Today on C41 Magazine we host a special feature by Francesca Spiller, founder of Reading Room, “a new space in Milan entirely dedicated to the dissemination and understanding of independent magazines”. Every month, more or less, we will discover the best printed issues from our favourite publishers. Enjoy.
Closing Ceremony Magazine is a publishing project by Same Paper (@samepaper), a Shanghai-based self-publishing studio, which has published photo books for several photographers, such as Magic by KangHee Kim, Food Issue by Ren Hang and Toothbrushes by Maxime Guyon.
“It’s a closing ceremony when pressing the shutter for creation”, Closing Ceremony’s founders say of the idea behind its name. The magazine is both a celebration of traditional photography and a platform for new photographers who might or might not get market recognition yet to present their works on printing and create a dialogue with the world.
The début issue was about street photography, while the second issue of Closing Ceremony Magazine is about Americano and presents, in a Not-Too-Serious narrative, the observation of contemporary America and American Photography in a relatively relaxing context. It features 10 contributing photographers: Buck Ellison, Charlie Engman, Chris Maggio, Eva O’Leary, Gregory Halpern, Matthew Connors, Peter Sutherland, Pixy Liao, Sophie Tianxin Chen, Torbjørn Rødland, along with an essay written by Joël Vacheron, articles written by Robin Peckham and Peng Ke.
Cover by Jinkui Zhou
Focus
Slipped inside every copy of the second issue, there’s an extra zine called ‘Amazine’. An homage to Amazon, Amazine is a reflection on US consumerism, and the way it infects the rest of the world. Every prop you see on these has been bought from Amazon, and then returned after the shoot, at no cost to the photographers or magazine-makers. The idea, explains Closing Ceremony’s director Xiaopeng Yuan, “Is to make creative use Amazon’s excellent returns policy”.
Double pages
