Issue two of Pollen magazine explores this “creaturely life”

Annual publication Pollen magazine takes a philosophical theme for each issue and aims to make concepts approachable, relatable and visceral. Pollen 002 follows the theme of Creaturely Life and looks into the relationship between humans and animals and ideas around humanisation, dehumanisation, flesh and embodiment. “It’s a timely and critically imperative theme that asks us to consider our place in the globalised world, alongside different people and creatures, our relationship to the past and our own bodies.” explains editor and creative director Ezekiel Morgan.

The issue is an bold and sometimes grotesque experience, with graphic and unflinching work by the likes of Daisuke Yokata, June Yong Lee and Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel. The art direction throughout is gory and bloody, as if the publication itself was a living organism. “The magazine is designed to feel as though you are holding a wounded chunk of flesh: something human, animal and insect,” says Ezekiel. “These textures are constructed from photographs of raw meat that were layered and further digitally manipulated… they are the guts in which the contents and the ideas of the issue swim and take life, appearing, disappearing and reemerging page after page.”