The team behind Huck magazine began work on their latest issue in February—and then the world changed.
The bimonthly British culture magazine’s Sanctuary Issue is finally out, and the team is offering a peek behind the curtain about everything that went into it.
In March, the editors hit pause on the nearly finished issue—and when they returned to it months later, were perhaps surprised to discover that the stories featured inside, about hope and resilience, were actually more relevant than ever.
They decided to go forward with the issue—but with a twist, as the world had fundamentally changed. Drawing inspiration from Jenny Holzer, Ed Ruscha and Zoe Leonard’s “exploration of notation and and redaction as art,” they gave the stories back to their subjects to annotate and update with a series of profound Post-Its. For the cover, after experimenting with a variety of treatments, the team found their final form in the photography of Anthony Geathers, who was documenting the Black Lives Matter movement as they were preparing to publish.
Ultimately, the issue navigates past and present “in a way that feels both reflective and reactive.”
“Huck 73 was, for obvious reasons, the most challenging thing we’ve done yet,” says editor Niall Flynn. “But that also made it the most rewarding, too—by some distance.”
The issue is dedicated to Caracas drag star Aron ‘Arona’ Mújica, who died a week after updating his story.
Here are some spreads from the final product, plus a video detailing its production.
