£12.00
Contra is a not-for-profit arts magazine exploring the relationship between visual culture and conflict.
What grabbed us about this issue...
Ruin is the theme and Cornelia Parker is the place to start. Her work has always found something generative in destruction. Nadav Kander’s photography sits well alongside it. His landscapes carry a particular quality of aftermath. Hans Ulrich Obrist’s contribution gives the issue a more theoretical anchor without tipping into abstraction. Revival sits alongside demise throughout, which stops the issue from becoming a straightforward catalogue of loss.
Who’s Contra for?
Contra is one for when you want to sit with something difficult rather than scroll past it. Published in print deliberately, each issue takes a single subject and gives it the space that digital media rarely allows. You can tell this is made by people who believe in the image as a tool for understanding rather than illustration. This would suit you if you’re drawn to documentary photography and visual art with a strong sense of purpose. Think of it as an arts journal with a conscience. It’s one to reach for when you want to feel genuinely informed by what you’re looking at.
Type: Long-form, visual read
Pages: 200
Instagram: @contrajournal