Sara Andreasson, illustrator
Last week we took a close look at the latest issue of Sweden’s BBY magazine, a fantastic and lively publication produced by illustrator Sara Andreasson alongside her close friend and curator Josefine Hardstedt. As we’re also huge fans of Sara’s drawings, we asked her if we could take a look at her magazine collection as well.
For this week’s ‘Issues’, Sara selected three publications for us: a new one, an old one, and a detail from a magazine that she thinks is great.
A new issue: The Happy Reader #6
I know this isn’t the most original thing to say, but I do love The Happy Reader. As a Swede and a huge Selma Lagerlöf fan I just couldn’t stop myself from grabbing a copy of the latest issue, which centers around The Saga of Gösta Berling.
Reading about a story that is so deeply rooted in the Swedish culture, as well as more internationally known phenomena like IKEA and the alcohol monopoly, from an outsider’s perspective was truly fascinating. All of these familiar things suddenly seemed so peculiar. Having falling madly in love with the format, I bought all of the back issues I could get my hands on.
I have never been an obsessive collector of anything, but if anyone knows where I can find issue three, please let me know.
An old issue: OEI #53-54/2011
Despite its appearance OEI actually is a magazine. And quite an interesting one too. But what excites me the most about this particular issue has nothing to do with its content but rather the size of it and the social ramifications of producing such an enormous stack of paper.
So here’s the thing. To be granted financial support from the Swedish Arts Council, a magazine has to release at least four issues per year. One way to hack the system is obviously to make double issues, which is precisely what OEI did. Their usual page count is quite admirable – but over 1200 pages is something else.
They created this monster of a magazine and it would be incredibly expensive to ship, so they came up with a cheaper alternative – they deliver the magazines in person. Luckily, many of their readers were, as the editorial team themselves, based in Stockholm at the time. But of course not all of their subscribers lived within driving distance, so what they did next was to map out exactly where there were clusters of readers and to host events in these cities, as an excuse to hand out the magazines and also meet their readers. Fun!
And Another thing: Editorial Magazine
Montreal based photographer Rebecca Storm has been a BBY favorite ever since the very beginning. First we found her work, and then we found the magazine of which she is the in-house photographer – Editorial Magazine, one of the many all-female magazines that has had a massive influence on us.
My first reaction to this spread was pure envy. Firstly, the narcissistic freak inside me has always wanted a 3D mockup of herself. Just imagine having a 2016 version of the Cher Horowitz Dress-Me game! Such a timesaver. And secondly, why didn’t we come up with that idea in the first place? Brilliantly fun.
http://magculture.com/bby-2/