Dan Crowe

Issue One of Port still feels to me, 15 years after launching, electric - a document of blind enthusiasm held together by instinct rather than infrastructure. When we launched in 2011, there was no safety net. No investment, no guarantees - just a monthly oscillation between conviction and quiet panic. Only later did advertisers begin to circle, and with them came a degree of steadiness. Eventually. What we were attempting - a conversation between design, literature, taste and style - wasn’t entirely without precedent, but it felt, at the time, oddly unclaimed territory. There was something of Esquire’s late-60s bravado in the mix, a willingness to let strong voices carry the pages; a touch, too, of Nova’s editorial curiosity, its refusal to stay in one lane; and perhaps a distant echo of National Geographic, in the sense that reportage and image-making were treated as equal acts of discovery. The design by @mrwilley and @kucharswara struck a balance I still admire: pared back, but never polite - graphic without shouting. It gave the magazine a sense of permanence, of being something to keep. @brigittelacombe ’s portrait of Day-Lewis on the cover helped too. And then there were the contributors. Jon Snow, Robert Hughes, @samanthamorton - voices you didn’t expect to find sharing the same space - alongside Daniel Day-Lewis reporting from Gaza and timeless fashion shoots by @dstjohnjames . Will Self contributed one of his finest short stories, while @robinbeebee and @fredericlagrange turned their lenses on the poetry of objects and landscapes, from intimate still lifes to the vastness of Greenland. Elsewhere, @margarethowellltd wrote on the duffle coat with characteristic precision, and @marcusdusautoy on the beauty of mathematics. I had a long lunch with our Food Editor Fergus Henderson @st.john.restaurant ... At that point, Port was a quarterly. Now, as a biannual, the rhythm is slower, more deliberate. But looking back, I’m struck by the simplicity of that debut: the watercolours, the subtle nod to Swiss modernism, and the unspoken truth that we were inventing the rules as we went. It shows. And that’s precisely why I still love it.

“How did America become so openly nasty? Why are there so many hate groups? This cover drawing is a verbal picture of the daily sounds of America.” So begins Paula Scher’s explanation of her cover art for INQUE, Issue 2 (of 10), 2023. Also in this issue: @stevenfry , Natasha Brown (@wordsbynatasha ), @pablodelcan , @willself , @nicholsonbaker , David Keenan, @reversediorama , @lauren_elkin_ , @edmunddewaal , @paulcopyrightdavis , @chieskafortunesmith , @mark_haddon , Leanne Shapton (@shaptonia ), Ben Lerner, @rupert_thomson , @philip_hoare , @nzeluwrites , @johnedgarwideman , @joycecaroloates3146 — and many more. Design & Art Direction: @mrwilley Contributing Editors: Harriet Moore, Cillian Murphy, Adam Moss Print Management @thelogicalchoicestudio A passionate, large-format issue with multiple paper stocks — at times infuriating, sometimes seemingly at odds with itself. Which, honestly, feels exactly right.

Issue 3 of @inquemag — probably the issue we spent the most time creating. It was certainly the one that took the longest to design by @MrWilley . Hey, I’m not judging, Matt. Inside you’ll find an extraordinary (and lengthy) interview with iconic American artist Jim Dine (@jimdinestudio ), conducted by his grandson @AugustDine . There’s also a sharp conversation between Gary Shteyngart (@shteyngart ) and the spirit of Anton Chekhov — plus a feature on the phenomenal author Aleksandar Hemon (@cielohemon ), interviewed by @rebeccarukeyser . There’s fiction from leading voices like Jonathan Lethem (@jonathanlethem ), Maya Binyam (@mayabinyam ), Rita Bullwinkel (@ritabullwinkel ), @budsmith , Shuang Xuetao, Amalia Ulman (@amaliaulman ), and Alexander Chee (@cheemobile ). Non-fiction pieces come from a rich array of minds, including ‘erotic dissident’ @lias_saoudi , @sachinkureishi , @edmunddewaal , Bruce Robinson, Adania Shibli, Anthony Anaxagorou (@anthony_anaxagorou ), @philip_hoare , David Keenan (@reversediorama ), Noreen Masud (@noreen_masud ), @fergus_nosetotail , @wernerherzogofficial , and Will Self… You’ll also find beautiful photography by Agnes Lloyd-Platt (@agnesvita ) and @chieskafortunesmith , with artwork by @paulcopyrightdavis and illustrations from @pablodelcan . Contributing editors include Cillian Murphy, Adam Moss, and Wesley Morris (@wsslyy ). Senior editor: Dennis Zhou. Sub editor @maddiecrum There are only a few copies left of this — issue 3 of 10. Head over to inquemag.com to grab 1, 2, or 3 issues while they still exist… Special thanks to @thelogicalchoicestudio .

LaKeith Stanfield (@lakeithstanfield3 ) has built a career on unpredictability. From the surreal satire of Sorry to Bother You to the fury of Judas and the Black Messiah, he’s never stayed in one lane. For Issue 37, the cover star talks to Simran Hans (@simranhans ) about fatherhood, fearlessness and stepping behind the camera for the first time – plus his latest roles in Shane Black’s noir Play Dirty and Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love. Stanfield wears @paulsmithdesign , excerpt below: Friendliness goes a long way in Stanfield’s world. “I don’t really like impersonal relations,” he explains. It’s why he’s not a big fan of New York City, where he’s just flown in from. “When there are a lot of people around, we might as well say hello to one another,” he says. I can picture it now: Stanfield in the middle of a crowded Times Square, waving affably, jostled by unimpressed passers-by. “When I go to New York, I’m pretty much the only person with that thought,” he jokes. When asked if that impulse comes from his family, he pauses. “I don’t think so. They weren’t particularly polite,” he says, laughing. “I think it’sjust me.” Head to the link in bio to read the full story and pre-order your copy. Photography @internetbby Styling @anna_schilling Photography assistant @khalilah.pianta Grooming @tashareikobrown using Chanel Beauty Production @hyperion.la Editor-in-chief @mrdancrowe Associate publisher @andrewchidgey Creative director Matt Curtis @uncommon_london @mcurtis1 Deputy editor @aylaangelos Fashion director @mitchellbelk Photography director @colesontoast Art director @ed__seymour Production director @carlyrgray Talent/Casting director @tommacklinstudio Production manager @jackstacye

Richard E Grant (@richard.e.grant ) likes to think of himself as a sharp flavour added at just the right moment. It’s a modest description for an actor whose career spans Withnail and I, an Academy Award nomination for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, and collaborations with the likes of Scorsese, Campion and Altman. Now, in his “condiment years”, Grant speaks to Hannah Strong (@thethirdhan ) about the friendships, films and insatiable curiosity that continues to define his life and work. Grant wears @churchs , excerpt below: “My wife said that I was in the condiment years of my career,” Richard E Grant recalls fondly, sitting in his study on a bright September morning. “I’m brought into a film like vinegar or mustard or a spice. I feel that is a very accurate description of what I’m doing at this age.” Grant, with a long and storied career under his belt and the likes of Martin Scorsese, Jane Campion and Robert Altman among his previous directors, is in his element. This year alone he appears in no fewer than four feature films, while a quick glance at Grant’s IMDB profile confirms a further 10 upcoming projects across genres and formats, from a voice performance in Wildwood, the much-anticipated animated film from Laika, to playing the father of magazine icon Isabella Blow in The Queen of Fashion. The “condiment years” are being kind to Grant, who is fitting in our conversation before an afternoon of ADR voice work in central London. He’s busy – but that’s very much the way he likes it. Photography @dougie_irvine Styling @nilonilo_ Photography assistant @tombullerphotography Styling assistant @namedroksi Editor-in-chief @mrdancrowe Associate publisher @andrewchidgey Creative director Matt Curtis @uncommon_london @mcurtis1 Deputy editor @aylaangelos Fashion director @mitchellbelk Photography director @colesontoast Art director @ed__seymour Production director @carlyrgray Talent/Casting director @tommacklinstudio Production manager @jackstacye

Kate! The Oscar-winning actress, known for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Steve Jobs and The Reader, is stepping behind the camera for the first time. Her directorial debut, Goodbye June – a stirring family drama, written by her son – marks a new chapter. For Issue 37, Kate Winslet speaks to Kerry Crowe about the surprising strength of midlife, the freedom of turning 50, and how, as a longtime Longines ambassador, she’s begun to think of time not just in hours, but in stories told. Winslet wears @longines throughout, excerpt below: Winslet is an invigorating person to be around. Her intelligence is immediately obvious, but so too is her desire to pull everyone around, particularly women, up with her. “I really do care about championing other women. We have to lift each other up, otherwise we are literally fucked; both on set and off, in the world, in life, as mothers, partners – all of it – sisters, friends. We have to lift each other up.” She’s acutely aware of structural inequality in her own industry and puts her money where her mouth is, insisting that the 2024 film, Lee, about war photographer Lee Miller, which Winslet co-produced and starred in, have a female director: “Because I felt that it was right that a woman should be telling that story, but also because we do still have such a shortage of female directors being offered those opportunities and stepping into that creative space.” Head to the link in bio to read the full story and pre-order your copy. Photography @lizcollinsphotographer Styling @millernaomi Make-up @lisaeldridgemakeup using Lisa Eldridge Beauty Hair @dayaruci @thewallgroup using @hairbysammcknight Production @theproductionfactory Photography assistant @tomayerst Styling assistant @_lizabete Editor-in-chief @mrdancrowe Associate publisher @andrewchidgey Creative director Matt Curtis @uncommon_london @mcurtis1 Deputy editor @aylaangelos Fashion director @mitchellbelk Photography director @colesontoast Art director @ed__seymour Production director @carlyrgray Talent/Casting director @tommacklinstudio Production manager @jackstacye

From her breakout in Queen & Slim to portraying Anne Boleyn, cover star Jodie Turner-Smith (@jodiesmith ) has never settled for the expected. In the years since, she’s moved with ease between imagined galaxies in Star Wars: The Acolyte, meditative sci‑fi in AfterYang and high-tech worlds in Tron: Ares. Next, she’ll return to the screen in series 2 of the high-stakes spy thriller The Agency. For Issue 37, Turner-Smith speaks to Natty Kasambala (@nattykasambala ) about expanding her universe exploring womanhood, power and resilience with a voice that feels wholly her own. Turner-Smith is photographed with @montblanc pen. Excerpt below: “What’s next after [this promo run] is being a ‘Valley mum’ in Studio City,” she laughs. “I’m really excited about pick-ups and drop-offs and circle time and popcorn Fridays.” In the next breath, she peppers in frequent mentions of the patriarchy, the ‘Herculean task’ of motherhood and the ways in which the former often minimises the latter. “[Motherhood] involves so much invisible labour, which is why I believe it’s been discounted so much – people often discount things that they cannot quantify,” Turner-Smith says. “Women are owed so much reverence but... if we truly acknowledged their power then we’d have to do a lot of things differently, wouldn’t we?” Photography @gatescharlie Styling @georgia_thompson Photography assistants @olivermatich , Alice Abbey-Ryah Styling assistant @taylorahernstylist Hair @marcialuvlocks using As I Am Make-up @joeyjoeychoy @thewallgroup Nails by @done.bymegan using Nailberry Set design @potlinsun Production @theproductionfactory Post production lamina.studio.london Editor-in-chief @mrdancrowe Associate publisher @andrewchidgey Creative director Matt Curtis @uncommon_london @mcurtis1 Deputy editor @aylaangelos Fashion director @mitchellbelk Photography director @colesontoast Art director @ed__seymour Production director @carlyrgray Talent/Casting director @tommacklinstudio �Production manager @jackstacye

Introducing Port Issue 37 and the first of six cover stars – Benedict Cumberbatch. After working on the new adaptation of Max Porter’s (@maxmaxporter ) novel Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Cumberbatch sits down with the writer to talk about grief, fatherhood, and how to live and create in chaotic times. Cumberbatch wears @prada . Excerpt below: Max Porter: One night I was robotically stirring risotto and I didn’t hear him come in. I had been crying a lot, but I wasn’t crying at that moment. My son wrapped his arms around me, held me for about three minutes, then left the room. It was exactly what Feathers is about. A non-verbal, instinctual benevolence. He recognised I needed it. My ability to grieve for that faraway child I’ve never met is connected to my ability to love this one. There is no empathy gap to be crossed. It’s all in me. It’s the pain that is thrust upon me. As he says in the book, ‘let no man cease to fix it.’ It is how I love. May we hurtle back into our family units, covered in the scars and thickets and bristles of the work, and let them see it. Let them soak it up. Let them know that we’re weird. Benedict Cumberbatch: It’s been amongst many fears of raising children, the fact we both have three boys. This is a story of male grief – what men feel or don’t allow them-selves to feel, and the damage done. We are living through a culture of that. One of the most important things to teach boys is that it’s fine to feel. You are strong in vulnerability.” An extraordinary interview… Photography @matt_healy_studio Styling @reubenesser Grooming @wakana_yoshihara Production @theproductionfactory Photography assistants Cameron Jack and Leigh Skinner Styling assistant @mayuuufukuda Editor-in-chief @mrdancrowe Associate publisher @andrewchidgey Creative director Matt Curtis @uncommon_london @mcurtis1 Deputy editor @aylaangelos Fashion director @mitchellbelk Photography director @colesontoast Art director @ed__seymour Production director @carlyrgray Talent/Casting director @tommacklinstudio

Butterfly, which I edited back in 2000 from a small dark basement on Fashion St in East London. It featured a then-little-known writer named Zadie Smith. This was her first-ever magazine cover. I asked Zadie to write an A–Z of herself — and what she sent back was a beautifully offbeat list of the people, books, and ideas that inspired her to become a writer. Also in the issue, fiction by rising talents @mdjthorne , @scarthomas , @steveaylettbooks , and @candidaclark ; a reported story by Joe Ambrose on the buying and selling of William Burroughs and an interview with artist Joan Fontcuberta, which in many ways, with these incredible images, predicted the rise of AI. This was me learning how to put a magazine together properly and was ludicrously exciting, but I was happy to get out of that basement. Design by Stephen Male Photography by Christoph Klauke

Issue one of INQUE. I really adore this issue. Large format. Zero advertising. Only 10 issues will ever be made. A creative document of this decade, made to be collected and treasured. So excited to have launched this in 2021 with my old pal @mattwilley . Written work by: Ope Adedeji, @therealmargaretatwood @cheemobile , @naoisedolan , Jay Griffiths, @reversediorama David Keenan, Hanif Kureishi, @catherinelacey_ Lacey, Ben Lerner, Jonathan Lethem, Sophie Mackintosh, Helen Marten, Philip Hoare, Caleb Azumah Nelson, @joycecaroloates3146 , Ben Okri, @maxmaxporter , Nathaniel Rich, Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, Kathryn Scanlan, Will Self, Chieska Fortune Smith, Leïla Slimani, @shawnmpridgen , @kaetempest , Jia Tolentino, Wells Tower, Jack Underwood, @ocean_vuong , @anthony_anaxagorou , AgnesLloyd-Platt , @edmunddewaal and Tom Waits. The reality of launching an indie mag today means facing challenges like soaring post-Brexit postage costs, and endless rising paper prices, but it’s worth it. (And if you have copies which have been late getting to you, please DM me.) Link in bio to order your issue 1, 2 or 3 now. #Inque #NewMagazine #Print #ArtMagazine #Literature #Design #OceanVuong #MargaretAtwood #TomWaits #SupportPrint

I was lucky to call the extraordinary John Byrne a friend. I’d visit him in Nairne, Scotland, where he was as generous with his conversation as with his art. His letters were little artworks too - like this one, written about his beloved Olympia typewriter, bought for eleven dollars and declared the finest of the many he owned. He describes it perched in his writing “coffin,” a tiny room next to the kitchen where he could peer out at the birds and write his plays (“the ideas can’t fly out the small window”). I can imagine him there now, working on The Slab Boys or Your Cheatin’ Heart - stories full of wit, music, and the raw poetry of everyday life. He was a polymath, so talented at writing, art, cooking, making things and just being a good human.

I launched Zembla with the wonderful, rare bookseller @simon_voewood_finch , and for our very first cover we shot @swinton.tilda who inside interviewed her longtime partner, the extraordinary novelist and painter John Byrne. Inside, the line-up was as eclectic and a little bit nuts: Brian Eno on WMDs; Bob Gottlieb (former New Yorker editor) on a monkey he bought in a second-hand store in Brighton; Steve Martin on writing (It’s easy!); Michel Faber interviewing Marcel Duchamp; Manolo Blahnik illustrations, and an open letter by Dame Edna. With @vince_frost as Creative Director/Designer and @mrwilley as Designer, Zembla was our attempt to bridge the gap between staid literary journals and glossy culture titles, while keeping the scrappy, irreverent energy of zines. It was fun, chaotic, and gloriously alive. Cover photo: Marcus Tomlinson