Fantastic Man’s unexpected cover story on the surfers and fisherman of Peniche, Portugal

Date
17 October 2017

Each season as a new issue of Fantastic Man is released, conversation ensues around who it has chosen for its cover. What the publication has always done — whether it be featuring Bryan Ferry, Christopher Waltz or Jeremy Deller — is choose someone you wouldn’t quite expect but equally someone you adore, or will do once you’ve finished reading. However, the most recent cover features five men we would be surprised if you recognise: five male surfers from Peniche, Portugal. 

The current issue follows the theme of union and its cover story does so with warmth. “With this issue it was very clear what we wanted to do,” creative director Jop van Bennekom tells It’s Nice That. “We wanted to go to existing communities and work with people, photographing people together.” As a result, the cover feature groups together “a happy jumble” of fisherman and surfers, with “a penchant for ruggedly flamboyant dressing,” a take on masculinity that displays the magazine’s initial roots 26 issues in. “We started with the idea of making magazines about men, involving fashion in support of the person and that was a very new approach,” Jop explains. “The cover since has been someone really iconic, and we were a little bored with it ourselves. But we didn’t just want a cover that reads fashion, I don’t think that’s right for us.”  

Consequently the cover disperses fashion into a natural, useful setting. Styled by Agata Belcen, each model wears a mix of designer clothes and their own wardrobe. A list of designers, (Kenzo, Givenchi and Jil Sander for instance,) sit at the side of page proudly with the end sentence: “All caps, crocs, socks, and rubber trousers are fisherman’s own.” In applying this thoughtful approach, the feature strikes a balance “with personal style which is sort of fashion infused and that makes the image actually better,” Jop explains. 

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Fantastic Man: Crews shot by Mark Peckmezian

He’s right. Not only do the clothes appear refined but they look wearable, comfortable while still matching their designer label. The models in turn are actually having fun, it’s a shoot that makes you wish you were there enjoying it with them, a rarity in a high-end publication. “The whole story is just a very jolly trip to a place where men maybe look stylish, but you really feel that the way they look has a relationship to who they are, what kind of work they do and how they are interacting with each other.” On asking Jop if the fisherman and surfers needed convincing he explains, “They were really up for it! Everybody was comfortable with posing, it was so relaxed they were quite laid back…On Facebook they’re all photographing the magazine, we sent them a couple of issues and that’s really fun.”

This jolliness is captured by photographer Mark Peckmezian, a frequent contributor to Fantastic Man, its sister publication The Gentlewoman and literary sibling, The Happy Reader. Introduced to Mark’s work by Agata for a shoot in the first issue of The Happy Reader, Jop was drawn to the photographer’s technical ability to shoot at “night or at dusk using flash in this kind of punk way,” he says. Regular shoots with Mark have followed over the past few years, working closely with the publication’s fashion editor-at-large, Jodie Barnes. “He’s started to do more and more fashion things, but I do think he has a very a special eye, a very special talent for men, and there’s not many photographers that have that. The stories he’s done for Fantastic Man have been really, really successful and go back straight to the let’s say DNA of Fantastic Man, which a lot of times is about playing with masculinity, about having fun with it.” 

Choosing to have an unknown group of men after a string of icons is a brave decision for a publication at any stage of its print life. Jop explains that the choice of cover star is “the cliffhanger for every season,” but for this issue in particular “we were like let’s not commission a cover and just see what surfaces”. What materialised gave them lots of options, an interview with Perfume Genius, a large profile, again shot by Mark, on film director Luca Guadagnino and a similar photographically led feature in Alaska. “Because this issue was themed we were very inspired, so we thought lets go with this issue where there’s multiple men on the cover,” says Jop. “The image itself is quite unique. It’s a little goofy. It poses questions like is this a band? Is it a football team? What exactly is going on in this image?” 

Overall, it is most exciting to see Fantastic Man take an unexpected but still familiar turn 12 years since it launched. “I think again as I’ve said, it was something we’ve always wanted to achieve in magazines, finding that balance between personality and style or fashion. Sometimes, someone gets it really right in a very particular way and I think Mark really nailed that with this issue, that’s one of the reasons why it’s the cover.”

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Fantastic Man: Crews shot by Mark Peckmezian

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Fantastic Man: Crews shot by Mark Peckmezian

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Fantastic Man: Crews shot by Mark Peckmezian

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Fantastic Man: Crews shot by Mark Peckmezian

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About the Author

Lucy Bourton

Lucy (she/her) is the senior editor at Insights, a research-driven department with It's Nice That. Get in contact with her for potential Insights collaborations or to discuss Insights' fortnightly column, POV. Lucy has been a part of the team at It's Nice That since 2016, first joining as a staff writer after graduating from Chelsea College of Art with a degree in Graphic Design Communication.

lb@itsnicethat.com

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