mall I would go to the small newsstand near the exit and check for the next issue. At this point in my life I had no idea that there was any sort of publishing schedule. So five times a week, I would be scouring the newsstand, for any clue a new issue was on its way. 

SPD: Do you know now who the creatives were? 
JP: I’m not sure I totally understood that all of the people featured in the pages weren’t involved with creating the issue. But I was aware Andy Jenkins, Spike Jonze, and Mark Lewman were leading the charge. These were the same names that I had been seeing in every issue of Transworld Skateboarding, and Thrasher each month. They were putting their friends in fashion shoots and other stories. It was amazing to see Natas Kaupus, Jason Lee, Ray Barbee, all of these skateboarders just doing things that I was not seeing anywhere else. It made the lifestyle real to me, and that was what I fell in love with. Looking back at the old issue now, I’m not sure the design was what grabbed me, but the sincerity and intention is still as real as it was all of those years ago. And that’s what spoke to me. 

staff photo of mark lewman, andy jenkins, and spike jonze

SPD: How does that inform your creative now? 
JP: I can still remember the feeling of reading those pages. It was the realness of the stories. Today I try to put myself in the place of the reader and ask myself what would I want this story to be. What do I want to see. What would excite me. And I try to create/design stories to answer that. What would get me excited? Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t. But at least I feel I am trying to create something I would spend time exploring. 

Isabel Castillo Guijarro, Art Director Refinery29 / Designer & Illustrator

SPD: What year?
Isabel Castillo Guijarro: 1998-99

SPD: What were you up to?
ICG: I grew up in the publishing world. My great-grandfather owned a printer in Madrid, Spain during the early 20s, working mostly on embossing books; my grandfather worked for him as a typist since his early teens before going on to designing some of the big magazines and newspapers in Spain at that time — Marca, ABC, As and even special projects for Francisco Franco— my uncle was the Creative Director at Hachette. My point is, that there where always magazines around.

SPD: What magazine?
ICG: My first real understanding of a magazine was Ragazza, a Spanish fashion magazine that closed doors in 2008. Only because I was in one of the early issues as a baby in 1990. My mom still has that entire year saved somewhere. When I was 8 or 9, she showed my uncle's name on the masthead as the Art Director so I've subconsciously always looked, thinking he would be there. To this day, I'm always curious to see who are the creatives behind it. Before even reading the actual magazine.

SPD: What was it that so enthralled you?
ICG: Ragazza had no appeal to me but introduced me to magazines. My teens were spent looking at Print, Wallpaper, Rolling Stone and Squire until I became obsessed with Italian Vogue as an intern at Vogue Spain. I had the side job of organizing their archive. Italian Vogue always had the most elegant, simple, and clean but bold covers.

SPD: Do you know now who the creatives were?
ICG: For a while, I was obsessed with Franca Sozzani + George Louis

SPD: How does that inform your creative now? 
ICG: Even though I work in media and mostly do digital, I inevitably crave print.

Amy Wolff, Photo Director at Hearst Enthusiast Group (Bicycling, Runner's World)

Amy Wolff: I spent my teenage years listening to music and sneaking out of the house to see punk, hardcore and ska bands at the Trocadero in Philly, Spankys in East Stroudsburg, and abandoned warehouses around Pennsylvania. I photographed the bands playing, too, but it was always a choice. Enjoy the show or work the show. 

Art played a huge role within my love for music. I collected album artwork, posters, flyers and zines. Small in size, self-published and generally free or a few dollars at most, zines were raw and unpolished, much like the music I liked at the time. Photocopied on plain white paper, folded in half, bound by staples, zines were distributed by hand at shows or purchased in indie music stores. Zines like riot grrrl covered and celebrated the feminist movement in music and society. Even Bust and Bitch began as zines. For a short time, my friend and I made a zine called “Nailbiter.” Without social media, these tangible objects were all I had to get an insider look and stay connected to the niche community I loved.

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Rolling Stone, however, provided a much broader look at the music community. In the late 90s, this monthly, over-sized, 10”x12”, colorful, glossy, artfully designed magazine gave me news, gossip, in-depth story-telling and lots of photos. I had a love/hate relationship with the cover photography, but they were memorable. In 1998, David LaChapelle’s image of Madonna fully encapsulated her “Ray of Light” phase. I didn’t understand this phase of hers, but there it was. He got it.

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RS had memorable ads, too. Think of the last magazine article you read? Do you remember any of the adjacent full-page ads? I remember paging through RS looking for Absolut Vodka ads. Developed by TBWA, that is one of the most iconic campaigns ever. I can still picture my young teenage self, sitting in my bedroom, flipping through the magazine dreaming of traveling the world shooting bands or producing ad campaigns and seeing my work in the pages of RS.

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Toni Paciello Loggia, Photo Director at Shape Magazine

Toni Paciello Loggia: My career in magazines started nearly 20 years ago to the day, in August of 1998. I was hired fresh out of Parsons where I had studied Photography and became the Photo Assistant at Redbook magazine. As a newbie in publishing, I ate, drank and slept magazines. I loved (and still do) flipping through magazines, acquainting myself with photographers, getting inspired by the photography and tearing out pages and pinning them to my wall. One of the magazines that I was always drawn to made its debut the year before--- JANE. It was different from all of the other glossy beauty and fashion books. While it was still gorgeous to look at, it was real. The photographs felt casual and spontaneous.  They were not overly retouched and unattainable. The celebrity features were particularly candid. You truly felt like you were being granted a glimpse into someone’s life; not a glossed-up version of who they wanted you to think they were. The premiere issue featured Drew Barrymore, photographed by Carter Smith. She truly was the perfect cover girl for the first issue. There was movement in the photos as she laughed, tumbled, and strolled. You could see the grain in the film and could feel the movement of the photographer following his subject. The photographs drew you in and included you in the experience. I distinctly remember a later cover the following year with Reese Witherspoon. It was a black and white portrait of her squinting one eye with a wrinkle in her nose and curled up lip, shot by Robert Erdmann. It grabbed your attention because it had a voice and an opinion—all without saying a word. That truly is the mark of a great photograph. So much talent graced the pages—Terry Richardson, Pamela Hanson, Francois Nars—names that became synonymous with fashion editorials of that time—and still are. 

Aside from the gorgeous visuals, JANE had a distinct voice—one that was strong and powerful, and feminist. It didn’t shy away from controversial editorial. Some of my favorite headlines: “No Women Allowed. The Promise Keepers is a right-wing Christian group that bans women and preaches that man is the boss. Our writer joined up and found out it’s not as good as it sounds.”; “Pigs in Space. Picture Yourself Here? Don’t count on it- only about 20 percent of astronauts are women. But that beats the years when John Glenn helped to keep us completely out. Some Hero.”; “Sex Can Make You Nervous. He’s supposed to be the stiff one, not you. If you’ve got performance anxiety, turn the page and calm yourself.”; “I Went Undercover as A White Supremacist. The Aryan Nations is a racist, hate-filled world where white males dominate. Paige Jarrett attends the World Congress to try to find out why any woman in her right mind would join.” JANE was smart, and provocative and challenged its readers to be the same. It’s sad to think that so many of these topics are still “current” events twenty years later…

SPD: Do you know now who the creatives were?:
TPL: JANE PRATT, Editor-In-Chief; EDWARD LEIDA, Design Director; CARY ESTES LEITZES, Photo Editor; ELIZABETH RODRIGUEZ, Art Director.

Joe Rodriguez, Senior Associate Photo Editor at People and Entertainment Weekly

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Joe Rodriguez: Growing up, my grandmother bought me subscriptions to tons of magazines.  I always read magazines. My love of magazines didn’t turn into a full-blown addiction until 2005, my junior year at the School of Visual Arts. That year, I took Sarah A. Friedman’s editorial photography class. Sarah knew I loved ESPN the Magazine and she just happened to create some of my favorite images that they’ve ever run. Sarah also helped me get an internship there. Following my internship, I was hired on and stayed for 6 years. Catriona Ni Aolain, the Director of Photography let me run wild! I was able to learn about how magazines worked, who did what, why and how the end product came about.

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To me, ESPN the Magazine is what a magazine should be: Big, shiny, beautiful, and full of information and opinions. It made me feel ready to debate anyone about the topics covered inside. But most importantly it is FULL OF AWESOME PORTRAITS. The Mag’s photography was always ahead of the curve. The portraits were always dynamic or when needed beautifully lit and quiet. I’d never seen a magazine that let photos breathe as much as ESPN did. For the first time, I saw an art department (led by then creative director Siung Tjia) show how design elements could interact with photographs without stifling them or sometimes making up for a lackluster photograph altogether.

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