Issue No. 2 of RESPECT. is now available at bookstores and newsstands.
This is a magazine about beautiful photography.
That’s what Sally Berman, our photo editor, reminded me of as this second issue of RESPECT. began to lose focus. Sally’s the heart and soul of this mag, and raising our baby is nothing if not a village effort. Our new designer, Adam Levite, stepped in to shape our body, starting with a skeleton that came together piece by piece, not always in order and not always on time. Morgan Stone, our copy editor, dresses us up proper with communication etiquette, grammar and punctuation, making sure we leave the house looking like we had some home training. And our (mostly) fearless publisher, J.R., is our wheeling and dealing parental figure, making magic happen during high- powered, cigar-smoking meetings—playing the part of our “suit” without ever truly being one.
Me? I get stuck with being the voice, trying to draft a statement that represents us and our mission. I get the easy part. Easy because this magazine is not about us. It’s about beautiful photography—and getting it into your hands. We’re just a conduit; a sometimes stressed-out conduit, but a functional one at the end of the (elongated) publishing cycle. We don’t do it for the money, we don’t do it for the glory—we do it because sometimes life gets to be too much, and this is our gift of escapism, of inspiration, our nod to the creativity that’s worth a thousand words.
Every photographer in this issue stresses the idea of capturing the “moment,” revisiting the word repeatedly, holding it up for inspection until it becomes a meditation and philosophy in itself. And what, exactly, is this moment that we’re living in? Is it our own individual conversations with mortality and purpose, made all the louder when the earth shook and broke in Haiti, as we were set to begin our publishing cycle? Is it watching our shining knight of a president as the cracks in his armor begin to show, and his struggle to carry the weight of our hopes makes him seem fallible, defeatable, human? Or is it Apple Inc. guru Steve Jobs polishing off a shiny new toy that will undoubtedly, once again, change the way we interact with information, with each other, with the world?
We’re not sure. But we do know that this moment is all those things and more. And we also know that right now there are people behind shutters, documenting whatever it is that’s going on, catching the images that define an ever-changing world, bringing light to what we would not know existed without them. We thank them for being there. Without them, there is no way a magazine about beautiful photography could exist.
And we thank you. Because without you, we’d have no reason to exist.
With respect,
kris ex
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22 Comments
That’s The Part I don’t get They Say ONLY Available @ “Borders” and Barnes and Nobles” But now They are Saying Newsstands too?? so which one is it? and I’m asking That cause I’m dieing to Get This Specific issue and The Tupac one but i Can’t get The Right Info…..
Hi Alex, Issue 2 of RESPECT w/50 cent on the cover is available on newsstands and should be easy for you to find. Issue 1 w/Jay-Z and Tupac was only available in Barnes & Noble and Borders. I hope that clears things up. Thank you for the support!