Luis Venegas is a Spanish editor and publisher of five independent, limited edition magazines: Fanzine137, EY! Magateen, Candy, The Printed Dog and EY! Boy. He is also a creative director who has worked with luxury brands such as Loewe, Acne, Carolina Herrera and J.W.Anderson.
“Just when everyone was preparing for fashion print publishing’s dying breath, Luis Venegas has reacquainted the industry with its love of hard-to-find magazines. Produced in severely limited editions, his labours of love Fanzine137, EY! and Candy (...) prove that fashion publishing has a healthy future if it serves a niche of fellow enthusiasts.”
Murray Healy, The New Creative Establishment, Interview Magazine 2010
In 2004, the first issue of Fanzine137 was born, with a limited edition run of 1,137 copies. The magazine is a collection of Luis Venegas’ objects of attraction at the specific time of publication.
Every issue is unique in size, theme, materials, layout and graphic design changes.
Cover of Fanzine 17.137 The Black And White Issue withTimothy Kelleher shot by Thomas Giddings
Venegas launched his second magazine, EY! Magateen in Spring 2008. The magazine was originally called Electric Youth!. The title of the magazine makes homage to Debbie Gibson’s 1989 song Electric Youth, taken from the album with the same name.
Cover of EY Magateen Brazil issue 7 with Marlon Teixeria shot by Marcelo Krasilcic
EY! Magateen addresses the energy, power and vitality of young males, most of them aged between 16 and 21 years. Each new issue is about a specific country or a city and is limited to just 1000 copies. The group of young people on display in EY! Magateen is a mix of handsome unknowns: mostly models, emerging artists, actors and athletes. The magazine features quirky comments and suggestive nudity.
Issues 6, 7 and 8 featured collaborations with American Apparel.
Issue
Date
Title
1
Spring 2008
Spain by Daniel Riera
2
Fall 2008
United Kingdom by Alasdair McLellan
3
Winter 2008-2009
USA West Coast by Doug Inglish
4
Spring-Summer 2009
Argenteena by Steven Klein
5
Winter 2009-2010
Germany by Kira Bunse
6
Summer 2010
New Kids On The World
7
Summer 2011
Brazil by Marcelo Krasilcic
8
Summer 2012
Spain by Xevi Muntané
9
Spring 2014
New York by Steven Klein
Candy
Venegas’ third magazine, Candy was launched in October 2009. According to its slogan it is The First Transversal Style Magazine. Following the tradition of his other two magazines, Candy has an exclusive limited edition run of 1500 copies. It is a fashion and art magazine completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, trans-sexuality, crossdressing and androgyny. The title of the magazine makes homage to Candy Darling.
Unlike other publications related to the LGBT community, which generally advocate for rights form a political standpoint, Candy stands out as a celebration of this lifestyle. For Venegas, “Candy isn't about rights, but I do think the fact it [Candy] exists helps.”[1] In an interview with The New York Times, Venegas made his statement clear:
“Gay magazines talk about the rights of gay people and the achievements of the gay movement […] I didn’t want Candy to be like that. I wanted it to be like Vogue. There are few groups of people for whom fashion, makeup and hair is more relevant.”[2]
For the launch of the second issue, Venegas collaborated with Swedish design house Acne, creating a limited run of unisex blouses named after characters from the American soap opera, Dynasty.
Issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 had a single cover printed, with the 8th issue's being a gatefold cover. All other issues had multiple different covers, some featuring the same person on the cover (issues 5 and 9, featuring Connie Flemming and Miley Cyrus, respectively), others with different people on each different cover (issues 10 onwards). For issues 9 through 13, the number of different covers matches the issue number.
In 2020 Venegas edited THE C☆NDY BOOK OF TRANSVERSAL CREATIVITY celebrating the 10th anniversary of the magazine. With the subtitle THE BEST OF C☆NDY TRANSVERSAL MAGAZINE, ALLEGEDLY, the book is a compilation that includes photography and art from over 100 artists from the first 12 issues, as well as new writings reflecting on the magazine's cultural impact.
Other projects
Invited by Christian Lacroix in 2008 he was a judge for the prestigious photography festival Rencontres d’Arles alongside Elisabeth Biondi, Caroline Issa & Masoud Golsorkhi, Nathalie Ours and Carla Sozzani.
As a Creative Director in Spring 2012 he directed a video for the launch of Loewe’s Oro Collection which became popular and highly controversial in Spain. As a result, the collection sold out and it turned out to be the best seller of the year for the LVMH's Spanish brand.
In 2013 he took part as a panelist for a Fashion Seminar in Helsinki curated by Daniel Thawley in which also participated Marc Ascoli, Michel Gaubert, Jonathan Anderson, Benjamin Bruno and Karen van Godtsenhoven held at the Aalto University.
Venegas has also DJ’d in various venues around the world including Plastic in Milan, George & Dragon and Bistrotheque in London, Razzmatazz in Barcelona, Kaiku in Helsinki and at the Boom Boom Room in New York City.
He occasionally is a professor in Madrid and Barcelona.
References
^Simon-Geddis, Paul. "Luis Venegas is a Geek". Fashion Issue Vol.04 No.3. viceland.com: 70–72. Archived from the original on 2011-08-13. Retrieved 2011-06-19. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
