Andrew Richardson Hasn’t Grown Out Of Provocation

With a background in fashion and considerable experience as a stylist, why did you decide to start the magazine in the first place?  

Richardson Magazine is something that happened almost by accident. Living in New York during the 1990s, I was lucky enough to work with [the seminal underground editor, gallerist and actor] Fumihiro Hayashi, who published Dune magazine. He saw some scrapbooks I had made over the years and one day he asked me if I wanted to start a porn mag. When it first launched, everything we ran in the magazine was what inspired me at the time, and that still remains the case to this day. 

The last issue was the Agency issue, this is the California issue. How did this theme arise? How do you select your themes? And how do you choose your cover girls?

Living in California, it seemed like an interesting challenge to try to explore the state in a way that hadn’t been done to death. California, to me, is about the surface of things, as well as a reinvention of spirituality, a combination of factors that gave birth to Hollywood, the internet, and much of our contemporary culture. Each magazine, and its cover star, is a reflection of the environment it was created in, and I found Sky Bri to be emblematic of a new type of adult entertainer––part porn star, part celebrity, and entirely born from the online age. 

The theme of the next magazine, Richardson A13, is Europe, a topic we decided on because the magazine will be sponsored by the arts organization A/POLITICAL, which is based in London.

You’ve been publishing this magazine since 1998. Nearly three decades later, do you think attitudes to sex have shifted? Has this influenced what you do? 

Richardson Magazine began in the pre-internet era, and now since the advent of the internet, and social media in particular, we’ve seen our cultural mores and priorities change rapidly. You can’t ignore any of that when publishing an intentionally provocative magazine about sex and sexuality, but you also have to remain separate from it in a way—you have to fight the urge to give in and become part of the times, in order to accurately represent them. 

I read that you don’t define the magazine as a pornographic one, or even as erotica, but as an arts and culture publication. Why do you think we need to make distinctions between these things?

Porn starts somewhere and ends with a climax. I’m more interested in stopping halfway through and wondering why you’re there. 

Since the magazine first launched, it’s evolved into a fashion brand too. What’s the relationship between the magazine and the brand? How do you translate the magazine’s ethos into clothing?

The Richardson apparel brand came out of both Richardson Magazine and Supreme. Supreme is our longest-standing advertiser, and we did a few t-shirt collaborations over the years, which is where the idea of creating a Richardson brand began. 

I worked in the fashion industry for a long time as a designer and stylist, so I’d formed as strong a point of view about clothing as I had of image making. Initially we just made basic t-shirts with graphics pulled directly from the magazine, and slowly we moved to building a world that wasn’t directly related to the magazine but instead to my own interests, and the interests of those working with me. Eventually we went beyond graphic shirts to actual garments, and grew into a fully-fledged fashion company. 

While Richardson Magazine and Richardson the brand are separate entities, they’re both guided by the considered application of hard work and good taste.  

Media and the way that we consume images have changed radically in the last three decades, particularly through social media. How has that impacted your magazine? Has it?

Social media has of course influenced the magazine, I’m interested in examining the cultural zeitgeist in whatever form it takes, so it’s as relevant to browse the internet and my “for you” feed as it is to search for interesting things in bookstores, museums, the streets, or through conversation. 

In an old interview with SSENSE you say, “It’s really good to assault people with something vulgar”. How do you draw the line between transgressing ‘good taste’ and shock for shock’s sake? 

Both are equally appropriate depending on the situation. 

The word ‘provocative’ is often used to describe Richardson Magazine, and a recent profile by the New York Times said you, “enjoy being a provocateur”. What does that word mean to you?  

Growing up in England, there was an idea that anything relevant had to, by necessity, shock your parents. Provocation was the ethos of the youth culture I grew up in, an ethos I still haven’t grown out of, and one I feel has renewed energy in an age where culture is dominated by shadowbanning, censorship, and hypersensitivity, our new hall monitors. 

How do you keep making work that feels new? Is that an important consideration for you?

I’m not interested in making something that feels new, I want to make something that feels true.