“The magazine was tricky to find when it existed and now it’s a collector’s item.” As with this particular publication, Kotov can wax lyrical about any title on display in the shop. “Each issue has a theme about some place - the sea, the kitchen, paradise and so on - and it explores it through the eyes of different artists and writers,” he says. “I have very rare magazines that are difficult to find even in Europe and some that aren’t even produced anymore.”Īs we leaf through magazines in the shop, Kotov picks up a copy of Ein Magazin über Orte, a German magazine whose title translates as The Magazine about Places. “I have to say in all modesty, there are only a few places in the world where you can find a collection as big and diverse as the one here,” he says.

This is all too familiar to Konstantin Kotov, the 33-year-old bespectacled owner of St Petersburg-based Lebigmag, a magazine reading room and online shop offering quality periodicals. For a magazine connoisseur or a young creative industry professional, a trip abroad usually means returning with luggage stuffed with various printed publications. For years now, magazines such as Dazed and Confused and 032c have been highly prized and highly desired as guides to a world of innovative imagery and design, strong writing and the freedom to experiment. They’re hard to find and every title has its own cult of followers.

Foreign periodicals are like rare jewels in Russia.

Russian collection magazine