Kilimanjaro Magazine: Visual Essays about Love

5 Sep 2006 Category: Conscientious Design, Photography, Worldwide

The first time I met Olu Michael Odukoya was in summer 2004, when he came towards my group of friends relaxing in a park in London. Being a friend of a friend of someone - we were all very curious to see what he was so excited about holding in his hands. “This is my magazine.” he said and presented a ridiculously big issue of Kilimanjaro on the grass. The pages kept expanding to 340×480mm for a single page. I remember I got so excited to turn the pages: the huge images and special atmosphere of the magazine made me want to discover more and more…. Today, I introduce this very special magazine to you.

Written by Chiemi

On September 11th in 2001 everyone around the world experienced a unique emotion regarding the fall of the Twin Towers in N.Y. and Olu Michael Odukoya really felt like sharing his impressions.

“When I saw that news, I realized that what we really need now is to talk about how people feel. Because the world in the big confusion, I thought we should take a look at the truth in our daily life. Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, the word literally meaning bright mountain in Swahili. People love this mountain and it gathers a lot of energy. I want my magazine to be like this Kilimanjaro.”
(Olu Michael Odukoya, the chief editor of Kilimanjaro)

So far, all of Kilimanjaro’s issues had a strong theme such as “HOPE for Better life”, “Recycling” (including themes such as organ donation amongst others) or simply “Love” - evoking thoughts about the value of a family by introducing images of young couples in love.

In the forth issue “She’s So Lovely”, they focused not only the beauty of women as such, but also the issues women have such as breast cancer, prostitution and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).

Each issue feels like telling a tale, inviting you into a world - any sort of world - questioning and sharing love.

The title of the latest issue is “When I was 17″, which explores the complex phenomenon of youth culture: nostalgia and maturation through feelings and experiences associated with the age 17.

In this current Kilimanjaro magazine #6, one of the most amazing works is an image of a teenager’s room taken by Dan Tobin Smith, a regular contributor of Kilimanjaro: band posters, school assignments, a skate board and beer glasses all wildly flying around in a teenager’s room.

At this photo shoot, they brought a huge fan of airplane into the studio and actually blow everything away.

Incredible to see how many people sympathize with Kilimanjaro’s message by support them as a contributor. For the latest issue former Brazilian football player Pele provided an art work he created when he first played at the world cup at the age of 17. Film maker Tony Silver wrote a little essay for Kilimanjaro about the times when he produced the legendary hip-hop film Style Wars - in which many graffiti writers were 17 at that point. Tony also Style Wars: ReVisited the places featured in his first graffiti documentary after 20 years of filming and returned to many artists showing what they are up to today. Photographer David Bailey who represented the Swinging London of the 60’s provided an amazing image of his 17 years old son…

So what is the message that Kilimanjaro magazine is trying to pass on to their readers and what are the plans for the future?

“By looking at Kilimanjaro, we want to reach people’s hearts and minds - making you think and feel about positive and negative topics with a positive attitude. The most important thing is to be open and realize the true meaning behind the works and possibly take some action… Our dream is to set up Kilimanjaro scholarships in the future. Art is still considered as a hobby for rich people in many countries and we want to give the kids a chance … Kilimanjaro is a project of Love.” (Olu Michael Odukoya)

Only 150 copies of Kilimanjaro are available in Japan: some at Omotesando Arcuate or Record Nakameguro (tel:03-5458-6988). For those outside of Japan, you will find them at V Gallery (NY), Colette (Paris), Magma, Oki-Ni, Photographers’ Gallery, Dover Street Market, Artworks, Serpentine Gallery, Tate Modern, ICA books (London) amongst others. Kilimanjaro is always looking for artists to join their love project. If you are interested, please contact Olu Michael Odukoya at editor@kilimag.com.

If you happen to find a copy of Kilimanjaro, please open and breathe in their love.

16 Comments

1. Hello allI will continue to visit enjoyed the reading thanks

   Posted by: Alena on September 5th, 2006 at 10:19 pm

2. i love this person so much!!!

   Posted by: youzhengyu on September 7th, 2006 at 11:15 am

3. crazy print, super poster,

   Posted by: Shall Zou on September 7th, 2006 at 3:47 pm

4. great work !
   tnnx

   Posted by: a on November 7th, 2006 at 4:27 am

5. superb….very much un-conventional

   Posted by: vijay prakash on February 21st, 2007 at 6:16 pm

6. [...] @ 2006-09-07 14:24 　　Kilimanjaro来自伦敦的影像杂志，2003年创刊，出版速度非常慢。在线杂志PingMag强力推荐，个人感觉这本杂志就是超级海报，超大的开本完全是视觉的绝妙盛宴。Kilimanjaro和同出于伦敦的125有些类似，都是玩概念的影像高手，最新出版的第六期杂志主题为When I was 17，里面有一组超强的黑白影像，喜欢摄影的朋友一定会喜欢。我意识到我们需要一些东西来谈论日常人的生活感受，世界混沌，日常中我们寻求真相。Kilimanjaro［乞力马扎罗］是非洲的最高峰，本意是”明亮的峰峦”。许多人喜欢这座山，因而，聚集了无数人关切的力量。我希望我的杂志也能如此，所以为杂志取名Kilimanjaro。–Kilimanjaro杂志主编Olu Michael Odukoya。 [...]

   Posted by: NONOZINE | 空白杂志 » 【杂志】Kilimanjaro Magazine on May 12th, 2007 at 9:34 am

7. [...] http://pingmag.jp/2006/09/05/kilimanjaro-visual-essay-about-love/ This entry was written by deshock, posted on May 9, 2008 at 3:49 pm, filed under Art and Design. [...]

   Posted by: deshock.com » PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things” » Archive » Kilimanjaro Magazine: Visual Essays about Love on May 10th, 2008 at 12:49 am

8. Excellent. As an aspiring illustrator this article was really inspirational. Thank you Ping Mag. I love your site. :)

   Posted by: bursa evden eve nakliyat on March 31st, 2009 at 7:02 pm

9. a3iz4glsnpkx29m6

   　　

   Posted by: Mamie Gray on May 1st, 2009 at 6:23 pm

10. A little precision on the credits:
    Loran Stosskopf was the first 3 issues art director. He has set the magazine original design and size. The “Recycling” and “Love is blind” covers are his design.

    Posted by: Roger Stranig on January 6th, 2010 at 7:54 pm

11. Maurers only weaken, belly, waist and hip area also gets rid of fat in areas such as the still.

    Posted by: maurers on February 22nd, 2011 at 7:41 am

12. In response to the note from Roger Stranig - you will find all the Art Direction and creation of Content has always been created by Olu Odukoya - the founder and driving force behind Kilimanjaro. Loran worked as a Designer on the early issues of the magazine.

    Posted by: Fiona on March 20th, 2011 at 8:15 am

13. Fiona, no doubt Olu Odukoya is very creative, but for what I know Roger is right regarding the 2 covers “Recycling” and “Love is blind”. As for the credit having the early issues, what I read is Olu Odukoya for creative direction and Loran Stosskopf for art direction (I remember reading an Olu Odukoya interview saying it). Then the art direction changed, Olu Odukoya carried on doing great work on the magazine.

    Posted by: Roberto on March 29th, 2011 at 2:35 am

14. You definitely know how to bring an issue to light and make it important. I cant believe youre not more popular because you definitely have the gift.

    Posted by: ferrari ff on June 10th, 2011 at 11:29 pm

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    Posted by: christian louboutin on November 10th, 2011 at 12:49 pm

16. very good post, i certainly love this website, keep on it

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