A world of pain: Sixteen Journal's latest issue

Date
24 November 2017

Across the western world, the number sixteen signifies a coming of age: a numerical signifier of the transition from youth to young adulthood. Sixteen Journal may only be in its second issue, but the publication already seems to have hit its stride. Committing to exploring “the notions of emotionality, human form and time”, Sixteen gives searingly talented established and emerging photographers a space to explore their practise.

Where issue one was a triumph in monochrome, a how-to in carefully constructed immediately classic photography, issue two is altogether a more complicated affair. For the second issue, the publications’s founder Xavier Encinas asked seven visual artists to “interpret what we do not want to see or feel”. Taking the maudlin theme of “pain/suffering”, photographers including Sean & Seng, Chad Pitman, Misha Taylor, Jack Davison, Solve Sundsbo, Chadwick Tyler and Ali Michael traverse their emotions across the magazine’s pages. We caught up with Xavier to find out more.

Hi Xavier! What’s your creative background?

I have been working for the past 15 years as a creative in fashion and luxury. I started my career in Paris working as art director for Self Service magazines and its sister advertising agency Petronio Associates working closely with Ezra Petronio and Suzanne Koller. In parallel I was also art director for the British independent fashion publication Under the Influence magazine. I then work the French edition of Harpers Bazaar as leading Art Director. I then moved to London to work alongside Jefferson Hack as creative director for his boutique fashion advertising agency MAD, and then Dazed Media Studio. I am now creative director at Wednesday Agency, a global fashion and luxury advertising agency.

Why did you start Sixteen?

The desire to start Sixteen came from an observation I made a few years ago in regards to the contemporary landscape in photography as well as the way artistic work was commissioned. I’ve been working in fashion and luxury as a creative for the past 15 years from editorial to advertising, and I wanted to create a space where commercial photographers could express their vision and craft without the constraint of the fashion business, while still retaining the same approach, meaning the beauty element of the fashion imagery. I also wanted create a platform where photographers could investigate emotionality and human condition on a philosophical level through imagery. The commissioning process is as important as the final result, the Journal. The photographers and I have many conversations on the theme and what it means for them, sometimes for more than a year. I am very much interested in the value of the exchange we have. At the very beginning, Sixteen was supposed to be a fictional space where I would commission work but never publish it, it would just exist as private archive. Sixteen is a laboratory where we experiment through the medium of photography.

Can you tell us a bit about the team behind the publication?

We are a very small team that operates very organically. It is composed of our art director Brianna Ho, Laurence Ellis editor-at-large, Romuald Stivine editor-at-large and development director; and myself, creative Ddirector.

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The second issue is themed “pain/suffering”. Can you tell us about the decision behind that?

The decision to look into “Pain/suffering” came quite naturally. I felt this topics has rarely been investigated by photographers besides of course war photographers or artists like Antoine D’agata or even Araki, but never really through the lens of photographers working in fashion. Also, I really believe pain is an emotion we’re trying not to face by fear. So I wanted the artists and I to confront it. And also show that it is an integral part of all the emotions we experience everyday of our lives.

How do you see issues one and two connecting or intersecting?

Sixteen Volume One was an introduction of the what the platform stands for. There wasn’t any specific theme, the idea was to look into all our emotions. Volume Two, really is the first instalment of the longer journey. Visually speaking we wanted something that will feel connected but yet different. So we kept the same format almost the same number of pages (28 instead of 24) but instead black and white images we commissioned only colour. But we needed a thread that will hold all the images together since the series are broken up in single images. The colour red felt the appropriate answer. Something the photographers will use but in their own way: Sometimes through an object in the image or a colour cast. I think that really keeps the visual journey seamlessly connected.

How did you go about connecting with photographers for each issue?

For working in the fashion industry for a long time now, I am naturally part of a community of very talented artists. All the photographers that have worked with Sixteen are either friends, people have been working with in the past, or simply talent that I admire. Although this is not the only reason they are part of the adventure, we carefully select them knowing that they will be able to translate that search for authenticity.

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About the Author

Bryony Stone

Bryony joined It's Nice That as Deputy Editor in August 2016, following roles at Mother, Secret Cinema, LAW, Rollacoaster and Wonderland. She later became Acting Editor at It's Nice That, before leaving in late 2018.

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