Single issue Archives - STACK magazines

Cake Zine issue 7

Steve Watson — Mon, 29 Sep 2025 12:34:35 +0000

Each issue of Cake Zine tells stories inspired by a different adjective-inflected foodstuff. Previous issues have taken their lead from ‘Sexy Cake’, ‘Humble Pie’, and ‘Daily Bread’, and this seventh issue turns its attention to ‘Forbidden Fruit’.

In this issue:

Orange Crush becomes a dysfunctionally luxurious reminder of growing up with an alcoholic father
The synthetically fruity, jittery, sickly high of drinking jaba on a night out in Nairobi
An annual trip to Orange World in Orlando provides respite from the oppressive heat and homophobia of home
The inequality and exploitation that sees Barcelona’s fruiterías staffed by young men earning a couple of euros per hour
And the perfectly sweet, sour, but suddenly precarious pleasure of mango Juul pods

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Not Here to Make Friends issue 3

Steve Watson — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 14:01:24 +0000

Often grotesque and always insightful, Not Here to Make Friends views contemporary culture through the prism of reality TV. The magazine’s writers are clearly obsessed with reality TV, but they don’t always seem to enjoy it in a straightforward way, and the result is a clever and critical look at sex, power, and money as it plays out on our screens.

In this issue:

The long and troubled tradition of women eating (or not eating) on TV
Enduring the increasingly extreme ordeal of Alone
Dance Moms, social media, and Abby Lee Miller as The Algorithm
Illusion, inequality, and the emergence of reality TV in Dubai
And one woman uses the Real Housewives as a way to understand her own life lived in service to the male ideal

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Troublemakers issue 2

Steve Watson — Wed, 30 Jul 2025 15:04:49 +0000

Quiet and calming, Troublemakers paints an affectionate but carefully critical picture of life in contemporary Japan. Its strapline is ’embracing misfits’, and it shines a light on people who have chosen to live in unconventional ways, appreciating their individuality in a strictly ordered, hierarchical society.

In this issue:

Literary scholar Fukuko Kobayashi reflects on a lifetime of radical feminism
Genders slip under pressure from social media in Female Degeneracy, Li Kotomi’s surreal short story
A Cambodian American woman tells the unconventional love story that brought her to Japan
A British man encounters Kurdish workers on a Japanese building site
And step inside Kabe to Tamago, the Tokyo neighbourhood cafe and beloved haven for misfits

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Hotshoe issue 213

Steve Watson — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 09:27:59 +0000

Each issue of Hotshoe focuses on a different theme or person from the photographic canon, using an unconventional, non-linear structure to take readers closer to the images on the page. This issue is themed ‘To Be Young’, and it showcases 18 photographers from across the last 40 years, whose works feature some kind of nostalgia for youth.

In this issue:

Julia Black’s intimate images feature her children as subjects and collaborators
Immersing himself in American summer camps of the ’90s, Mark Steinmetz photographed the subtle emotions and quiet dramas of those temporary worlds
Ewen Spencer travelled the UK at the turn of the millennium, capturing intimate images of teenagers drinking, dancing, and managing the highs and lows of an intense moment
Over five summers, Doug DuBois photographed teenagers in Russell Heights, a small, close-knit Irish neighbourhood
And Thomas Boivin’s portraits capture Parisian teens on Place de la République from 2018 to 2023

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No One issue 2

Steve Watson — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 08:20:54 +0000

Each issue of No One sets out for a different city and reports on the queer nightlife it finds there. For this second issue the magazine travelled to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City to create a richly detailed picture of the overlapping scenes that have grown up within and between Vietnam’s most populous cities.

In this issue:

How Lô Tô brought trans artistry to Vietnam’s mainstream
Inside Vietnam’s burgeoning ballroom scene
The queer artist who dances with a motorcycle on her head
Club nights, cave raves, ballroom functions, villa gatherings, beach parties, and more
And lots of photography from the cities’ clubs, streets and queer spaces

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Playground issue 3

Steve Watson — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 15:27:08 +0000

Presented as, “a manifesto for the creative industries”, Playground considers the role of creativity in life and work. Taking a sunny outlook on the world, it platforms a parade of creative professionals who share the stories of how they worked their way to creative freedom.

In this issue:

How to break free from social media but still stay connected
Designer and maker Andu Masebo on being led by obsession
Writer and bookshop owner Alex Holder on why we should all talk more about money
Artist and musician Yuri Suzuki on designing with sound
And futures consultant Helen Job presents her CV of failed projects

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New York Review of Architecture issue 45

Steve Watson — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 13:47:54 +0000

As its name would suggest, the New York Review of Architecture reviews architecture in New York. But this big, clever, funny magazine does much more too, delivering smart and gloriously overblown criticism on everything from movies, to rubbish collection, to cafes in banks.

In this issue:

New York’s timeless obsession with banishing its rat population
The politics at play in preserving New York landmarks
Sneakers as signifiers of national identity
The battles over New York’s congestion pricing
And The Brutalist and Megalopolis are considered as a pair of architectural movies

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Skin Deep issue 11

Steve Watson — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 09:26:30 +0000

Skin Deep exists to present “culture in service of racial justice”, and the latest issue looks back over the last 11 years to present an anthology of its work so far. Mixing archive stories with fresh pieces, it creates a collection, “in which past, present and future interrupt each other… a noisy, time-travelling miscellany.”

In this issue:

Speaking with the makers of Babymother, the 1998 film that showcased Harlesden’s reggae heartland
Identifying the “slow violence” of the climate crisis, and holding the worst offenders to account
Emma Uwejoma’s photography navigates the complexities of her Igbo heritage and British upbringing
Writing at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, Jordan T Jones on the simple beauty of an uneventful day
And Akasha Rabut’s photography captures the street-parading traditions of New Orleans

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Solomiya issue 4

Steve Watson — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:03:20 +0000

Launched in 2022 in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Solomiya provides a platform for Ukrainian artists, creatives and activists to reflect on the world around them, as they see it. This fourth issue is smaller and more concentrated than the first three, focusing closely on the intersection of war and the environment, illuminating some of the struggles and contradictions that are central to contemporary Ukrainian life.

In this issue:

Countering stereotypical views of the Ukrainian landscape, which see it as either devastated battlefield, economic breadbasket, or post-nuclear wasteland
Possible scenarios for restoring nature in Ukraine
Photography and artworks reflecting on the environment in Ukraine
Seeking an alternative nature in kurgans, the ancient earthen mounds scattered across the Ukrainian steppe
And relationships with nature, in contrast to relationships with people

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Broadcast issue 2

Steve Watson — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 17:20:07 +0000

Taking an expansive approach to storytelling, Broadcast combines art and science as a way of looking beyond the everyday. Lots of magazines build their editorial around art, but I can’t remember the last time I read a story about the shape of the periodic table, let alone one that successfully explains how that shape, “encodes the character of the quantum atom”. It’s mind-blowing stuff, but rendered in totally accessible, entertaining text that’s as fun as it is enlightening.

In this issue:

Exploring the mysteries of ‘dark fungi’, the species that have so far eluded scientific identification
How researching Neanderthals is helping in the search for extraterrestrial life
The history of Adderall, by a one-time addict
The arts organisation spending art-world money to achieve, “material change rather than symbolic statements”
And how AI could be pointing the way to a new class of psychedelic-based antidepressants

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