Stack at home: Der Greif, August 2019

One of the most important features of Stack is that you never know what you’re going to receive in the post. But this August, for the first time ever, we broke that rule, because the magazine we were going to send out was so explicit we couldn’t send it out to our subscribers without their consent.

Der Greif is a photography magazine that specialises in juxtaposing images, taking them out of their original context to make the viewer see them afresh. We’ve been a big fan of their work for a long time so we were really excited to line them up for this month’s delivery, but the magazine they have produced is a major departure from what they’ve done in the past. It’s guest edited by the artists Broomberg & Chanarin and it tackles the politics of censorship, showcasing images that are “too private, too quiet, too violent, too political, too subversive or too explicit to share on social media”. Overall, 77% of respondents asked for the explicit version, while others chose to receive a back issue of Der Greif, or another magazine entirely.

This is an extremely difficult, exciting magazine, so it was great to hear what our subscribers thought. Below we’ve rounded up some of the posts about the magazine on social media. Right at the bottom you’ll find our August subscriber of the month…

6. Content moderators

Broomberg and Chanarin outsourced their role as editors to a disgruntled former Facebook employee. This opening letter lays out why.

5. Specs-appeal

Informare chose a back issue of Der Greif instead, and we like their coffee-mag-spectacle still life.

We are thoroughly enjoying this month’s independent #magazine choice from @StackMagazines!

Issue 11 of Der Greif invited Jason Fulford, American photographer, artist and publisher, to be guest editor. Fulford’s edit takes you on an eclectic tour through diverse visual languages pic.twitter.com/RPTOx5Jno4

— Informare Ltd (@Informare_UK) August 16, 2019

4. PG-13

A slightly naughtier still-life from this Stack subscriber.

3. Monochrome

We like the look of Der Greif against all this black and white.

2. High praise

Really nice to hear from Anna Aguilar that this was the most interesting magazine she’s ever read.

Thank you @StackMagazines for the most interesting magazine I have ever read, insane content about the arduous process of censoring Facebook images, by @dergreifmagazin pic.twitter.com/OjrkeJDv8H

— Anna Aguilar (@AnnaAguilar96) August 28, 2019

1. Uncomfortable reading

Willow Orton’s honest appraisal of the magazine sums up brilliantly how challenging, and thought provoking it is: “uncomfortable and demanding, stretching. Sitting quietly after digestion.”