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Hanna Hanra, founder and Creative Director of BEAT MAGAZINE, has made a name for herself in the creative industry by uniquely blending fashion, music, and culture. Over the past 15 years, she has created a publication that fosters dialogue between these worlds. As the former Global Digital Director of i-D, her expertise in digital innovation has seamlessly influenced her work with BEAT, helping establish the magazine as a prominent voice in the industry.
In 2010, she founded BEAT, a free music magazine printed on newsprint, collaborating with some of the biggest fashion photographers, including David Sims, Alasdair McLellan, Tyrone Lebon, and Ryan McGinley, to create iconic images of both established and emerging bands. Distributed worldwide, the magazine has become a voice for musicians in both the mainstream and the underground. With a quarterly format, BEAT blends cutting-edge trends with iconic moments, showcasing a diverse range of voices and perspectives. It’s not only about the latest creative movements but also about the pioneers shaping them, carving out space for fresh talent and ideas that define the cultural landscape of tomorrow. Cover stars have included Kamasi Washington, St. Vincent, Lorde, Blondie, Little Mix, Josh Homme, and Giorgio Moroder. In 2015, Beyoncé requested to be photographed for the magazine.
A notable aspect of Hanna’s career is her ability to interview and connect with high-profile artists. She persuaded Paris Hilton to have Charli XCX interview her via WhatsApp and convinced Elton John to interview Lil Nas X. BEAT also published the final interview with music legend David Bowie.
With 'Punk Perfect Awful: Beat: The Little Magazine that Could... and Did', Hanna Hanra released a best-of collection of BEAT MAGAZINE in collaboration with Rizzoli. The book brings together ten years of groundbreaking photography and journalism, offering an unconventional look at music and pop culture.
From the start of her career at i-D to her work with BEAT, Hanna has played a key role in shaping the future of fashion and music, leaving a lasting impact on both industries. Her career also includes significant collaborations, such as a global partnership with Chanel, further cementing her status as a tastemaker in creative direction. She regularly writes for The Times, The New York Times, and Vogue.
GoSee : How exactly do the celebrity shoots come about, such as the one with Kylie and Liz Collins (GoSee reported)? Do you reach out to the artists yourself and select the perfect photographer, or how do you approach these shoots at BEAT? HH: Either I have an idea of who is releasing music and pitch it to their publicists, or their publicists come to me. I pitched to do Kylie a while ago, and her publicist came back 18 months later with her next release and asked if I'd do her! Each shoot is collaborative, so I always send a few photographer ideas to the musicians (if they are established like Kylie), but I knew immediately I wanted Liz to shoot her. They had worked together before, and I love working with women. So right off the bat, it was what I wanted.
Please tell us how it all started. What inspired you to create BEAT magazine, and how did you envision it standing out in the crowded world of fashion and music publications?
HH: I started it 15 years ago – music press was really restricted to being about mainstream, already successful popstars in publications like ELLE or skinny boys in NME. There were no queer female music editors, and music magazines tended to focus on the music, not the image of the musician. No one was making a magazine with musicians shot by fashion photographers but without fashion. So I did.
How big is your editorial team at BEAT Mag? HH: Way too small. I do a lot of it, and we have a design team and an editor, and then everyone else is freelance. But everything is filtered through me because I may or may not be a control freak.
What have been some of the biggest highlights or moments of pride for you throughout the journey of publishing BEAT? HH: Well, Beyoncé asking if I would do her. David Bowie asking if we would do him. Lots of new people who have gone on to be amazing stars, like Sampha, XX, Dua Lipa, Charli XCX... But really the best highlights are when artists say things like, "I can’t wait to show my mum" or "I used to put this on my wall, and now I’m on the cover."
What are some of the biggest challenges you faced while building BEAT from the ground up, and how did you overcome them? HH: There’s always something every issue that makes me want to hit my head against a wall – but they are usually quickly forgotten.
As a Creative Director, what aspects of the magazine's creation process do you find most exciting or rewarding? HH: Going to the printers and seeing it come out of the machine always feels like such a sweet relief! But I love coming up with an idea and seeing someone else inhabit it.
How do you balance creative freedom with the commercial aspects of running your own publication? HH: After fifteen years, I know my value. If someone comes to me and wants to work together, there’s a reason for that.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own magazine or creative publication today? HH: Good luck! Make it different. Make it have a reason. Make it look good.
How do you stay inspired and continuously push the boundaries of creativity in each issue of BEAT? HH: I love music and photography and understanding how people work and what makes them tick. And then putting that together. It’s an unending pool of excitement, but on top of that, I know exactly what I like visually.
What role do collaboration and partnerships play in BEAT's success, and how do you approach working with other creatives and brands? HH: It’s so important. You have to respect that musicians are not blank canvases; they come with their own visual identities, and photographers also have their own styles. It’s about pushing the envelopes of both, and that’s exciting. When I work with artists directly, outside of BEAT, it’s what I always try and do too – find that point.
Could you share a memorable behind-the-scenes moment or story that really captures the essence of working on BEAT? HH: There are so many. Probably crying next to a bin when I got the call about David Bowie. It’s what he would have wanted.
What is the most fun part of running a magazine, and how does that creative energy keep you motivated? HH: The most fun part is finding new musicians I love and then making them my friends. I love that they love BEAT as much as I do (I hope!)
Magazines often feature stunning editorials, and BEAT is known for its incredible celebrity shoots. There’s so much potential for these visuals beyond the print publication—perhaps a gallery or even limited edition prints for sale. Have you ever thought about how to further utilize these beautiful works beyond their initial print release? HH: We actually just updated our website and last year released a book that's just photos: https://www.beatmag.world/. I’d love to do an exhibition of prints – if anyone wants to fund it, let me know!
Tell us about your book Punk Perfect Awful. What inspired you to publish it, and what can readers expect from it? HH: I’ve sort of always wanted to do an annual and pitched the idea to Rizzoli before COVID. It was quite hard to figure out whether it should be all pictures, interviews, or a narrative. In the end, it’s all three – I’ve written personal essays, and there are four or five chapters that merge into one another. It’s mostly just gorgeous pictures and funny quotes though. It’s really good, and you should buy one if you haven’t already!
What question would you ask yourself as the editor of BEAT in an interview? HH: Would you ever sell out to a bigger publisher?
An you answer? HH: Yes ! Anyone interested? (laughs)
You live in London, at the heart of fashion and music. Where in the city can we find you, and what inspires you? HH: I actually live in Oxfordshire, in the very quiet countryside! The only music I hear at night is often an owl hooting. Maybe that’s why it feels so fresh.
Here’s a sneak peek inside the magazine – for many more exciting projects and editorials, visit https://www.beatmag.world/.
05.02.2025
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Matthias Last is supporting the GoSeeAWARDS Jury once again this year and looks forward to UPDATE-24-BERLIN, where you can meet the simpatico Creative Director in person. Here on GoSee, he presents us the new issue FC STYLE #9 ARMANI X FOREVER, created in collaboration with Giorgio Armani and the Warhol Foundation.
The new FC STYLE issue pays tribute to Giorgio Armani, one of the greatest living fashion designers of our time, who is about to celebrate his 90th birthday this summer. A comprehensive and insightful interview with him was conducted by Jörg Rohleder and accompanied by photos of his incredible life – including 40 years in the fashion industry – alongside portraits by Juergen Teller.
On the cover, it features a portrait of Giorgio Armani painted by Andy Warhol, along with the Polaroid he took for it on the back of the magazine. Creative direction of the issue was in the hands of Matthias Last / Studio Last (credits below).
Credits:
Editor-in-Chief: Jörg Harlan Rohleder
Creative Director: Matthias Last / Studio Last
Director of Photography: Frank Seidlitz
Fashion Director: Alexander Gabriel
Photographer / Portraits Armani: Juergen Teller
Photographer / Fashion Story (Can you work it?): Tristan Rösler
Photographer / Watches (Office Hours): Magnus Lechner
© 2024 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Andy Warhol, [PO 50.692]
© Giorgio Armani, 1981, Synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen ink on canvas, 40 x 40 inches, 101.6 x 101.6 cm; Andy Warhol, [FA05.01846], Giorgio Armani, 1981, Polacolor 2
04.04.2024
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We’re looking forward to the Olympic ‘FASHION GAMES’ in Paris - MAX VON TREU photographs and films ‘Haltung’ for ICON February ‘24 in Barcelona
MAX VON TREU and his editorial for ICON already whet the appetite for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the city of fashion and light. He photographed and filmed for it together with model Tetyana Ruban in Barcelona. The city that hosted the Olympic Games in 1992 – and the poster child when it comes to successfully combining a mega-event with smart and sustainable urban development.
We have the ICON editorial with the title ‘Haltung’, or ‘Countenance’, by author Silke Wichert for you here on GoSee.News : “Nobody ever went to the beach in Barcelona for fun. It was dirty there, desolate or industrial. That is, until the 1992 Summer Olympics came, and the city on the oceanside turned toward the sea. The Olympics actually changed Barcelona back then for the better – making it a complete success in terms of urban planning.
The baton has now been passed to Paris. Which is why we searched for traces once more in the Catalonian capital. With a fashion scene that is likewise a force to reckon with. It’s impossible to visit this city without coming across remnants of the Olympics at least a few times. Even if you’re not trying to (or really don’t have any clue at all).
Simply take a stroll along the beach of La Barceloneta or sunbathe in the sand there, and you are smack dab in the middle of this post-Olympic success story. For this city used to live with its back turned to the sea. Generations of locals may have technically lived right next to the ocean, but they had only ever associated the area with docks and terminals – if anything at all. Where people today go for a swim every day as if it were the most natural thing in the world, or workout and pose for passers-by on Muscle Beach, was where once only run-down industrial plants and the ruins of slums torn down by the Spanish dictator Franco had stood.
It wasn’t until the city had won the bid for the 1992 Summer Olympics that the metropolis opened itself to the sea. The Vila Olímpica, or Olympic village, was created in the immediate vicinity. In front of that, the emblematic twin towers with the Hotel Arts was constructed, and Frank Gehry topped it all off with a gigantic golden fish. Also, it’s not entirely a coincidence that escalators lead up Montjuïc at the Plaza de España. It is, after all, the very spot Montserrat Caballé nailed her performance of the ‘Barcelona’ anthem at the opening ceremony – for the first time without Freddy Mercury though, who had recently passed.
Higher up on the city’s local mountain, an area used just as rarely before the games, are several of the sports complexes – still in use today, by the way, and not only as initially intended. The communications tower designed by Santiago Calatrava, that looks like something the crew of the Enterprise could have put there, is a place of pilgrimage par excellence for avid Instagrammers. Or the diving platform that gave the world the most magnificent images in memory from any Olympic Games to date: as if the divers weren’t merely diving into a pool, but into the Barca skyline with Gaudí’s Sagrada Família basilica in the background.
Open to the public and used as an outdoor pool in the summertime, the meanwhile somewhat dilapidated stadium is a popular destination all year round for visitors trying to take a selfie. Even if their only real reason for doing so is because Kylie Minogue filmed the video to her song ‘Slow’ there in 2003, and not because the stadium had once stood for the Olympic spirit.
The Barcelona model is not only considered the big exception to this day in the never-ending love-hate relationship with the five rings because of its impressive new buildings and sustainable urban development. Often seen as a billion dollar black hole, creating more debt than value, marked by blind pomp and corruption instead of urban planning – the negative stereotypes usually outweigh the positive effects that are by all means there, too – then and now.
Like promoting good will and understanding among the nations of the world, or showcasing sports that are in the limelight far too seldom. Atlanta is remembered as the botched ‘Coca-Cola Games’; in Rio de Janeiro, it was again above all the well-to-do areas that saw an influx of beaucoup bucks; and Beijing only had such a breathtaking opening ceremony because dictatorships just happen to have an over-abundance of readily available ‘volunteers’.
But at Barcelona 92, on the other hand, everything seemed to fit so perfectly because the games had come at quite a convenient time in history. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Apartheid, a wave of confidence splashed its way into all corners of the globe. In 1992, political scientist Francis Fukuyama would even go so far as to proclaim the irrevocable triumph of freedom and democracy in his book ‘The End of History and the Last Man’.
That year in Barcelona, Germany sent a single delegation team again for the first time, what was left of the former Soviet Union competed under one banner as ‘Unified Team’ from the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Olympic Games were boycott-free for the first time since 1972. A touch of hitherto unseen glamour was brought to the event by the Dream Team led by basketball legend Michael Jordan – whose escapades in the Barcelona nightlife allegedly drove security staffers up the wall.
Paris 2024 will, of course, easily be a prime contender for the top Olympic ranks nonetheless, at least when it comes to looks – not to mention chic. There is absolutely no need for this city to reinvent itself to out-dazzle the rest. The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Montmartre, the ‘Emily in Paris’ backdrop – attracting more than fifteen million people each year, it is today already among the most-visited cities on the planet.
That some several million more during the Olympics will most likely push the already difficult traffic conditions to the brink of collapse is the least of the city’s worries thus far. The haute couture shows have already been moved up to the end of June just to be on the safe side. But glamour and fashion, so much is certain, will experience a heyday like never before during these few weeks.
French luxury couture conglomerate LVMH is the official partner of the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Maison’s artisan jewelry atelier Chaumet is tasked with designing the medals, while, during the games, wines and spirits produced by Moët Hennessy will be served to hospitality guests. The beauty brand Sephora is a partner supporting the Olympic torch relay and will certainly have a bit more glam in store throughout the event as well as in the various LVMH hotspots.
Above all, Brigitte Macron will presumably not be the only one sporting a Louis Vuitton look to the opening ceremony held along the banks of the river Seine. A number of French athletes and ambassadors are to be outfitted with on and off-duty looks by brands such as Dior, Berluti and obviously Louis Vuitton. But the competition from Chanel, Hermès or Saint Laurent are definitely not going to leave the field completely open for them with millions upon millions in advertising budgets up for grabs. Well, one thing is sure: Paris 2024 has meanwhile more than earned itself a new nickname: the ‘Fashion Games’.
Digital support and post production came from BLINK IMAGING.
CREDITS
Photos: MAX VON TREU
Director: MAX VON TREU
Model: Tetyana Ruban
Styling Natalie Manchot @Kathrin Hohnberg
H&M: Ana Sanchez-Pena
Production: yours,
Digital support and post production of photos: Blink Imaging
04.03.2024
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