Chris Kontos was a photographer working in the fashion industry in Athens when the Greek economic crisis took his job, most of his money, and — as he saw it — a perfect opportunity to start over. In August 2012, with nothing but free time and a blog he'd been maintaining as a creative outlet, he sat down with his best friend Angelo Pandelidis, a designer, and the two of them decided to make a magazine filled with the things they loved and conversations with the people they admired. They named it after a song by The Wedding Present, an English punk band Kontos had been obsessed with for years. The Kennedy family was the other reason — particularly John Jr., who had style, a beautiful wife, and his own magazine. But the song came first.
The first issue launched in July 2013, printed on credit at a friend's facility with an agreement to pay after copies sold. It was well received — internationally, immediately. Then, days after the launch, Angelo Pandelidis was killed in a motorcycle accident. Kontos was devastated and spent months wondering whether to continue. He eventually decided that the magazine was the thing Angelo had helped build, and stopping it would mean losing him twice. He pulled himself together and started the second issue.
More than a decade and fourteen issues later, Kennedy is still made by Kontos from Athens — often alone, always independently, never with investors. He photographs, writes, art-directs, and occasionally spends three pages talking about the separation from his wife, because he believes a magazine should contain the things that matter. The interviewees are drawn from film, music, literature, and art: Lawrence from Felt, Tina Barney, Pierre Le Tan, who made a cover before he died. Kontos publishes only when he has something worth saying, which means the wait between issues has stretched from biannual to roughly every two years. Each edition runs over two hundred pages and is sold in selected bookshops, menswear stores, galleries, and museum shops worldwide.
Kontos has said he would never sell Kennedy and would turn down any investor. The magazine doesn't make money — he supports himself through commercial photography, working with brands like Mr. Porter. But the magazine is the thing that keeps him honest, the release valve, the place where the work means exactly what he wants it to mean. In a recent interview, he was asked about his dream subject. He named Elein Fleiss, the founder of Purple, whose early issues he considers as close to perfection as anything in independent publishing. It is the kind of ambition that only someone making a magazine alone from Athens, in memory of his best friend, would have the nerve to admit.
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