Publication: We interview the editor-in-chief of new fashion and art publication, Noon

Noon is a hard thing to photograph. Not so much for practical reasons, like the larger-than-A4 format or the chunky, yellow spine – although both of these factor – but because I can’t help but want to include a picture of every one of its whopping 168 pages.

This isn’t practical, of course, so I’ll have to settle for a mere snippet; and with features by Wolfgang Tillmans, Max Farago, Tao Lin and Juergen Teller, it doesn’t take much to understand why every one demands to be singled out. A brand new publication with a heavy focus on art, fashion and commerce, and a dose of contemporary critical text to run alongside it, Noon is a beauty of a magazine.

Uncertain that we’d be able to do it justice, we interviewed editor-in-chief Jasmine Raznahan about the concept behind it.

Can you tell us a bit about Noon?

Noon is a magazine concerned with art and commerce. It’s heavily image-based, with a focus on print quality and production values. The content is curated critically as a whole; there’s no placeholder material and there’s a real respect for the contributions. NOWNESS described it as “a seemingly disparate collection of artists” which sums it up well.

The magazine is print-based only. Things can often get lost on the internet, or inversely you stumble upon them by chance. The decision to make a print magazine rather than online was a reaction to this in certain ways. I wanted to produce something that people could rest on, rather than flick through at relentless speed before moving onto something else.

What inspired you to launch Noon?

After art directing POP magazine I was approached by a few other titles, but none of them felt like the right fit. I was getting to a stage where I wanted to start working on a studio project and I was beginning to miss the process of making magazines. A lot of my friends were also making great self-initiated work and there seemed to be nowhere to publish it. All of these things combined made Noon. It was a very organic process.

The first issue knits fashion and art together in a very natural way. Do you think that the art and fashion industries make the most of their natural overlap?

There have been some incredible collaborations between the two industries and I think it can be a strong pairing. Juergen Teller is testament to that. Historically it’s been framed as a slightly grotesque coupling, compromising in some way, but I think it’s different now. Segregation doesn’t feel relevant. I think if there’s a genuine commonality there, then the line between the two can disappear.

What’s your favourite feature in the magazine?

I couldn’t say. Some favourites: Tillman’s for his generosity and the story for the total relevance to the theme of the issue. Lyson Marchessault and Janneke van der Hagen’s story because it’s the first time we all worked together and the start of something forceful. Mel Bles and Jason Hughes “Heavy Rotation” because it smacks you round the face and you can’t miss it. Jon Rafman’s “Brand New Paint Job” for the brilliant technicolour reproduction after being extruded from the screen and onto the page. Xavier Poultney’s, Max Farago’s, Lena Emery’s, I’ve got a soft spot for it all. I’d read it – and you can’t say fairer than that.