We are excited to announce The Fiction Issue! Copies are on their way to subscribers.

Subscriptions placed before October 1 will include Issue 15.

Purchase/subscribe here.

Editor’s Letter

I walked into a tiny shop in New York City’s Chinatown to have my aura photographed. It was my birthday and I was curious about the analogue process that claimed to show the electromagnetic field surrounding me. Like magic, my orange and purple aura appeared in the Polaroid. The photographer told me it meant I was coming out of a time of anxiety and into a one of great focus and determination. I knew that the photograph was fiction and not a true depiction of my character or a premonition of my future. Still, I let myself believe that the colorful hues were proof of these good things to come.  

Photographs are often thought of as factual—used as evidence or records of truth. But photography’s relationship with the truth has always been tenuous, from simply excluding objects from the frame to elaborately constructing scenes. Whether through invention or fabrication, we love the idea of photography as fiction because it shows us what could happen in a medium designed to show us what has. 

We have dedicated this issue to photographers who craft stories of places, people, and circumstances different from our reality. Dystopian futures are imagined through dioramas, history re-written more inclusively, and pulp novels are brought to life. Shakespeare’s Ophelia floats through the pages in a visual essay, and watercolors meld with digital imagery to create new worlds. Escape into these works of fantasy and fiction. This issue also celebrates the winner of our inaugural Prize for Contemporary Photography, Patty Carroll for her series, Anonymous Women: Domestic Demise. 

— Kat Kiernan, Editor-in-Chief