Fantom magazine – Issue 06 Winter 2011

From Milano, Italy, via the Boiler corporation, aka Fantom Editions, comes a very smart photography magazine. It has the heft and feel of a stiff cover photobook and beautiful printed in Italy (Frafiche Antiga). What I had not realized is that Fantom Editions was also publishing photobooks, one of which, Charolette Dumas’s Al Lavoro! which I expect to review later this year.

Unlike a photobook, this like other magazines of its kind, provide either a board retrospective sampling of a photographers work, such as the Joel Meyerowitz interview by Giorgio Barrera, an interview with a photographer regarding a recent project, such as the Marc Feustel interview (conversation) with Hans-Christian Schink or perhaps a portfolio sampling, as in this case, the portfolios of Jessica Labatte, Ra di Martino and Irina Polin.

The magazine has an interesting cadence, moving from portfolio to discussion while photographs form another portfolio (Pop-Up) suddenly appear. The photographic work that is brought into the pages has a very broad breath and aesthetic feel, with a myriad of conceptual challenges for the reader. nice.

There is a minimum of advertising, which in this case is all relegated to the back of the magazine, resulting in some very dense content. The magazine is published entirely in English and I hope that you can find in on a news stand (art photography magazine rack) near you.

By Douglas Stockdale