The NYC mag reveals its newest cover exclusively on Dazed Fashion, featuring contributions from Bella Newman and Eloise Parry
What comes to mind when you think of Valentine’s Day? A petal strewn bedspread at a cheap hotel? Mass-produced truffles and a Hallmark card? Two models pierced and tied together by pink ribbon? Admittedly, that last one may not be your regular Valentine’s fare, but No Erotica – New York’s NSFW erotica upstart – has never claimed to be a regular magazine. For the cover of their fourth issue, editors Chloe Mackey and Alex Tsebelis of No Agency tapped photographer Bella Newman to capture that inspired scene, where models Ella and Iris were studded with hooped piercings and bound to each other in compromising positions.
“The cover shoot came together organically,” says Mackey of the image. “The play piercings are something that Iris had done before with Rocky, who did the piercings in the issue. Bella was immediately taken with the idea. She brought us to Altoona, where she grew up.” In the images, the models are wrapped in Prada, Miu Miu, and Sinéad O’Dwyer, the latter of whom the creative team were conceptually inspired by. “Sinéad’s work references shibari [Japanese decorative bondage] and plays with some of those same binding concepts that we were considering with the ribbon,” continued Mackey. But as the shoot progressed, the team realised that the message they were attempting to convey had a more far reaching meaning than they initially considered, one about “love and constraint, and what ties people together.”
Issue number four also features actor and podcaster Dasha Nekrasova photographed by Jason Al-Taan, Eloise Sext’s by photographer Eloise Parry, and the 19th century diaries of Anne Lister, the “first modern lesbian,” which are edited by The Drift’s Krithika Varagur. Of this decision to have such disparate pieces alongside each other, Mackey explained that, “Eloise and Krithika’s pieces work really well together – and as a part of the whole issue – because love and sex have always been the same, whether it’s a diary from the 1800s or a slutty iMessage.”
And for those of you dying to get that much more of No Erotica, number four marks the first time the mag’s been made in an 8.5” x 11” format – twice the size of previous issues. “We were constrained to the same proportions as our monthly newsletter [because] we were compiling all of the work into our book,” explains Mackey. “Now that that’s done and out in the world, No Erotica can be whatever we want it to be, which is now much more similar in format to 80s and 90s porn magazines. That’s where the submissions come from too, that world.”
Sent in by readers of the magazine, the submissions are “by far the hardest section to edit because of the volume of images we have to sift through,” says Mackey, “or more bluntly, the number of amazing nudes we get to look at.” The submissions section may have received a record number for this issue, but what the team is looking for are images and letters that feel authentic (“We’d much rather have a blurry iPhone photo than something from a professional photo shoot” says Mackey.) And, thanks to their status as an independent pub, it means that pretty much anything can go in, no matter how NSFW. It’s a freeing way to live, not only for the readers, but also for the editors, who believe that “giving people space for really open expression is probably the most important part of what we’re doing.”
No Erotica issue 4 starts shipping on February 23. For more info, head here.