Sophie Mörner is a busy, entrepreneurial woman. Last week during the New York Art Book Fair at MoMA PS1, the Swedish-born, New York-based photographer launched the latest edition of Capricious, the biannual photography journal she founded in 2003.
This week she’s travelling while simultaneously preparing the next show at the Brooklyn gallery she opened almost two years ago. And there’s still work to be done on that emerging artist’s book she’s putting out next year. Issue #11 of Capricious is titled Being Fashion. It was curated by JOFF, the Dutch art director and features work by Aaron McElroy, Beni Bischof, Carl Hasselgärde, Daniel Gordon and Matthew Stone, among others. The magazine now sports a sharp and spiffy new re-design by Dutch designer Laurenz Brunner. For the latest issue, contributors were asked to envision what the phenomenon of fashion looks like in an attempt to examine the dialogue between fashion and fine art.
When not supervising the efforts of her burgeoning independent publishing empire, or directing the programming for the next exhibition at Capricious Space, her artist-run gallery for up-and-coming creatives (a new show debuts 19 November), you can find Mörner hanging with her friends and colleagues in her Williamsburg offices. Failing that, at the opening of one of her own solo exhibitions in Stockholm, or, maybe, in California attending a horse show (she is passionate about them), which is where i-D Online caught up with her to discuss some of her past, current, and future, (hardly capricious) endeavors.
When did you start Capricious Publishing? I started Capricious seven years ago when I was fresh out of university in New York City. I didn’t find any publications where I wanted to publish my own photography, and many of my friends were in the same situation. So I started Capricious, for us.
Capricious comes out twice a year and each specially curated issue is devoted to a different theme, which has ranged from androgyny to Mexico to animals. How do you choose the themes and select the curators? Well, sometimes I choose the theme and look for a curator to fit the theme, like for the Feminist Issue (#10). I had really been wanting to make a feminist issue for a while. I was introduced to Tammy Rae Carland through a friend of mine, and boom, there was the combo I had been waiting for. Other times, I have ideas of curators I really want to work with and, together with them, I find the theme.
Capricious #11 was launched at the New York Art Book Fair last week and its theme is ‘Being Fashion’. How did the idea for it come about and who are some of the photographers featured? JOFF is an old friend of mine, and he is always an inspiration to me. He actually came with the proposal of doing a fashion issue for Capricious. At first, I was very hesitant because Capricious has always been very adamant about not doing fashion because there are so many publications for fashion photography out there. But his approach was different. And I challenged him. I basically said: show me a fashion issue of Capricious that is not about fashion photography. And he did!!
And there’s Capricious Space, your gallery. What’s on view now and what exhibitions do you have upcoming? The two shows coming up are Skye Parrott: First Love, Last Rites, opening 19 November, to be followed by Diana Scherer in January.
Capricious #11, Being Fashion, curated by JOFF, goes on sale internationally this week.
