Hotshoe 213
Delivered to Stack subscribers in
Jul 2025
Looking back over 40-odd years of image making, this issue of Hotshoe showcases a group of photographers whose work includes children and adolescents, creating a nostalgic and atmospheric picture of childhood.
Name
Melissa DeWitt
Job title
Owner, Editor-in-chief
What is Hotshoe?
A photographic journal showcasing photographers’ work in series, collated around particular themes, as well as monograph issues on a prominent individual photographer, in which we delve into their archive.
What makes it different to the rest?
We create a unique theme or brief and curate the issues to bring a new, fresh perspective to already existing work. For the past 20 years we’ve also been combining unrelated words inspired by a portfolio of images to create a new body of work in our Crude Metaphors section. Now everyone does words and images, but I think we still do it best.
Who makes Hotshoe?
We are a small team including Gregory Barker who comes up with ideas and does the sequencing of the magazine; Duncan Whyte our designer; Wendy Ehst (the other owner) who does the marketing and data analysis and oversees social media and collaborations; and myself.
Who reads it?
Everyone. Well, we wish everyone, but we do have a wide-reaching audience that includes amateurs and professionals, students, artists, and collectors. Anyone interested in art and photography and photo books. I think our readers look to us for inspiration and information.
Why do you work in magazines?
I think we often fall into the things we do in life. I’ve always loved photography, but I studied sculpture and used photography as a medium, but I also love words. To me, it is all part of the same process of making, and Hotshoe kind of brings that all together. I feel like we make a little work of art every time we publish an issue.
Aside from the magazine, what else are you involved in?
Writing a book. And dogs. And I like trying different kinds of food. And alcohol. And places. And music. And nature. And people, sometimes.
What would you change about Hotshoe if you could?
Its distribution.
Where do you see Hotshoe in five years?
More widely distributed internationally and involved in many more collaborations.
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