An elderly gangster rocking some flamboyant boxers and a heavily tattooed skinhead squinting into the camera on a beach – these are two of the ten individuals whose portraits grace the pages of new online quarterly, Accent Magazine.
Click images to enlarge.
The brainchild of curator/photographer Lydia Garnett and designer Lucy Nurnberg, the zine was born out of the duo’s shared desire to gaze deep into the souls of those living outside the walls of conventionality. Featuring some truly inspirational, one-of-a-kind characters, Accent’s online portrait project explores the worlds of fashion, art, music and subculture to revel in the idea of difference. i-D online caught up with founder Lydia Garnett to chat about extraordinary people and the concept behind Accent.
What inspired you to launch Accent? Accent combines a shared passion for documentary portraiture and alternative lifestyles – we really wanted to create an archive of stories from extraordinary individuals across the globe.
How did you meet the inspirational characters featured in Accent? We went travelling for three months through Mexico and the USA, and met some really inspirational characters along the way. It was on that trip that we decided to start the project, and share the stories of some of those people. Over the past two years we’ve been collaborating with photographers and filmmakers who also focus on documenting unconventional subjects. In the first issue, we’re sharing stories of homelessness in East London, portraits from the Nevada desert at Burning Man festival, and a series on hand knitters in Herefordshire.
Which story do you like the most from Issue #1? With each issue we’re trying to bring a really diverse range of subject matter, so we feel that each feature brings something unique. A big part of the Accent ethos is to keep the magazine free from hierarchy – we’re trying to portray all of our subjects on an equal level.
What makes someone extraordinary? Anyone who is brave enough to live their life in the way that they want, regardless of what anyone else might think about it.
What are your 3 rules to live by? High on our priorities is travel, spending time with good people and generally making the most of it. As our wonderful friend Dee says: “The key to great craic is great people”.
Got any spoilers for the next issue? We can’t wait to get serious about issue two – already in the pipeline are some stories from Amsterdam, Budapest and Thailand.
Text: Abra Dunsby-Sircana
