Ahead, Editor and Publisher Luis Venegas, reflects on the mag's 15 years of operation and boldly proclaims that print is far from death. 

Creative Director, Editor, and Publisher <a href="https://www.instagram.com/byluisvenegas/?hl=en" target="_blank">Luis Venegas</a>&nbsp;was inspired by two ideas for the 15-year anniversary issue of his indie magazine Fanzine137: the words &quot;never&quot; and &quot;too late.&quot; So he combined the two negatives to make a positive.

NEVER TOO LATE mixes work by photographers and artists that they never thought would see the light of day; maybe they were never published, or finished too long ago and forgotten, or even recently but missed the deadline. Venegas has saved them from oblivion and is giving us the chance to keep them forever.&nbsp;

In a wide-ranging interview, Venegas discusses including his work for the first time in the magazine&#39;s history, the magic of printed matter, and what to expect from the issue.&nbsp;

Ibrahim Kamara by Kristin-Lee Moolman

Andy Warhol by Teresa Nieto

Freddie Pearson by Doug Inglish

Where did you come up with the idea for this 15th-anniversary issue?

Oh, where do ideas come from &mdash; who knows? For this issue, I felt like there is more imagery in our world today than ever before, and the speed and need for new images leaves some great works in the shadows of the past, &quot;forgotten&quot; but still existing in a sort of limbo. This edition mixes works of different origins; pieces that were never published outtakes no one thought would be shown and works no one thought would be published again. Also, works that were created many years ago, or even last week, done by artists who for one reason or another didn&rsquo;t make their deadlines. They may otherwise have been forgotten.&nbsp;It&rsquo;s never too late to show them, and this issue of Fanzine137 is the opportunity for that.

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The first issue consisted of a collection of objects that attracted you. What is your process for choosing these pieces?

With Fanzine137, it&#39;s usually a very similar process. I make a&nbsp;selection of&nbsp;artists that I like,&nbsp;mixing top-tier, blue-chip personal artwork from contemporary artists with young talent on the verge of being discovered, alongside legendary artists rarely featured in today&rsquo;s magazines. With each contributor is&nbsp;different; some have a very clear idea of what they&rsquo;d like to submit, others like me being more&nbsp;involved in the&nbsp;selection of images. I enjoy very much working with different creative personalities.

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Your own work will be featured in this issue. Can you tell us more about it?

Yes, this is Fanzine137&rsquo;s 15th&nbsp;Anniversary and I&rsquo;m celebrating it with 15&nbsp;different covers and for the first time ever since I started all of&nbsp;my publications I&rsquo;ve done one of those covers with a photo taken by me. I&rsquo;ve always done photography, long before I became a publisher, but I very consciously didn&rsquo;t want to&nbsp;include my own photographic work in my&nbsp;publications. I felt like it could be perceived as an excessive exercise of self-promotion and I&nbsp;wanted to focus on my role as editor, not have the audience be distracted by that. But 15 years have passed and I feel like my role is quite clear now, so why not? I think it&rsquo;s about time to&nbsp;include more and more of my own photographs.

Luca Guarini by Alessio Boni

Leo Rydell Jost's Rugs by Luis Venegas

Nadja Auermann by Katja Rahlwes

In a time of democratized art when anyone can present their work to the public eye with a single click, what does this type of published exposure mean to artists?

I think somehow being&nbsp;included in a printed publication gives more credibility to artists, especially to photographers. I don&rsquo;t know how long that perception is going to last, but for the&nbsp;moment that&rsquo;s how it is. New&nbsp;photographers are quite keen to have their work&nbsp;published in print and almost everybody wants to get a cover because&nbsp;there&rsquo;s still something magical and special in the printed matter and seeing your work on the cover of a magazine.&nbsp;

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There is an idea that published media are artifacts that will be studied by future generations in an attempt to better understand who we were. What perception do you hope will be generated by our generation after looking at Fanzine137?

All publications, good and bad, are a&nbsp;reflection of the time when they&nbsp;were published &mdash; that&rsquo;s undeniable. I just hope in the future this new issue will be seen as inspiring to somebody as some magazines published 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago still are for me. Digital articles and links&nbsp;disappear quite often&nbsp;but printed&nbsp;publications remain.

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Some argue that print is dead. Yet, 15 years in, here we are. Does the idea of NEVER TOO LATE apply to the state of published media too?

Print isn&rsquo;t dead at all. I see new printed magazines being born every new week. What probably is going to be forced to change is the system for monthly magazines that were based on what&rsquo;s new, because those usually needed a three months process to be made and now they can&rsquo;t compete with the&nbsp;immediateness of digital platforms. For special&nbsp;artistic&nbsp;printed editions, there&rsquo;s a future. And I think it&#39;s about time to stop&nbsp;calling these publications&nbsp;&ldquo;niche,&quot; independent publishing is really leading&nbsp;and holding the flag of creativity, no less.

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Why only 1,137 copies?

I&rsquo;m&nbsp;obsessed with odd numbers and yes, I like the mystery behind number 137. That&rsquo;s all I&rsquo;ll say about it. [laughs]

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Why should we buy the latest issue of Fanzine137? What should the public expect?

There are 42 different artists contributing to this new issue. Each one of them with their own creative universe, so I guess, I hope, there are some intriguing,&nbsp;inspiring contents for everybody. Take a look at the different 15 covers and that&rsquo;ll give you a 3% idea of&nbsp;everything you can find inside.&nbsp;

Buy Fanzine137&#39;s 15th Anniversary issue <a href="https://tictail.com/byluisvenegas/fanzine137-23137" target="_blank">here</a>.

Indie Favorite FANZINE137 Features Never-Before-Seen Images of Andy Warhol

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