Public

Public is a fashion journal founded and designed by the creative director Alex McWhirter, its first issue built from five distinct photographic portfolios shown side by side rather than folded into a single house style.

Issue 1 pairs Glen Luchford's Sequence with Nadine Fraczkowski's Identity, Vivien Solari's Immersion, Benjamin Lennox's Artifact, and Greta Ilieva's Flyoverland, alongside further images by McWhirter and Alice Neale, across 112 pages. The publisher's note frames the project as a reaction against an image culture in which, in its words, everything has been fine-tuned until indistinctiveness prevails and taste is easy to place a pulse on; the five portfolios are left to argue for a rougher, more specific alternative. McWhirter Studio issued the journal in a numbered edition of 250, spiral-bound behind a clear acetate cover.

McWhirter, originally from London, worked as art director at V Magazine in New York before collaborating with Raf Simons and Pieter Mulier at Calvin Klein; Public is his own editorial platform, continuing as an occasional publication built around a rotating cast of photographers and stylists.