Hi.
Well, here we are online. Online. On the internet. Not on paper.
Did you see the first issue in all its paper glory? Pretty neat, hm? I thought so. Having the magazine on paper sure was fun. I rank the day fifty-eight cartons of magazines were delivered to my apartment as one of the funniest days of my entire life. Because there I was. And across the room, there sat fifty-eight boxes of magazines, piled high like a fortress. And it was my job to somehow make all of those magazines stop being in my apartment and start being all over New York City.
Distribution was a time. I suppose I'd be a jerk if I didn't publicly thank the people who volunteered their time, energy, and mental well-being to the distribution effort. My roommates, alphabetically: Mike Cherepko and Lisa Ann Agnes Filipek. My friends, alphabetically: Johanna Beyenbach, Jake Brown, Nick Colvin, Nicole Przybojewski, Dave Sticher. And the most amazing intern any publication has ever had: Dasha. Thanks, guys. And just so you readers all understand what "the distribution effort" actually entailed, I will tell you. The distribution effort entailed maneuvering extremely heavy (broken) carts, suitcases, and handtrucks full of magazines out of my apartment building, down the stairs of the subway station, into the train, up the stairs of another subway station, and all around the city. In the heat of August. Wow.
BITEmagazine is a low-fi effort.
Which is why it's a lot more practical for us to be online-only, for the time being, at least.
This is the second issue of the magazine, and the first issue that has a theme. (Every issue from this point on will have a central photographic theme. Yay.) Self-portrait. Why self-portrait? Well, a few reasons. The first is a reason of practicality and laziness: if the authors were taking their own pictures, that meant I didn't have to schedule time for them to be photographed. That's a good reason even if it stands alone, but it doesn't. Self-portrait is an interesting idea. People look subtly different in pictures they take of themselves compared to pictures other people take of them. Perhaps it's the lack of photographer: the subject can only stare at the camera; the subject knows no one is looking through that lens, viewing and judging at the time the photograph is taken. I think that allows self-portraits to be just a little more open, and looking at them a little more voyeuristic. A self-portrait captures what someone is doing alone. The absence of the photographer/subject relationship brings to the forefront, and intensifies, the subject/viewer relationship. No one has seen exactly what the self-portrait pictures before the viewer sees it, save perhaps the subject.
I hope you like this issue. Let me know what you think. I'm curious. Like a kitten.
Laura