Mega Masters

John Vettese sees what develops: Megawords in NYC

by John Vettese

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Philadelphia-based photographic art magazine Megawords presents a world free of text. A world where images arranged smartly on the page adopt their own lyrical quality.

We see the vertical lines of a metal factory roof intersect with the horizontal lines of venetian blinds, sharply pitting domesticity against industry. One photo shows a shirtless young man aiming a revolver at the camera (pictured); next to it are the bathing suit-clad hips of some beach-going friends; below is the abandoned shell of a building.

Over five years and a dozen issues — the most recent one published in late 2009 — Megawords has, in a loose, collaged manner, studied the ways we interact with the relics of an aging urban society. Likewise, the magazine's showcase at New York City independent publishing hub Printed Matter (through April 3) is like a three-dimensional scrapbook.

In the front window of the Chelsea bookstore sits a dented, rusted Megawords honor box and a small television with a slideshow on loop. Maneuvering through the crowd to the exhibit in back finds six display cases filled with objects and ephemera: books, biker caps, cameras and cassettes (My Bloody Valentine, Wu-Tang Clan, Sufi instrumental music).

Megawords co-founder Anthony Smyrski says the cases are a way of creating ambience and atmosphere around their work. "It's physical stuff that inspires us," he explains.

The walls above are filled with stunning prints of photographs from recent issues, free of frames and densely layered around proofs and color separation plates. Smyrski calls the latter elements a study of the process and a nod to the folks in the Canadian printing facility they use; "People don't think about the workers who actually print the magazine."

Despite its photo-centricity, Megawords' founders don't consider themselves photographers — at least not in the formal sense. Smyrski points to a Rollei point-and-shoot; he says it's the most high-end camera he or creative partner Dan Murphy use.

"We're more editors than photographers," Smyrski says. "We're not always concerned with the best composition or the best technical skill, but more what the photos produce together, how they relate to one another."

We adjourn to Clement C. Moore Park across 10th Avenue to discuss the publication's growth from an inaugural edition on newsprint in October 2005, to the sharp magazine and New York showcase we see today.

Megawords has steadily built up its Philadelphia following with quarterly issues, book signings and other events like 2008's Megawords Storefront project in Chinatown.

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It's also slowly made inroads in New York. Murphy had a solo show of his photographs at the Mass Appeal gallery, while the team exhibited at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. The Museum of Modern Art keeps back issues of Megawords in its library, but Smyrski nonetheless considers their presence in New York small. "That's why this exhibit is great," he says. It's the biggest showing the magazine has received outside of Philadelphia.

"We get 200 titles a month," says Catherine Krudy, Printed Matter director. "Even at that volume, this project stood out."

That Megawords aims for a broader audience is unsurprising. Despite being a grassroots, Philly-centric operation, and a frequent showcase of the city's photo-luminaries like Zoe Strauss and Adam Wallacavage, the content is refreshingly universal. The cover of a recent issue shows kids gleefully quarry-diving; this scene could have happened in Montgomeryville, or in Montana. It could have been recent, or from a bygone era (think Breaking Away).

It's a quality Krudy admires. "[Megawords] is so much of a zine in its very personal worldview," she says. "It's also nice that it isn't super heavy on editorializing."

This is key, Smyrski says. The photos are intentionally free of captions and explanations to make it accessible to the greatest number of people.

"If you're an artist or have an art background, if you know that vocabulary, you'll get it on that level," he says. "But if you don't, it lets people associate and pull stories out of it on their own. We leave it open for interpretation."

(john.vettese@citypaper.net)