Purple #44: Analog

Purple has morphed a fair bit since its 1992 inception as a rejoinder to all that late-80s airbrushed glamour and fashion fromage. The significantly smaller Purple Prose gained some serious heft and took the fashion bull by the horns in the ensuing decades, dropping the ‘prose’ and growing not just in terms of scale and pages, but in its significance among the heavyweight bi-annuals. Now, 30 years on, the magazine has established itself as a modern classic, with the cover sporting a new typeface inspired by experimental 60s photography magazine Provoke.

This Fall/Winter 2025 issue is Purple’s ode to analog; framed as a meta and comprehensive exploration of physical media, it is a testament to the adage ‘the medium is the message’, quoted in Olivier Zahm’s introduction to the issue. More a rejection of the pervasive digitisation of modern society than a romanticisation of eras past, every few pages introduces a new key figure, cult artist, cultural movement, critical thinker, or archival ephemera relating to the layered history of print and other tactile mediums.

Dotted throughout the issue, you’ll find the refrain ‘why analog?’, answered by excerpts taken from the musings and work of David Lynch, Thomas Lelu, James Cameron, Isamu Noguchi, Robert Montgomery, Marguerite Duras, Brian Eno and more. Further highlights include an introduction to the controversial anarchist writer and poet Hakim Bey’s conceptualisation of ‘Immediatisim’; collages by the iconic downtown artist Dash Snow; a series of close up portraits by Dusseldorf School graduate Thomas Ruff; new work by Nan Goldin, documenting marble bodies; plus interviews with Willy Chavarria and art directors Harri Peccinotti and David Carson, of Nova and Raygun notoriety respectively.

With plenty more in between and eight covers to choose from, as well as an additional hardbound supplement exploring the ‘two beautiful, brutal cities’ of Venice and New York.