Fashion Wire Daily Paris May 28, 2003 - "A magazine should be like a dildo - it should tease and excite." That's the philosophy of Paris-based photographer Michel Haddi who is currently enjoying a large amount of interest in the launch issue of his eponymous magazine "Haddi & More".
With his publishing concept Haddi is promising "to go against what other magazines are doing" by producing arresting imagery that's not just of interest "to ten people who work in fashion," but which the viewer can "still pick up and appreciate in five years, instead of it being redundant by the time the next issue comes out."
Issue one, based on beauty, is entitled "Acid in Wonderland" and features just one model -- Natasa Vojnovic -- throughout. With an introduction by fashion scribe Melissa Moore that explains that, "Alice was tripping through a swamp of visions as delirious as realistic," comes the lush, clearly lit and color-saturated result of Haddi's five-day shoot. Not surprisingly, "Natasa was very tired at the end of it!" he revealed. She certainly took part in one of the best-dressed and prettiest acid trips ever, sporting a tiara-and-smeared-make-up mode on the cover that looks elegantly wasted rather than messily strung-out.
The 20 euro magazine -- in a limited edition of 5000 copies -- has just gone on sale in selected stores in New York, LA and a smattering of other cities, and has three double pages and an inside back cover of advertising from names like Chanel, Eres and Lancôme. For Haddi this is only the start. He is anticipating major advertising interest for the second issue -- due out in July -- and entitled "Surf & Turf," which is devoted to surf culture. With typical surfer dude lingo and scenarios, and surf champ Kelly Slater riding the waves in Tahiti, he feels it will be more attractive to a wider "Anglo-Saxon" audience, not just a Franco-central fashion one.
Haddi talks of his plans for his print baby with unmitigated enthusiasm. Speaking volubly of the genius of Vogue Italia and the success of Citizen K in both artistic and commercial terms, Haddi is interested in someday being able to offer other photographers the chance to participate in his magazine too, giving them a relative sense of carte blanche under a controlled framework and theme. It isn't called "Haddi & More" for nothing.
But that's in the future. For the moment his pulse is racing about "Surf & Turf" and about issue four, called "Young & Beautiful," due to launch next year during Oscar time. Based on Hollywood's rising stars it's the result of a shoot carried out last year in Morocco and mixed with images of thespians who have since become stars from a shoot carried out for Vogue Hommes under the then-editorship of FWD chief Godfrey Deeny. And issue three, due this October or November, will be a fashion special that, according to a guarded Haddi, "will be a very interesting surprise for people."
On the subject of criticism from some quarters that "Haddi & More" is just an expensive ego trip, Haddi is unrepentant, citing Helmut Newton's "Newton's Illustrated" magazine as an example of a photographer producing an accessible medium in which to create personal work. Newton, Haddi emphasizes, is one of his heroes for the way he depicts and plays intellectually with sexuality. "He suggests so much but you never see anything. It's all in the mind," Haddi explains sagely. "Those other photographers showing people having sex and giving blowjobs...it's all so lazy and tired."
