Purple (magazine)
Encyclopedia
History
In 1992, Elein Fleiss and Olivier ZahmOlivier Zahm
Olivier Zahm is the founder and owner of the French fashion and culture magazine Purple.-Career:Olivier Zahm worked as a freelance arts journalist contributing to Artforum, Flash Art, Art Press and Texte Zur Kunst during the 1980s and early 1990s.Zahm is an art curator and has selected exhibitions...
started the magazine Purple Prose as a reaction against the superficial glamour of the 1980’s
1980s in fashion
In the 1970s, the silhouette of fashion tended to be characterized by close fitting clothes on top with wider, looser clothes on the bottom. This trend completely reversed itself in the early 1980s as both men and women began to wear looser shirts and tight, close-fitting trousers.Men wore power...
; much as a part of the global counterculture at the time, inspired by magazines like Interview
Interview (magazine)
Interview is an American magazine which has the nickname The Crystal Ball Of Pop. It was founded in late 1969 by artist Andy Warhol. The magazine features intimate conversations between some of the world's biggest celebrities, artists, musicians, and creative thinkers...
, Ray Gun
Ray Gun (magazine)
Ray Gun was an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine, first published in 1992 in Santa Monica, California. Led by founding art director David Carson, Ray Gun explored experimental magazine typographic design. The result was a chaotic, abstract style, not always readable, but distinctive in...
, Nova, and Helmut Newton’s Illustrated, but with the aesthetics of what usually is referred to as anti-fashion. Based on their personal interests and views; Purple was, and in a sense still is, made much in the same spirit of the fanzine
Fanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
. The magazine quickly became associated with the "realism" of the new fashion photography of the 1990’s, with names like Juergen Teller
Juergen Teller
Juergen Teller is an artist and fashion photographer.-Life and career:Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich, Germany...
, Terry Richardson
Terry Richardson
Terrence "Terry" Richardson is an American fashion photographer.-Early life:Richardson was born in New York City, the son of Bob Richardson, a fashion photographer who struggled with schizophrenia and drug abuse...
, Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans
Wolfgang Tillmans is a German Fine-art photographer and artist. His comprehensive and diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. In 2000, Tillmans was the first photographer and also the first...
, and Mario Sorrenti
Mario Sorrenti
Mario Sorrenti is a photographer and director best known for his spreads of nude models in the pages of Vogue and Harper's Bazaar....
.
In the introduction of the Purple Anthology, Zahm writes:
In 2004 it divided into Purple Fashion published by Purple Institute based in Paris and New York, and Purple Journal, published by Les Editions Purple, based in Paris. On February 16th the first installation of Purple Fashion's new online presence was launched. http://purple-diary.com can be considered as the extension of the magazine but as a digital voice that offers immediate access to the world of Purple — including Olivier Zahm’s personal pictures as well as a look into the next issue of the magazine.
The art director of Purple Prose and Purple Fashion was Christophe Brunnquell
Christophe Brunnquell
Christophe Brunnquell is a French art director, and artist.-Biography:Brunnquell started working as an art director for Encore magazine after graduating from high school. After being interviewed by Olivier Zahm and Elein Fleiss for Purple magazine, they hired Brunnquell as art director from...
until 2006, when he was succeeded by M/M Paris
M/M Paris
M/M is an art and design partnership consisting of Mathias Augustyniak and Michael Amzalag , established in Paris in 1992....
.
Offspring publications
Fleiss & Zahm’s collaboration has resulted in many side projects over the years:| Purple Prose published from October 1992 to winter 1998 (13 issues). | |
| Purple Fiction a literary magazine published between 1995 and 1998 (4 issues). | |
| Purple Fashion published between 1995 - 1998 (4 issues), and 2004 - (present). | |
| Purple Sexe a magazine devoted to sexuality, published between winter 1998 and 2001 (8 issues). The magazine was reborn as an one-off appendix for Purple Fashion Fall/Winter 2008/09, dedicated to Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi Rocco Siffredi Rocco Siffredi is the stage name of an Italian pornographic actor, director and producer of pornographic movies, famous for his rough sex scenes... . | |
| Purple a fusion of Purple Prose, Fiction, Fashion, and Sexe; published between summer 1998 and 2003 (16 issues). | |
| Purple Books a publishing house (1998 - 2001) | |
| Purple Gallery a Parisian art gallery | |
| Purple Journal a cultural magazine published 2004 - (present) in a French and an English version. |
Since 2004, Purple is divided in two different publications; Purple Fashion magazine (edited by Olivier Zahm and published by Purple Institute) and Purple Journal (edited by Elein Fleiss and Sébastien Jamain, published by Les Editions Purple).
Purple Fashion’s artist’s books
Since its second issue, each number of Purple Fashion comes with an artist’s book:No.2 – Terry Richardson
Terry Richardson
Terrence "Terry" Richardson is an American fashion photographer.-Early life:Richardson was born in New York City, the son of Bob Richardson, a fashion photographer who struggled with schizophrenia and drug abuse...
: Terry
No.3 – Richard Prince
Richard Prince
Richard Prince is an American painter and photographer. Prince began appropriating photographs in 1975...
: The Hippie drawings
No.4 – Hedi Slimane
Hedi Slimane
Hedi Slimane is a French fashion designer of Tunisian, Italian-Brazilian origins. He studied political sciences , and Art History at the École du Louvre, and was also educated as a tailor...
: Interzone
No.5 – Juergen Teller
Juergen Teller
Juergen Teller is an artist and fashion photographer.-Life and career:Teller studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie in Munich, Germany...
: Ed in Japan
No.6 – Rita Ackermann
Rita Ackermann
Rita Ackermann is a Hungarian-American artist.-Early life and education:Rita Ackermann was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1968.Ackermann trained at the University of Fine Arts Budapest from 1989 until 1992...
: Good morning New York
No.7 – Helmut Lang
Helmut Lang
Helmut Lang may refer to:* Helmut Lang , Austrian-born fashion designer and artist* Helmut Lang , brand created by Helmut Lang in 1986...
: Selective memory series
No.8 – Dash Snow
Dash Snow
Dashiel "Dash" Snow was an American artist, based in New York.-Life:Dashiel A. Snow was born in 1981, the son of Taya Thurman and Christopher Snow...
: You can't drink it if it's frozen
No.9 – Christophe Brunnquell
Christophe Brunnquell
Christophe Brunnquell is a French art director, and artist.-Biography:Brunnquell started working as an art director for Encore magazine after graduating from high school. After being interviewed by Olivier Zahm and Elein Fleiss for Purple magazine, they hired Brunnquell as art director from...
: Annees Erotiques
No.10 – Harmony Korine
Harmony Korine
The story is told from the perspective of a young man suffering from untreated schizophrenia, played by Ewen Bremner, as he tries to understand his deteriorating world. Julien's abusive father is played by Werner Herzog...
: Pigxtras
No.11 – Marlene Marino: Cuba 2009
No.12 – Ari Marcopoulos
Ari Marcopoulos
Ari Marcopoulos is an Amsterdam-born photographer and filmmaker, living and working in New York and California. As a photographer, film artist and adventurist, Marcopoulos, who began his career in New York City assisting Andy Warhol, transplants himself into the intimate lives of people living...
: Debris
No.13 – Aurel Schmidt: Pussy
No.14 – Vincent Darre: Vincent
External links
- Official website of Purple magazine
- Official website of Purple
- An extract from the new book Purple Years (Onestar Press) by Jeff Rian
- "Orion Giret, Defacement of Public Art as Art" - a defense of vandalising public art, in purpleDIARY.