The summer of love has arrived with Buffalo Zine’s new issue

Let’s face it, all that we know has shifted dramatically. Social events, pubs, office life, the gym and basically anything else we can do to entertain ourselves IRL has been temporarily moved online (for now). But one thing that’s remained, if not heightened, is our relationship with nature. More so are we escaping outside and away from our screens, escaping for that small moment away from modern life. This is precisely what the latest issue of Buffalo Zine is here to tell us: that despite everything, the summer of love has arrived. Baby.

“The new issue, Buffalo Earth, is about reconnecting with yourself, with your community and loving Mother Nature,” explains co-founder and editor David Uzquiza. Everything in this 11th issue is hippy, quite literally; from making your own clothes, foraging, getting stoned, psychedelics, communities, mindfulness, pagan rituals, dream therapy, bird watching, yoga and leaving the city to go off the grid. With a whole host of contributions from Charlie Engman, Paul Kooiker, Clara Balzary, Chris Maggio and Rottingdean Bazaar, the latest edition also presents features with Grimes, Tame Impala, Robyn, Jane Goodall, Monster Chetwynd and even nudist surfers from Australia’s Gold Coast.

When we last caught up with Buffalo Zine it was for its ninth issue – a plagiarising release that saw the team mimic fashion magazines like 032c, i-D, Fantastic Man and Purple. We’ve also seen themes on shopping catalogues, tabloid newspapers, a ‘holiday in Spain’ and its very own fashion kitchen. It seems that anything can be thrown at this shape-shifting ruler that manages to morph its pages with each and every theme.

So it comes to no surprise to hear that the magazine’s founders had met over an unruly passion for print. More than 20 years ago, David and Adrian González-Cohen had met in their first year of university. Back then, David was based in Madrid and working in advertising, when Adrian had called him up to design a publication he wanted to make, “with a bunch of friends, putting together stories about all the things we were into,” he says. “It was a very un-rushed, home-made process – something we would do on the weekends. We finished the first Buffalo Zine three years later.”

Fuelled by their inherent interest in magazines, the decision to do things on their own came naturally – much like their reasons behind every issues’ mutating aesthetic. “The style of Buffalo is that it doesn’t have a specific visual style,” continues David, “and it goes in a different direction with every issue.” As for their debut, the duo flouted a clear theme and decided to focus on nostalgia to mark the “end of an era” – around 2010 to be specific, when it was thought that the iPad was set to “exterminate” printed publications. As such, issue one was filled with handwritten headlines, scans, photographs of their mums, “trompe-l’œil burnt pages” and unfinished-looking layouts in a newspaper format.

As for Adrian, he takes us back to 2007 for a significant summer in Berlin. He had been in contact with a group of queer squatters living at the historic communal housing project, Tutenhaus. “I had a fling with one of the queen bees, and my old friend Vicente started organising some activities there, he called it The Pre Cum Club,” says Adrian. “They would basically meet and share poetry and thoughts and stuff, and kind of wank at the end lol.” Then he met a guy named Nino, who would later end up on one of the covers for the first issue. “I felt there was a revolution waiting to happen about gender, and fashion was a good channel to put all that.”

What was once a “total” hobby that took three years to launch has now evolved into what can only be described as one of the most unexpected assortments in publishing. And this new one, Buffalo Earth, falls nothing short of what can (contradictorily) be expected. A mammoth package of all-things wholesome, one piece that Adrian is “obsessed” with is features editor Liam Hess’ interview with Miriam Lancewood. Having lived with her partner for seven years in the wild, “with just the minimum, hunting and foraging”, Adrian says how Miriam’s words are so important – “and the way she speaks, so honest, humble and smart”. As for David, he tells us that to keep an eye out for his shoot with Carsten Höller, who invited the team to a screening of his film Fara Fara in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the day before New Year’s Eve. “I spent a few days there and basically all we did was go out at night, to concerts and parties. People there are really, really mad about music and dancing; it’s such a beautiful, genuine and fun scene – very human and grounding. I asked people in clubs and venues to photograph them wearing sunglasses from a massive box that I was carrying around to make this eyewear story called 2020 Vision.”

There’s much to learn from this issue. Not only does it house an impeccable roster of artists, stories and creators, it also serves as a reminder for the more homemade things in life – and we couldn’t have found anything more relevant right now.