Photographer, journalist and freelance writer, Eli Regan, has set up a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publication of a new magazine, ‘Mere Mortal’.
Eli says of the project –
From vintage photo essays like W Eugene Smith’s seminal work ‘Nurse Midwife’ about Maude Callen – a black nurse and midwife and Dorothea Lange’s ‘Migrant Mother’ essay to Gillian Wearing’s iconic heart-rending messages held by desperate businessmen and more recently Juno Calypso’s re-imagining of a solipsistic honeymoon, there’s definitely still life in the photo story.
Mere Mortal has grown out of this belief. We want to reflect photo stories by both known and lesser known photographers and also show high-calibre journalism and other types of writing: poetic, non-fiction, flash fiction.
The strap line ‘There’s STILL LIFE in the photo story’ plays on the ‘Mere Mortal’ title, means what it says but also is a double entendre in that the still life reflects photography’s borrowed practice from painting – the pictures of objects that can end up being more emblematic of the way we live than straight portraits.
The first issue will feature an all female line-up including photographers, Jona Frank, Tish Murtha, Niloo Kohan, Estelle Cadwallader and Hazel Hughes, and the writer, Anyonita Green-Boyle. I’m delighted that Eli has also invited me to write creatively around an image for this issue, something I love doing and am looking forward to very much.
Please do check out Mere Mortal – back it if you’re able to, or promote it, or simply get excited!