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After months of work, STAF Magazine #51 is finally here.
Our new issue is entirely devoted to California. This place has been part of STAF’s visual and cultural imagination since the magazine began in Málaga in 1997. This time, however, we wanted to approach it from a much wider, more personal and less obvious perspective.
The result is The California Issue, a 192-page journey through skateboarding, surfing, photography, music, art, illustration, publishing and independent culture. At its core, it is built around 23 conversations with people and projects from different generations and different parts of the state.
Chad Eaton created the cover exclusively for STAF, bringing his unmistakable Timber! universe to The California Issue.
Inside, the magazine also features original illustrations by Vanesa Zafra for the California Locos and Nazraeli Press features.
Artists across California
For this issue we spoke with Lara Botto, Top Jimmy & The Rhythm Pigs, Diana Matar, Adler Smith Gallery, Ethan Swope, Elizabeth Waterman, Paskowitz Van Museum, Eye & Hand Society, California Locos, Jeff Cheung, Cynthia Connolly, Craig Stecyk, Andy Jenkins, Siri Kaur, Chad Eaton, Nazraeli Press, Dave Tourje, Pilar O’Connor, Ray Barbee, Ayda Gragossian, Paskowitz Family, Deanna Templeton and Kent Uyehara.
It is an issue that moves constantly between scenes, generations and disciplines.
There is skateboarding in San Francisco, surf history and Los Angeles punk. There is also contemporary photography, independent galleries, DIY culture, publishing and illustration. Along the way, we meet some of the people who helped shape the visual language that made California so influential around the world.
Beyond the usual California mythology
However, the idea was never to make a nostalgic issue or reproduce the usual West Coast mythology.
Instead, we wanted to look at California as it really appears when you start talking to the people who live, create and build things there. It is complex, contradictory, constantly changing and impossible to reduce to a single image.
Some of the people featured in these pages helped define scenes that later became global references. Others belong to younger generations and are developing their own language today.
Together, their stories create a much broader portrait of the state. At the same time, they reveal the creative communities that continue to grow within it.
STAF Magazine #51 — The California Issue
STAF Magazine #51 is published in English and continues the independent editorial line we have followed since 1997.
As usual, the magazine focuses on long-form conversations, photography, culture and stories told directly through the people behind them.
STAF Magazine #51 — The California Issue is out now.
