I have a new favourite magazine, for a few reasons. ‘Playboy’ for the articles ? ‘New York Review of Books’ for the photos ? Nope, it’s The Fader Magazine.

A few weeks back I was telephoned by the art director of Fader, (it was late evening NY time, he was fading out, early morning Tokyo time, I was fading in..), he wished to know if it were possible to print some of my roma photos in an upcoming issue about “people who live on the edge”, and the roma most certainly do. So in Issue 46, May/June 2007 issue, (available now in all good books stores, news stands etc, including in Japan), you can find a 10 page article about my portraits of roma that I shot in Romania in 1993-94. (Two of the 5 spreads are above).

But apart from the obvious, why am I now a fan of the magazine you ask? Well, firstly, the three people of Fader Mag who I dealt with in the run up to this article were all very professional and courteous and a pleasure to work with. They called when they said they would, they emailed me back if I wrote, they asked intelligent questions during the interview, they’d done their research, and from an art direction point of view it was only the second time in my career when I have been consulted as to my preferences for picture usage, image layout, design etc. Very nice. Thank you very much Fader Mag.

Second reason is for their use of photography, typography and design. Pictures are used well, given space, treated with respect and not crushed into a corner somewhere. The typography is imaginative, well used, adds to the feel of the articles, it isn’t just a headline. It is one of the first magazines for a while where I’ve been interested in picking it up to look at the typography and design, (DestinAsian being another, which has involvement from a great magazine designer Tom Brown).

Third reason.., the photography Fader uses seems not to be only about music, youth, urban dj’s and sneakers. Sure there seems to be a lot of that, but in other issues that I was emailed there was also great imagery by Stephen Dupont from both Afghanistan (Issue 45, ‘Blink of An Eye’), and work in a previous issue on the Raskols gangs of Port Moresby, which I wrote about previously on this blog. In this new and current issue there are other photo stories also about people living on the edge,… including a great shot on page 124, by Aaron Huey, of a child wearing a mask…

I recommend you check out the magazine, available in culture/music sections of newsagent magazine racks. But if you live in a far flung place where Fader doesn’t fit on the shelf, then truth be told you can also download the whole issue, every page, every ad, every Sutton-Hibbert pic, as a pdf, from here, and also from the Fader Magazine podcasts section of iTunes Music Store. And I think in a few days or weeks, there will be an accompanying podcast of the issue (going by previous issues). But if you find it in your shops you should buy it, always good to support good publications which use photography well, and I’m not just talking about my pics.