We didn’t make this issue because we needed to, we made it because we wanted to. The end of our four-day-long cover shoots this summer ended with champagne-popping and everyone on set stomping their boots — from Rick Owens to Doc Martens — into a cursed “Happy Birthday PAPER!” cake. Over the course of a week, our studio walls saw it all: live pigeons, messy bowls of spaghetti with meatballs, ripped male prosthetics, massive foam fists. Pop stars! Rap stars!
An all-hands-on-deck effort, the entire production felt as celebratory and chaotic as I imagine it felt to close old issues of PAPER back in the ’80s. With no guaranteed roadmap for success in media 40 years later, we similarly led this project with instincts and community at the forefront of our decision-making: get some of the most crazy, talented people we know in one room and see what we can create together. No rules, only possibilities.
Our 40th Anniversary print issue is divided into four cover stories to represent our four decades of publishing. They’re designed as individual fan zines that fold out like our first-ever issue in 1984, created by PAPER co-founders Kim Hastreiter and David Hershkovits. The 2024 portfolio was shot entirely by Los Angeles photographer Sarah Pardini, whose punk style and spontaneous spirit captures the DIY ethos of PAPER’s brand DNA.
Throughout these zines you’ll find some of music’s brightest artists today. There’s Doechii, whose fiery single “Alter Ego” and Florida-inspired Swamp universe have solidified her as a fearless world-builder. Halsey continues to reinvent, tapping into new parts of herself that feel brand new, despite her being a pop mainstay. If you haven’t screamed the lyrics to “Girls” by The Dare, you’ve definitely been to one of his DJ sets (or, at the very least, watched one in Charli XCX’s “Guess” video). Then there’s NLE Choppa, the year’s breakout sex icon behind “Slut Me Out 2,” which has become an over-the-top anthem for self-love regardless of how you identify.
So while print is not a necessity in the digital age, especially in PAPER’s current era as an online social media-powered platform, we wanted to make something special for you to collect and hold onto. It may be a little rough around the edges, but then again so are we. –Justin Moran, Editor-in-Chief
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