The bi-coastal magazine explores the myriad meanings of "family" through fashion, art, photography, and design.
As a freelance photographer and the US fashion editor for Document, Ryan James Caruthers and Shawn Lakin count both count editing—in Caruthers’s case, images, and in Lakin’s, clothes—as one of their regular duties on the job. So they thought, Why not create our own magazine? “We both have always been collecting and curating in our own work—so this was naturally the next step,” said Caruthers. They named it Close Journal, launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the publication, and the magazine was born.
A photograph of a group of young Spanish boys at the beach on the verge of adulthood, shot by Fumi Homma, serves as one of the covers of the latest edition, while Caruthers and Lakin worked together on black-and-white image of an actor Judah Lang in a white ribbed tank top and ostrich-skin helmet. The editors-in-chiefs decided to select the theme “Family” for Close Journal’s second issue because, said Lakin, “like the name ‘Close’, ‘family’ means different things to different people and we wanted to explore that.” Caruthers added, “Even our first issue felt familial in certain ways. I believe our work usually has this kind of intimacy to it as well.”
Above The Fold

Sam Contis Studies Male Seclusion

Slava Mogutin: “I Transgress, Therefore I Am”

The Present Past: Backstage New York Fashion Week Men’s Spring/Summer 2018

Pierre Bergé Has Died At 86

Falls the Shadow: Maria Grazia Chiuri Designs for Works & Process

An Olfactory Memory Inspires Jason Wu’s First Fragrance

Brave New Wonders: A Preview of the Inaugural Edition of “Close”

Georgia Hilmer’s Fashion Month, Part One

Modelogue: Georgia Hilmer’s Fashion Month, Part Two

Surf League by Thom Browne

Nick Hornby: Grand Narratives and Little Anecdotes

The New Helmut

Designer Turned Artist Jean-Charles de Castelbajac is the Pope of Pop

Splendid Reverie: Backstage Paris Haute Couture Fall/Winter 2017

Tom Burr Cultivates Space at Marcel Breuer’s Pirelli Tire Building

Ludovic de Saint Sernin Debuts Eponymous Collection in Paris

Peaceful Sedition: Backstage Paris Fashion Week Men’s Spring/Summer 2018

Ephemeral Relief: Backstage Milan Fashion Week Men’s Spring/Summer 2018

Olivier Saillard Challenges the Concept of a Museum

“Not Yours”: A New Film by Document and Diane Russo

Introducing: Kozaburo, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

Introducing: Marine Serre, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

Conscious Skin

Escapism Revived: Backstage London Fashion Week Men’s Spring/Summer 2018

Introducing: Cecilie Bahnsen, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

Introducing: Ambush, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

New Artifacts

Introducing: Nabil Nayal, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

Bringing the House Down

Introducing: Molly Goddard, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

Introducing: Atlein, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

Introducing: Jahnkoy, 2017 LVMH Prize Finalist

LVMH’s Final Eight

Escaping Reality: A Tour Through the 57th Venice Biennale with Patrik Ervell

Adorned and Subverted: Backstage MB Fashion Week Tbilisi Autumn/Winter 2017

The Geometry of Sound

Klaus Biesenbach Uncovers Papo Colo’s Artistic Legacy in Puerto Rico’s Rainforest

Westward Bound: Backstage Dior Resort 2018

Artist Francesco Vezzoli Uncovers the Radical Images of Lisetta Carmi with MoMA’s Roxana Marcoci

A Weekend in Berlin

Centered Rhyme by Elaine Lustig Cohen and Hermès

How to Proceed: “fashion after Fashion”

Robin Broadbent’s Inanimate Portraits

“Speak Easy”

Revelations of Truth

Re-Realizing the American Dream

Tomihiro Kono’s Hair Sculpting Process

The Art of Craft in the 21st Century

Strength and Rebellion: Backstage Seoul Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2017

Decorative Growth

The Faces of London

Document Turns Five

Synthesized Chaos: “Scholomance” by Nico Vascellari

A Whole New World for Janette Beckman

New Ceremony: Backstage Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2017

New Perspectives on an American Classic

Realized Attraction: Backstage Milan Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2017

Dematerialization: “Escape Attempts” at Shulamit Nazarian

“XOXO” by Jesse Mockrin

Brilliant Light: Backstage London Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2017

The Form Challenged: Backstage New York Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2017

Art for Tomorrow: Istanbul’74 Crafts Postcards for Project Lift

Inspiration & Progress

Paskal’s Theory of Design

On the Road

In Taiwan, American Designer Daniel DuGoff Finds Revelation

The Kit To Fixing Fashion

The Game Has Changed: Backstage New York Fashion Week Men’s Autumn/Winter 2017

Class is in Session: Andres Serrano at The School

Forma Originale: Burberry Previews February 2017

“Theoria”

Wearing Wanderlust: Waris Ahluwalia x The Kooples

Approaching Splendor: Backstage Paris Haute Couture Spring/Summer 2017

In Florence, History Returns Onstage

An Island Aesthetic: Loewe Travels to Ibiza

Wilfried Lantoine Takes His Collection to the Dancefloor

A Return To Form: Backstage New York Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2018

20 Years of Jeremy Scott

Offline in Cuba

Distortion of the Everyday at Faustine Steinmetz

Archetypes Redefined: Backstage London Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2018

Spring/Summer 2018 Through the Lens of Designer Erdem Moralıoğlu

A Week of Icons: Backstage Milan Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2018

Toasting the New Edition of Document

Embodying Rick Owens

Prada Channels the Wonder Women Illustrators of the 1940s

Andre Walker’s Collection 30 Years in the Making

Fallen From Grace, An Exclusive Look at Item Idem’s “NUII”

Breaking the System: Backstage Paris Fashion Week Men’s Autumn/Winter 2017

A Modern Manufactory at Mykita Studio

A Wanted Gleam: Backstage Milan Fashion Week Men’s Autumn/Winter 2017

Fashion’s Next, Cottweiler and Gabriela Hearst Take International Woolmark Prize

Beauty in Disorder: Backstage London Fashion Week Men’s Autumn/Winter 2017

“Dior by Mats Gustafson”

Prada’s Power

George Michael’s Epochal Supermodel Lip Sync

The Search for the Spirit of Miss General Idea

A Trace of the Real

Wear and Sniff

Underwater, Doug Aitken Returns to the Real
The magazine, according to its founders, is “an interdisciplinary publication based in California and New York.” For the second issue, Lakin and Caruthers sought creatives they deemed a natural fit. “Originally, we reached out to people in fashion, art, and design that we admired and paired in unexpected ways—similar to the way me and Ryan work together in our practice. Then it kind of evolved from there to our contributors’ perspective of family and closeness,” Lakin explained. “I think intimacy again plays a large role in who we selected,” said Caruthers. “Each artist photographed using film, so I think this adds a layer of nostalgia, similar to looking back at your own childhood family photographs.”
The stories that capture the idea of family range from light and joyful to poignant to heartbreaking. In one story, where artists share photos of their family, curator Jessie Wender selects a Hank Willis Thomas photo of a close cousin who was tragically murdered in a hold up a few weeks later. “It almost feels too private to share here but I think it’s a special thing that only the people who look at the edition as an object will have privy to,” said Lakin. Then there’s James Tolich’s photographs of his son Taika. “The images are so full of emotion and beauty—and the story opens with Taika’s handwritten name,” said Caruthers.
The notion of family provides respite in a world where conflict is rampant. “In a time where everything seems so chaotic, it’s kind of nice to be able to focus in on something so universally loved,” said Caruthers.
Ann Binlot—Why did you start a magazine?
Ryan James Caruthers—I think we both have always been collecting and curating in our own work–so this was naturally the next step.
Ann—Why did you pick the theme family for the second issue?
Shawn Lakin—I think a lot like the name ‘Close’, family means different things to different people and we wanted to explore that.
Ryan—Even our first issue felt familial in certain ways, I believe our work usually has this kind of intimacy to it as well. In a time where everything seems so chaotic, it’s kind of nice to be able to focus in on something so universally loved.
Ann—How did you select the contributors?
Shawn—Originally, we reached out to people in fashion, art and design that we admired and paired in unexpected ways – similar to the way me and Ryan work together in our practice. Then it kind of evolved from there to our contributors perspective of family and closeness.
Ryan—I think intimacy again plays a large role in who we selected. Each artist photographed using film, so I think this adds a layer of nostalgia, similar to looking back at your own childhood family photographs.
Ann—What are the biggest highlights of the issue?
Shawn—The biggest highlight for me for sure is the image and story that Hank Willis Thomas shared with us and curator Jessie Wender. It almost feels too private to share here but I think it’s a special thing that only the people who look at the edition as an object will have privy to.
Ryan—I think for me, it’s photographer James Tolich’s photographs of his son Taika. The images are so full of emotion and beauty– and the story opens with Taika’s handwritten name.
Ann—Tell me about the photo on the cover.
Shawn—There are two covers. The first is an incredible image from photographer Fumi Homma that was shot on a vacation in Málaga of a group of boys that are on the cusp of adulthood but have an air of thinking they are grown. That entire series is such a jaw-dropping story that it was hard to pick out of the vibrant personalities and artifacts that Fummi found among the people and families he was documenting. The second cover was shot by Ryan and styled by Myself with Judah Lang in New York. I think that one was important to us as we grow the magazine and live on two coasts now, that we brought it back to the place that we met and brought us so much inspiration.