» GangUp- The Issue…. Launch Party and info….
Okay so after all the leaked news, the occasional image etc, I want to let you know all about GangUp, what it is, what it stands for, why you want it in your life.
I set up GangUp with the intention of bringing on board a great team of people that will form the core of the magazine and picked 2 other photographers whose work i really admire and find inspiring, but who also have a very different aesthetic to mine. I have become increasingly bored of what the local magazines feature as fashion- which is just paid for advertorial or promo images sent in direct from stockists. I wanted to set something up that would make your heart beat just a little bit harder, put some pep in your step, feature some hot models and some rad talent. But most important of all was to have complete control over the editorial, no unnecessary adverts or demands from label owners etc and to provide a platform for any of us to suggest a story and shoot it, giving enough space for the images to ‘breathe’ and have priority over everything else.
At its core this first issue is very much a Brighton magazine, all the stories where shot in or around Brighton, and we used only friends of ours for all the models (except for one Agency model from MOT- but you’ll understand why when you see the shoot). At its messy raw bloody heart this is a very personal magazine, people and places we know and love… We hope it reflects this town a little…. we hope you love it as much as we do.
After convincing Emma Sandham-King that it would work I spoke to Sam Hiscox and Louie Banks and they seemed pretty keen, and suddenly Sally Reynolds was on board as well, after a few beers outside the Prince Albert I outlined the idea. Finally we became very complete when Stevi Jelbart was in, and we had a killer team of 6 very diverse people. 3 girls that love fashion, hot female models, and scaring the shit out of us 3 boys with their creepiness factor, and then 3 boys who also love hot models, but have an obsession for styling, shoes and great shoots that sometimes verges on the unhealthy… 6 People that never ever stop working, and would rather use their last fiver on fashion or film rather than food…. We all seem to share a whole bunch of neuroses and control issues, and have a love of the dark, the creepy and the glamorous and the ideas for the magazine really started to take shape.
We have produced every aspect of the mag ourselves and it is entirely self funded, (we have halved our usual beer/smack/crack/porn intake for the past few months to stump up for this) plus with some extra assistance/sponsorship from Garage Studios of equipment, studio hire, and camera loans etc- and we couldnt have done it without them. Oh and also on that note all my stories were also shot with my assistant Natasha Alipour-Faridani who has provided much help and inspiration…Thanks Garage and thanks tash.
If you dont know much about all of us, then come to the launch on Monday night, buy a copy of the magazine and have a chat to us. It will be available as a limited, signed edition at £10 each, but this price is only available on the launch date and you’ll need to get there early to avoid us running out. The mag itself is 104pages, no adverts and features a great range of stories shot by the three photographers and we are immensely proud of it. If you want to pre-order a copy of the magazine please mail
gangupmagazine@yahoo.com and it will cost you £12 plus p+p, We will announce details of stockists later.
If you really cant wait to find out more then please look here gangupmagazine.com
If you want to come to the launch then consider this your invite but again please rsvp to the email address above as we need to know numbers.
If you would like to submit ideas for GangUp, want to shoot for us, or model for us then we will release details of how to do this very soon, as we are already planning Issue2. You can of course use the address above or the contact page of my website.
I hope to see you there, although my social paranoia will probably prevent me actually speaking to you, but like Saddam i think i will get some decoy skinny John Waters lookalikes in cardigans in…so chat to one of them, or one of the three girls who actually know whats going on….