'Of the Afternoon' Publishes the Photographers You Should Know About

If you really sat down and tried, you could turn a lot of pages in the space of 30 days. While we've spent over a decade providing you with about 120 of those pages every month, it turns out there are many more magazines in the world other than VICE. This new series, Ink Spots, is a helpful guide on which of those zines, pamphlets, and publications you should be reading when you're not staring at ours.

We know that Of the Afternoon founder Phil Anderson has good taste, because when he emailed us with some of the great photographers he's published, the problem was that VICE had published half of them too. The similarities end there however: Of the Afternoon is a magazine dedicated entirely to contemporary photography, and—now in its sixth issue—has put put the work of a bunch of new photographers, as well as the likes of Christian Patterson, Lorenzo Vitturi, Esther Teichmann, and Fred Huning. And to think, it was only started in Phil's dorm room back in 2012.

​We caught up with him to find out more about the mag.

VICE: How did the magazine get started?
​​Phil Anderson: Of the Afternoon started out as a blog a couple of years ago that I occasionally updated whilst in my while year of university; I was just posting work from photographers that inspired me at that time. I always wanted to eventually curate a show or release something physical, especially as the blog was becoming quite popular. This lead to printing the first issue which was a zine with a print run of 300. It sold out a few weeks after I released it. A few months later I released the second issue with a launch night in London, and it's gradually grown from there.

​What's an iconic photograph you remember seeing when you were younger that influenced your interest in photography?
​I remember being shown a copy of Claudine Doury's Artek book when I was in college and being in awe of her ability to connect with her subject and the level of trust that they had with her; there are some incredibly beautiful and intimate moments that she captured and her presence feels completely invisible to the viewer.
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​Tell me about your exhibitions.
​​So far we've had six exhibitions, which are also used to launch each new issue. Each takes place in London. We then exhibit the work the following week in Manchester or Leeds.

We made the decision early on for the exhibitions to be one night only, which always ensures a really good turnout—it's always good to catch up with everyone over a few drinks too.

How do you find the photographers that you feature?
​The first half of the magazine is made up of images that we've exhibited—these are submitted to us when we announce our call for entries and then curator Christine Santa Ana and I will look through each submission, with Christine then curating an exhibition around the selected work. We had over 5,000 images to look through last time, so it's one of the most time consuming aspects of running the magazine.

The second half of the magazine features more in-depth interviews with five or six photographers which I find from visiting exhibitions, coming across their photo books or being sent their portfolio. I generally look for work which is innovative and with a strong aesthetic.

What are the challenges of starting your own zine? And what's the secret to success in terms of turning it from a bedroom zine into a global magazine?
​There's an endless list of challenges; one of the most important being making it finically viable so you can fund the next issue, especially if it's published fairly often like Of the Afternoon. It's also important to build strong relationships with the people you work with; writers, printers, distributors and stockists.

I think one of the keys to the magazine's success has been to make it accessible to people that might not already have an active interest in photography. There are a lot of aspects of the photography world that feel very insular and inward-looking—I've always hoped Of the Afternoon appeals to a much wider audience.

What's been the best moment so far?
​There's been so many highlights, one of them being when I was trying for months to get some sort of feature on photographer Collier Schorr whilst she was preparing her exhibition at 303 Gallery in New York. Literally right before the issue was sent to print she ended up emailing me 500 words on one of her most famous self-portraits, which I was able to publish in Issue 5.

Getting the magazine stocked in museums like MoMA in New York, Pompidou in Paris and MoCA in LA are also definitely highlights.

You can follow Of the Afternoon​here and pick up a copy ​here. 

Follow Amelia Abraham on ​Twitter