VULTURE MAGAZINE: Beautiful, Dark Matter
About a month or so ago, I started noticing a new name coming up on the pages of my social mediums. Vulture - a name that is arresting, yet reveals nothing about the nature of the content and ideas behind it.
It was not until I spoke with Editor-in-Chief of Vulture Magazine, Nabil Aliffi, did I learn that the ambiguity was what Vulture stood for.
You have to agree that magazines, be it the printed version or its online edition, fall into the motion of being constricted by the genre they identify with. Fashion magazines largely report on…well, fashion. Tech magazines deal with the nifty gadgets, and so forth. And while diverse as the publication industry may be, what does this all mean to the reader? Where is the reader’s voice in all of it?
Enter Vulture. You see, Vulture is not exactly a fashion magazine. Neither can you shelve it under culture or music or art. In fact, if you tried, you would have to shelve it in all of the different sections.
“We saw the need for a space that allows for full creative freedom whether it is in fashion, art, film or general culture,” Aliffi explains. “It later grew to become an avenue for dialogue between those various domains to talk about things that are more inherent, intrinsic, if you will.”
“Beyond that, I leave it to the readers to decide what it represents to them.”
The magazine launched their debut issue last month. Titled ‘The Genesis Issue’, the pages were a clear indication of everything that the usual glossies were not. It gave you fashion, for example, but in a very raw way. There weren’t any “shiny-happy-people” types that you’ll find in most off-the-shelf titles. It was confrontational, but still elegant and poetic.
Venture on to read the articles and you will find that the narratives presented are subversively witty and emotional. The core of the magazine was driven by the honest idea that a magazine - any magazine - could put out content, but it should never be dictated by the content itself. It could be anything it wanted to be, and stand for anything you wanted it to stand for.
Coupling this idea with the hyperpowers of the Internet, and you have a winning combination. Aliffi’s team is spread across the tectonic plates of the world, ranging from “a variety of backgrounds, from Anthropology to Performance Art”. He believes that by opening the contribution pool to a wider base of talented individuals, the magazine is able to create an experience that is multi-faceted in content with brevity in each topic.
I hope that by now, you have a better understanding of Vulture. In closing, I asked Aliffi the question that has always stayed on my mind: why the name ‘Vulture’? With a laugh, he tells me it stems from a personal fascination of life through the process of decay. “It speaks of continuity. And as we know, Vulture is a scavenger by nature. Plus, the thought of being villain-ised is quite fun,” Aliffi ends with a smile.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Vulture.
Images from Vulture Magazine.
