A latest magazine from Bior Elliott and Kazeem Kuteyi guarantees to chuck a liferaft right into a maelstrom of clickbait. “The media landscape is overly saturated but there are fewer and fewer magazines, so we’re using this publication to separate the filler from the killer,” the Latest Currency duo explain. The magazine explores the ways by which culture and technology work together to oppress and liberate the human body, and in a surprising coincidence, the publication can be called BODIES. 

“We feel that talking concerning the body is more relevant now than ever. Three years since lockdown was lifted, we’re still coming to terms with the results of alienation, vulnerability, and isolation,” Elliott and Kuteyi add. “However the body can be fashion’s first point of contact and most of the artists we desired to work with come from that scene.” They do that each literally and figuratively: showcasing the work of Arlette (who creates metal clothing) and Rosie Broadhead (who’s developing latest techniques to enhance and regulate the physical health of those that wear her stuff) alongside more abstract takes on the absurdity of bodies from artists Jamie Shilvock, Erica Ohmi and Anna Pesonen. 

Even the magazine itself has been designed to evoke the feeling of being locked right into a flesh-lined prison. Each cover (shot by Deion Squires, Bella Santucci, and Ayomide Tejuosho) displays the front of a body while back covers exhibit the rear. The spine of the publication has been inscribed with a James Messiah poem as a metaphor for a way the spinal cord transmits information. “Crucial thing to know is that BODIES is speculated to feel like a slow magazine. It’s a one-off survey of artists who’ve been working for the last half-decade.” Among the many contributors are Meemee White, Caleb Femi, Gabriel Moses, Ester Mejibovski, and Joseph Lokko – lots of whom have been longtime collaborators of Latest Currency. 

However it’s Jesse Crankson’s, Squires’, and Tejuosho’s work that is probably most totemic of the purpose and purpose of the project. “It was a beautiful full-circle moment to give you the option to offer Jesse a canopy since he was the primary photographer I ever worked with professionally as an art director,” Elliott says. “The shoot isn’t just visually strong but it surely also comments on our relationship with media and the devices we eat it through.” As for Squires and Tejuosho, Kuteyi believes “their photos mix realities, and their emotive qualities crawl under your skin.” Click through the gallery above to see what else is on offer from BODIES and head over here to buy a replica.