Category Archives: Magazines

Freight Trainz


Fumez

Starting out life as a black & white affair during the nineties Fumez has been given a fresh lease of life. Issue 1 of the newly released publication is now a full colour, slender looking, magazine roughly about A5 size. The cover of the mag proudly states that there are “over 100 photos” within. Considering its size, this amount of content could’ve resulted in small poor quality images. However the editor has done a good job in ensuring that the photographs are all nicely sized and of a high quality. Listing nine contributors Fumez covers nearly three decades of freight graffiti up to the present day.

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A Lifeline

Henkireikä frontcover

Henkireikä is a recently released magazine hailing from Sweden. The publication brings together some of the vibrant work of the graffiti artist Rikard Olsen. Working on the idea of a blackbook it is designed to display his work in a form that can be physically distributed. Olsen describes the painting of his work as a breathing-space or even a lifeline. At some time, during a conversation with a friend about art, Olsen came across the Finnish word Henkireikäwhich translates as something similar to the process of Olsen’s graffiti. With family ties to that country it seemed an obvious title for his first foray into publishing.

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Illicit Activity

Podpolie

Belarus is the European anomaly that the rest of the continent views as its ‘last dictatorship’. Although it’s recently been in the news most people, including myself, know little about this country and its culture. So it’s interesting to come across a new magazine that attempts to remedy this. Podpolie, which roughly translates as ‘illicit activity’, is the first and only publication to focus on the scene in this far-flung part of Eastern Europe.

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A ‘New Dawn’?

The Sane magazine Tokyo

On a recent trip to Japan a friend brought back a copy of Sane magazine. Based in Tokyo it’s apparently one of only three graff mags from the country. It begins with an introduction explaining the effects graffiti can have on an individual level which boils down to a hard lesson in the value of “effort and persistence. It nurtures the ability to see the core of things and the ways of society which we are not taught at school.” However the aim of Sane isn’t to delve into “the possibility of graffiti itself or its essentiality” but, on a more aesthetic level, to display great works of art. In fact the increasing popularity of large scale murals is described as a ‘new dawn’ awaiting graffiti.

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The Law of the Street

Writing Hessisch 3

The third issue of Writing Hessisch magazine has recently been released and this latest addition is as good as ever. Once again the format has been tweaked slightly so that the magazine returns to a similar layout as in Issue 1. The work of several individual writers is presented over short sections while in-between the atmospheric ‘Yellow Light’ essays make a comeback. All this is followed with a fascinating look at abstract-graffiti, and then finally the magazine ends with a bit of urban field-archeology.

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100% Straße

Gossenpost Nr.1

Although tagging is generally seen as the ugly face of graff, both by those outside and sometimes even within the graffiti subculture, it’s essentially graffiti in its purest form. Unfortunately there’s not too many magazines that focus purely on tags, street bombing, and filthy walls. So it’s really good to see a new mag out that unapologetically presents this sort of grime. This is the first issue of Gossenpost or to give its translation; ‘the Gutter Paper’.

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Comparatively Speaking

I recently got hold of two nice magazines that have come out this year. The first of them is Schönz Züri, which comes from Switzerland and is dedicated to the scene in Zurich, while the second is a French mag called Boogie Woogie which focuses purely on freights. Although they both mainly concentrate on trains the two publications are actually very different from each other. So first I’ll describe each one to give an idea of what they’re about and then end with a brief comparison of the two.

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From Bristol to Prague and Beyond

'Nothin but Tags', Unnamed, and Guide Zines

I have lately got a few zines which I thought I’d review together in one go. ‘Nothing but Tags’, Guide, and another magazine that has no title. In some ways the three are quite similar. They’re fairly low key, contain no descriptive text or introductions, are similar in size and format, and hover around the same price range. However all three also have a different and specific focus to each other.

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The Root of All Evil

AuriSacraFames

Only a the most unobservant tourist could be in Berlin and fail to notice the graff. And even then they’d probably find themself clattering into piles of empty spray tins as they traversed their way across the city. My point is that graffiti is as much a part of modern Berlin life as currywurst is. Now, it may well be possible to find a publication based around the local wurst scene but more interestingly for me there is a publication that represents Berlin’s graffiti. Auri Sacra Fames is a magazine that comes highly recommended, although until now I’ve not had the pleasure. The title of the magazine is actually Latin and translates as something like ‘hunger for gold’. At first glance the publication looks like it’s purely focused on trains but in actual fact it has a broader content. For this review I’ve got my hands on all four issues that have been published to date so first off I’ll describe the content of the latest copy and then compare it to the earlier ones.

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