I wish I knew how to add subtitles to WordPress posts… I wanted to title this review/screed “Caveat Emptor” or, better, “Participem Emptor” (Participant Beware), but that’s just a bit too up front, perhaps.

Full disclosure: I’m a disgruntled supporter of Five Years, Dee Elegia’s successful 2017 kickstarter for her book of photographs with her muse Faye. She publicized Elston Gunn at some point in 2018 or so on her Twitter, I think, and I bought this issue as I still had some faith in Elegia and hoped the income might get her working on the Five Years book again, but alas. So my frustration at the lack of updates on the Five Years project, much less meaningful progress, may color my thoughts somewhat.

But let’s just see…

Egoïst is a rather fancy French fashion, um, magazine that I ran across a couple of years ago when I was first looking at Ellen von Unwerth’s work. I hesitate to call it a “magazine,” as each issue seems to come out in two parts and it’s huge, rather expensive, and very well done, for an unbound almost newspaper-like thing, and its release schedule is “whenever it’s ready.” In any case, it’s not a monthly fashion rag like Cosmo or something, though there are some similarities.

Black cats, broomsticks, and Adriana Lima: it’s Ellen von Unwerth’s Wicked.