Middle Plane #5
Many magazines address the ties between art and fashion, but Middle Plane explores that relationship in a unique way, presenting images that reflect the life and work of a single artist. It’s a concept that means the magazine changes drastically issue by issue.
As editor-in-chief Roni Monhait told us a while back, ‘The process involves a lot of studying and researching, which we love doing.’
For this fifth issue, they chose David Hockney as their inspiration. We asked the magazine’s India Birgitta Jarvis to select five images that demonstrate both how the British artist inspired the magazine team, and how rich and varied the resulting publication is.
One
‘We drew more on Hockney’s image than we have with our artists in previous issues, after all he has such a recognisable look. In this story we were thinking about Hockney’s assertion that ‘blondes have more fun’. There was a Clairol TV advert which had quite an impact on him, and he started bleaching his hair after he saw it.’
Photographer: Sam Rock
Photography Assistant: Sammy Khoury
Casting Director: Mollie Dendle, Mini Title
Hair Stylist: Anthony Turner, Streeters
Hair Assistant: Harriet Beidleman
Production: Art + Commerce
Two
‘Visual artist Paul Elliman worked with found imagery for this story exploring Hockney’s frequent themes of male form and sexuality. This series includes images from different print publications that Paul has collected over the years, and uses to present interesting textures, crops and juxtapositions.’
By Paul Elliman
Three
‘This comes from a story by the Dutch artistic duo Blommers & Schumm, who made actual physical ‘collages’ out of everyday objects and fashion and accessories by Bottega Veneta.
The end results are wonderful reimaginings of Hockney’s portraits and famous iPad drawings of flowers. Hockney said ‘I draw flowers every day and send them to friends, so they get fresh flowers every morning. And my flowers last.’ There are also some amazing behind the scenes videos of the builds that you can see on our Instagram.’
Photographers: Blommers & Schumm
Production: Mini-Title
Fashion: All by Bottega Veneta Wardrobe 03
Four
‘Pools are probably Hockney’s best known and loved artistic theme, and this issue includes some beautiful archival work from various photographers who have also worked around the subject, taken in different years and locations internationally.’
Photographer: Nina Barnett
Boonville, Missouri. The Swim Team. 1986
Five
‘Another of Hockney’s themes: domestic spaces, and people within them. This archival work from Martin Parr’s book Sign of the Times: A Portrait of the Nation’s Tastes (1992) is such a brilliant example of work exploring this same theme, and the photographs and their titles are so playful. It’s based on a BBC television series of the same name which examines the interiors of British homes in the early 90s. It’s a really fun series with which to open the issue.’
Photographer: Martin Parr
‘I've only started showing an interest in the house since we got engaged. Before it was his house and his problem really.’ 1991. From the book ‘Sign of the Times: A Portrait of the Nation’s Tastes’ by Martin Parr, 1992. Published by Cornerhouse. Courtesy of: The Martin Parr Foundation and Magnum Photos
Editor-in-chief Roni Monhait
Art director Bruce Usher