Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Thinking, and Literally Looking, Very Big

VISIONAIRE | HOME

VISIONAIRE is a multi-format album of fashion and art produced in exclusive numbered limited editions. Since its inception in the Spring of 1991, Visionaire has ...


Thinking, and Literally Looking, Very Big

Larry Busacca/Getty Images

Cecilia Dean, one of the three co-founders of Visionaire magazine, flipping through the pages of the latest issue, which holds a Guinness record as the world's biggest magazine. It measures 6 feet high and 4.8 feet wide.

PARIS — Imagine Lady Gaga, her slender figure so elongated that she would cover half the width of a road, as measured by her image on the cover of a giant magazine.

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Inez & Vinoodh/Visionaire

Lady Gaga on the cover of the "Larger Than Life" Visionaire magazine.

Of all the performer's covers, this Visionaire production, with its photograph of a slinky, shimmering mermaid Gaga with a tar-covered fish tail, has to be the most flamboyant. The magazine is two meters high and 1.5 meters wide, or 6 feet high and 4.8 feet wide — so large that it has just entered history in the Guinness Book of World Records.

A magazine? Aren't those paper productions supposed to be going the way of the dodo, an endangered species in the era of the Internet?

Cecilia Dean, one of the three founders of Visionaire back in 1991, has reason to rejoice that the art/fashion combo is celebrating its 20th birthday in such good shape.

"Everyone keeps asking 'Is print dead?' It's been the question of the moment for last five years," Ms. Dean said. "Print is not dead. But it has to evolve. The challenge for a magazine is to create real physical experience for their audience. Visionaire makes more sense now than it did before."

The editor and her founding colleagues, Stephen Gan and James Kaliardos, saw the magazine as an interactive experience long before the era of cyberspace. Issues on the subject of "smell" and "taste" literally offered those opportunities to the readers.

When Karl Lagerfeld, as guest editor, helped to develop the tasting issue, a glass vial of liquid re-created the warm smell of freshly baked bread from Paris. To take the concepts past striking visuals, there was a collaboration with International Flavors and Fragrances that included scent strips to accompany the images of the London artist Gary Hume.

"The painting depicted life, so the taste was fertile soil about to blossom," Ms. Dean said. "If there is too much water it tastes like a bog. Too dry and it is like the desert: sand with no fertility. Every morning my desk had taste strips and gel tabs that melt on the tongue. And the issue came out with packets like that."

Other issues pushing the boundaries of print included a battery-operated "light" magazine, and an issue that had a tray of 10 toys. Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons was the first guest editor, in 1996, with the magazine covered in her signature checked muslin fabric.

Visionaire was as much a student start-up as Facebook. Ms. Dean, a graduate in English and French literature; Mr. Gan, a multitasker who had been creative director and visualizer of Details magazine; and Mr. Kaliardos, who had just left Parsons school of design and was fascinated by makeup and beauty, got together to found what was then a revolutionary meld of art and fashion. But for all its imaginative content, it was still physically a classic magazine.

"When we started in 1991 it is just crazy to think it was pre-Blackberry, pre-Internet, pre-Google and desktop," Ms. Dean said. "It was a completely different world. We were offering a forum for fashion photographers and illustrators to show their personal work. They were not accepted in art galleries, didn't have Internet, publishing their own books was expensive and the landscape was very commercial. Yet all these people had personal work tucked in a drawer." As a model working with photographers like Peter Lindbergh, Mario Testino and Ellen von Unworth, the would-be editor knew that personal work would be carried out after the photo shoot. That was then the source of creative and unpublished work.

"Artists now are so busy and paid so much money, we have to come to them with such a fun idea that it piques creative juices and they will make time for you," Ms. Dean said.

Since the early days, photographers have been honored to collaborate on projects — not least Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, who did the Gaga image. The Gaga issue, "Larger Than Life," comes at a price. The deluxe edition is limited to 250 and costs $1,500; the smaller version, more friendly to bookstore shelves, sells at $375.

Only the support from Africa, a Brazilian advertising and media agency and its colorful owner, Nizan Guanaes, allowed it to be produced.

For those who want the joy without the bucks, the Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris has just acquired a complete collection of Visionaires. Does Ms. Dean think of more areas to conquer, like moving images, now that Vmagazine and Vman have already been spun off from Visionaire? "There is no grand plan or mission statement," she said. "It has to be an organic project and anything creative has to come from a very personal place."

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: November 22, 2011

A previous version of this article misspelled the surname of a co-founder of Visionaire magazine. He is Stephen Gan, not Gann.

Connect with The New York Times on Facebook.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/fashion/22iht-fmagazine22.html

Visionaire Made the World's Biggest Magazine

The new issue of Visionaire boasts Lady Gaga dressed as a mermaid on the cover — the goth, black-tailed version of mermaid, naturally. But the biggernews relating to the issue is that, measuring 36 by 49.48 inches, it made theGuinness Book of World Records for the world's biggest magazine. Then, because they wanted to set the record a second time, they made a "deluxe" edition measuring 57.48 by 79 inches, which is going to be truly wonderful for all the terribly farsighted fashion and art enthusiasts out there who never get any love. To see what a magazine of that size looks like next to models, watch the neat video Visionaire made to illustrate their own literal magnitude.

Larger Than Life [Visionaire]

http://nymag.com/daily/fashion/2011/11/visionaire_made_the_worlds_big.html

Lady Gaga - Lady Gaga To Grace The Cover Of World's Largest Magazine

05 November 2011 14:55
Lady Gaga picture

Picture: Lady GaGa leaving her hotel London, England ....

Lady Gaga To Grace The Cover Of World's Largest Magazine

Lady Gaga is set to appear on the cover of the world's biggest magazine. Art magazine Visionaire's LARGER THAN LIFE issue will be an astounding 5 feet by 7 feet, with Lady Gaga featuring on both its front and back covers.

According to Billboard, the standard edition goes for $375 but the deluxe huge edition will run you a shocking $1500. Visionaire has already declared that that it has been certified by the Guiness World Records as being the largest magazine ever produced. With the photos being shot by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Lady Gaga appears as an oil-drenched mermaid. Gaga spoke about the shoot, stating that "there is no oil too thick as to destroy the imagination." Whilst the magazine has already broken size records, it is ironically not the most expensive. Nomenus Quarterly, a folio of unpublished images, has a price tag of $6,500. Carrying on her eccentric ways, Gaga was spotted in London this week holding a vintage parasol whilst also wearing sunglasses. According to The Daily Mail, she even gave the hotel doorman a cheeky kiss as she walked past.

Lady Gaga is set to perform on the results show of this week's X-Factor (6 Nov 2011). She is currently in the UK to promote the fifth single from her Sophomore album, 'Marry The Night', out now.


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World's Largest Magazine

Visionaire's No. 61 issue is being described as "larger than life"; breaking their own Guinness World Record for the world's largest magazine by releasing an issue that is 36 x 49.48 inches and a deluxe edition sizing up at 57.48 x 79 inches. Who better to cover the over-the-top issue than Lady Gaga? Renowned photographer duo, Inez and Vinoodh, shot Gaga for the front and back covers. According to Visionaire, Steven Meisel, Mario Sorrenti, Bruce Weber, Steven Klein and Karl Lagerfeld have also contributed to the issue. Have a look at the preview.

Like what you see? Order your issue here.

http://www.ology.com/fashion-and-beauty/worlds-largest-magazine

Visionaire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Visionaire is an art and fashion publication that has come out in limited, numbered editions three times a year since spring 1991. Each issue has a specific format and theme around which prominent artists, designers, photographers, and others guests edit the publication. The New Yorker called it a "gallery in print"[citation needed] and W called it "the couture version of a magazine."[citation needed]

The publication is one of only two still remaining out of a 1994 Vanity Fair list of 10 "upstart" magazines to watch, alongside Surface (magazine).[1]

Visionaire also has a monthly, wide-circulation magazine called V, edited by Stephen Gan, the focus of which is art, culture, and fashion. Contributors include Tama JanowitzMario TestinoMario SorrentiStephane Sednaoui and Karl Lagerfeld. Interview subjects have includedJoan DidionSalman Rushdie, and Norman Mailer.

In Fall 2003, Visionaire began publishing yet another magazine, titled VMAN, which aims specifically at the male audience. Its covers feature celebrity personalities such as Ryan GoslingJosh HartnettHayden Christensen, and David Beckham. VMAN magazine is published quarterly.

The magazine is sold at a starting price of $295 (£190 ca.) per issue. However, collectors are said to pay up to $5,000 (£3,500) for hard-to-find issues such as No. 18, which came in its own Louis Vuitton portfolio case.

In December 2007, Visionaire released an issue named Visionaire 53: Sound which comprises five 12" records featuring contributions from over 100 artists including David ByrneU2Michael StipeCourtney LoveLaurie AndersonCat PowerAdrockLee RanaldoAntony & the JohnsonsThurston Moore & Kim GordonMalcolm McLarenRyuichi SakamotoDavid SylvianAndrew W.K.Danger MouseYoko Ono,Cerith Wyn EvansHelmut LangChristian MarclayDoug AitkenRobert Wilson[disambiguation needed ]Gary HillSylvie FleuryVito AcconciMariko MoriCarl Michael Von HausswolffThe KnifeLittl'ansUNKLEAnimal CollectiveSunnO)))Gang Gang DanceDJ SpookyMiss KittinTrevor JacksonTowa TeiNigoHiroshi Fujiwara, as well as fashion designers Karl LagerfeldAlexander McQueen, andStefano Pilati, and many others.[2] The compilation is largely experimental, including spoken word pieces, sound collages, and various other short sound phrases.

[edit]Issues

  • 1. Spring
  • 2. Travel
  • 3. Erotica
  • 4. Heaven
  • 5. The Future
  • 6. The Sea
  • 7. Black
  • 8. The Orient
  • 9. Faces
  • 10. The Alphabet
  • 11. White
  • 12. Desire
  • 13. Seven Deadly Sins
  • 14. Hype!
  • 15. Cinderella
  • 16. Calendar
  • 17. Gold
  • 18. Fashion Special
  • 19. Beauty
  • 20. Comme Des Garcons
  • 21. Deck of Cards/Diamond
  • 22. Chic
  • 23. The Emperor's New Clothes
  • 24. Light
  • 25. Visionary
  • 26. Fantasy
  • 27. Movement
  • 28. The Bible
  • 29. Woman
  • 30. The Game
  • 31. Blue
  • 32. Where?
  • 33. Touch
  • 34. Paris
  • 35. Man
  • 36. Power
  • 37. Vreeland Memos
  • 38. Love
  • 39. Play
  • 40. Roses
  • 41. World (Special OnLine Feature)
  • 42. Scent (Special OnLine Feature)
  • 43. Dreams
  • 44. Toys
  • 45. More Toys
  • 46. Uncensored
  • 47. Taste
  • 48. Magic
  • 49. Decades
  • 50. Artist Toys
  • 51. Harmony
  • 52. Private
  • 53. Sound
  • 54. Sport
  • 55. Surprise
  • 56. Solar
  • 57. 2010
  • 58. Spirit
  • 59. Fairytale
  • 60. Religion
  • 61. Larger Than Life

[edit]References

  1. ^ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/28/LVG3V9UH0U1.DTL
  2. ^ Visionaire 53: Sound

[edit]External links

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