Stack Awards: Victory Journal
Our winner in the Best Use of Photography category at last year’s Stack Awards was Victory Journal, the New York-based sports magazine that uses its enormous pages to show the agony and the ecstasy of sports in all their glory.
With this year’s awards now open for entries, we caught up with editor-in-chief Christopher Isenberg (above left, with fellow creative directors Aaron Amaro and Kimou Meyer) to find out what he’s been doing since the win, and which magazine he’s tipping to top the category this year.
Where is your Stack Award now?
Our award sits proudly on our shelf of fame, one floor below Larry Holmes’ championship belt and right next to the SPD (The Society of Publication Designers) award we won for our third issue. Our emergency Wiffle ball supply is right behind it and our Coleco Pele figurine and pair of game-worn Le Coq Sportif, Joakim Noahs live downstairs. We like to think the award is adjusting well to its new surroundings and will be voiced by John Oliver in the movie version.
What have you been doing since last year’s awards?
We released two new issues. ‘Arts and Letters’ (below, right) featured a cover story about Bonnie Erickson who created Miss Piggy, the Philly Fanatic and Youpi!, who got the cover. ‘Body and Soul’ (below, left) was our 11th issue and had buffalo racing in Bali, incredible wrestling images from ’70s Houston, Misty Copeland in mid-air and the Westminster Dog Show.
We finally made that animated short film about the ’86 Mets and what they did to a perfectly good 747. It premiered at Tribeca and will be online someday soon. We also made this one about Elvis’ secret love of racquetball.
On our book imprint, Victory Editions, we published ‘Bury Me with the Lo On’ by Tom Gould and Thirstin Howl the 3rd. It got feature write-ups in the NY Times, Hypebeast and The New Yorker. We also sold out all of our copies in less than two weeks.
Chris Gary, who produced one of our favourite shorts of all time, about the secret origins of the High Five, joined the Victory Journal team.
And in a semi-final match at Pier 5 in Brooklyn, which boasts glorious views of the East River, lower Manhattan, and the Statue of Liberty, Victory FC lost to a decidedly inferior team on penalties. Fists were shaken. Cider was consumed.
And if not you, which magazine should win Best Use of Photography this year?
They’re both NSFW, but a tie goes to Jonathan Leder’s series of portfolios for Imperial Pictures publishing, and Baroness Magazine (below).
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Entries are now open for the Stack Awards 2016 – head over to our awards page for all you need to know about taking part
