Rave Zine, recently launched by photographer Peter Carter and stylist Flo Arnold, channels the hedonistic spirit of British rave culture. The London-based founders of Rave Zine, and past contributors to Document released the first issue of the zine to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Second Summer of Love, when acid house music transformed London’s youth culture and birthed the rave scene in 1988 and 1989. Rave Zine celebrates the next generation of photographers and stylists through roughly 100 pages of fashion imagery and personal work imbued with rave’s hedonistic attitude—and its sense of community.  Document spoke to co-founders Peter Carter and Flo Arnold about how the project came about and what’s up next.

Alice Lefons—Why have you decided to create your own zine?

Rave Zine—Not limited to fashion imagery and free from creative limitation, Rave provides our contributors a platform to present whatever work they feel represents their art in the best way. For Issue One, the zine exhibits a wide range of work from photographers Julie Greve, Albi Gualtieri, Zhi Wei, Peter Carter and Rosie Marks and stylist Flo Arnold.

Rave was founded to provide a print platform to showcase our favourite photographers, stylists and artists to present their work, which nowadays, and particularly with personal projects, might otherwise only exist on digital platforms.It’s also about the reinvention of a sense of community for our peers, much like a rave in the literal sense, which we feel is something worth celebrating.

Alice Lefons—How do you think it’s different from other magazines out there?

Rave Zine—Perhaps it’s not vastly different from other publications out there but our focus is on creative freedom and wholly down to what our contributors wish to exhibit. The majority of work in Issue One by Flo are I are essentially fashion shoots because that’s what we wanted to do, but all our other contributors have submitted personal work.

Alice Lefons—What made you choose your contributors and what they saw in this project that made them want to join in?

Rave Zine—Flo and I have always admired our contributors’ work, and although all very different in their approach to image making, we felt the visual language was perfect for what we’re trying to create at Rave. We always want to give our contributors complete freedom in what they wish to exhibit in the zine, and I think that’s appealing to artists to showcase work that might not otherwise appear in other publications.

Alice Lefons—What’s next for Rave?

Rave Zine—We’re gonna let the whole process of Issue One sink in and then get started on Issue Two. The curating and commissioning process is something we both really enjoy and can’t wait to get started. See you in October for a bigger and better Issue Two.