LDC revives the tradition of rigorous satire and critique within the theatre of fashion, photography, and contemporary culture. Le Derrière Cri purposely strays from the classic magazine model of interviews, articles & reviews, instead using the vehicles of the editorial industry to subvert the image-making economy we so take for granted. Written by anonymous insiders, pseudonymous provocateurs, and authors attributed with academic precision, LDC’s contents include true stories, academic musings, works of complete fiction and blurry spaces in between. Visually, LDC draws upon the incestuous beauty of the fashion industry itself, resulting in works that nurture surrealism in its purest form.

For the premiere issue of Le Derrière Cri we examine the underpinnings of fashion through two thematically linked ideas: Repetition as one of fashion’s main devices to create newness, leading to the slippery and hyper-abundant term ‘Chic’.

Ukrainian photography duo SYNCHRODOGS goes derrière-mad with Chic Asses, followed by a series of confessional articles: first an exploration of the magazine’s rather contentious title (L.E.D.E.R.R.I.E.R.E.C.R.I.), next a bemused study of a sycophantic fashion assistant and a tell-all of the perils of being a Fashion Triennale director, as BENI BISCHOF’s defaced fashion ads punctuate and estrange the editorial flow one sausage at a time. MICHAEL ROCK and ELIZABETH ROCK trace IntelliChic, the blockbuster campaign that was never meant to be. Photographer LAUREN LANCASTER capitalizes on a 300% credit to all-star minimalist designer JIL SANDER, followed up by a gruesome wedding story by a well-known stylist featuring the same sartorial centerpiece. Artist ANICKA YI investigates the noosphere of global scent horizons with AARON MCELROY’s lurid floral portraits. QIU YANG undresses a Lynchian centerfold in a 26-page story entitled Chic-At-Large, and larger yet, a notable design director dishes on the peculiar insistences of his rather famous ex-boss. Associate Editor BEVERLY LIANG and fashion theorist CHRISTINA MOON unpack the popularity of Blondness accompanied by BLOMMERS SCHUMM’s blonde hair color portrait series. An anonymous Lawyer / Model muses on her double life of litigation-slave and hobby-model, and ANICKA YI prologues with her ominous and beautiful artwork The Closed Mouth Gathers No Feet. ANJA ARONOWSKY CRONBERG exposes the power structures of ‘chic,’ illustrated by JENNIFER LIVINGSTON’s glossary of fashion poses with ALI MICHAEL and fashion editor HAIDEE FINDLAY-LEVIN. SOL SPREZZATURA collages rants on media culture and privacy with NICHOLAS ALAN COPE’S luscious, architectural and highly phallic lipstick photographs. Not to be upstaged MEINKE KLEIN features “real homosexuals” extravagantly styled in bohomo-chic looks. And we close with a dedication to America’s Charlie Chaplin of photography ALFRED GESCHEIDT, whose work has been a huge inspiration in the creation of this magazine, profiled by documentary filmmaker HARVEY WANG.

K8 Hardy’s work riffs on pop culture and all the images we encounter as consumers. The art she exhibits are photographs and sculptures, but part of her process is gathering masses of images from disparate sources and obsessively collaging them together. In a sense, these collages are edits of photos torn from magazines, printed advertisements, and other visual imagery that Hardy finds compelling. Yet they also include her darkroom test strips and snapshots found at the junk store. These collages were never originally intended for exhibition or print, but merely research for the artist’s work. It was only after a few people saw them in her studio that she was encouraged to show them. For this reason, the collages are powerful and weighty; each is it’s own essay. Hardy has made visual examinations that deal with complicated ideas, issues of representation, phenomenon in style, and playful contemplations of fashion.

K8 Hardy (USA, b. 1977) is a New York-based artist who mines popular culture for material and has no regard for originality. She has no allegiance to any particular medium, but performance is a thread that weaves through her body of work. Hardy eschews virtuosity to craft and is currently exploiting photography. She believes in the power of flamboyant and bold gestures, and the conversations of play, which come across in her endeavors toward total expression. The surface is often used as a decoy in her work to address the political conditions of its production. She has recently been working on a series of photographs called the “Position Series” that employ the tropes of self-portraiture and abstract photography. Hardy is a founding member of the queer feminist journal and artist collective, LTTR. She has shown internationally at spaces including: Reena Spaulings Fine Art, NY; The Tate Modern, London; Artist Space, NY: Galerie BaliceHertling, Paris; Galerie Sonja Junkers, Munich; PS1 MOMA, NY; Higher Pictures, NY; Biennial of Photography and Visual Arts, Heerlen, NL; and the Brooklyn Museum, Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, NY.

With the theme of Water, Capricious delves into one of the most pressing global concerns of the 21st century, finding a dynamic intersection between social consciousness and fine arts photography. Culled from hundreds of submissions, the editorial selection evokes not only the most visually profound forms of water, but documents our shifting relationship with water, whether it be through celebration, or sense of loss.

Capricious 13 moves through sections like Arid, Drift, and Quiet, a fluid visual narrative honoring water. And speaks to our palimpsest-like landscape, where the rise and fall of water lines are marked, and the history of water remains tangible. The work selected explores a myriad of watery dimensions, from the intimate, as water spills into our personal histories, quietly shaping our daily rituals; to global, as water is tamed, an ancient presence spun through industrialization. What ultimately comes to surface is, to what degree water has, in turn, overwhelmed and overcome us.

Also included, is a special chapter of curated texts by Hanna Wilde, including diverse variations on the theme, from poetry to political essay, to stage performance and film excerpt.

Taken between the years of 1998 and 2005, theimages in this exquisitely printed volumepresent anti-journalistic, documentary stylephotographs, some real, some staged, of everyday life, which are all at once moving,whimsical, goofy, dark, haunting, romanticand ultimately revelatory of an at timespainfully alienating yet deliriously, gorgeous and fantastical world as seen through the eyes, mind and lens of the artist.

I Have a Room with Everything traces of intense consciousness overlap reality and trigger Bonajo’s as well as the viewer’s imagination. “Photography for meis never intended to gain the upper hand,” says Bonajo, “but a way of sculpting mentallife.” For Bonajo, taking the photograph isalmost like a ritual, a supreme momentumin which there is an extended awareness ofthe different layers and meanings of reality.

The Fair hosts over 200 international presses, booksellers, antiquarian dealers, and independent artist/publishers presenting a diverse range of the best in contemporary art publications.

P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center
22-25 Jackson Ave at the intersection of 46th Ave
Long Island City, NY 11101

Friday/Saturday, October 2 and 3, 2009, 11am-7pm
Sunday, October 4, 2009, 11am-5pm