Women wrote about losing their virginity Dossier talked to the Iranian artist Shirin Neshat Parrott, who once ran art photographer Nan GoldinвЂ™s studio, went to photograph fashion in Jacmel, on HaitiвЂ™s southern coast.

Parrott, a photographer and mother of three, is the former editor of Dossier, a New York-based magazine that in a co-operative and hip fashion championed social and racial diversity, the female gaze, and other aspects of progressive 2020 enlightenment, well ahead of the media industry, and perhaps society at large.Дossier played a part in launching the careers of Cass Bird, Harley Weir, ZoГ« Ghertner and Bibi Borthwick, who have come to define the post-male-gaze aesthetic in fashion photography. Indeed, the magazineвЂ™s opening essay, by writer T Cole Rachel, talks about the irony of a magazine that was intended for women being co-opted by men вЂ“ even if those men were gay. It was interesting for a couple of years, then it was sold and resold, and it became what I thought of as a gay porn magazine.вЂќ вЂњEverything they did in Playboy, they did in Playgirl. вЂњTheyвЂ™re really fabulous in so many ways, but they do look like a manвЂ™s idea of what a feminist publication would be,вЂќ PlaygirlвЂ™s editor-in-chief, Skye Parrott, told the Observer. Playgirl, a notionally feminist title, simply countered PlayboyвЂ™s Norman Mailer with Maya Angelou, Hunter S Thompson with Margaret Atwood, and matched its male centrefolds вЂ“ pose for pose, Speedos (or less) for lingerie (or less) вЂ“ with those of PlayboyвЂ™s women. The new incarnation comes with the declaration: вЂњWeвЂ™ll take it from hereвЂќ. Unusual, too, to relaunch a magazine that briefly вЂ“ around 1973 вЂ“ mirrored its recherchГ© moment under the subheading вЂњEntertainment for womenвЂќ. ItвЂ™s an unusual moment to launch a magazine, especially a print-only title. One exception may be Playgirl, a title that relaunches this week, featuring a cast of diverse and diversely focused writers and photographers orientated on the lives of women. M agazines tend to starve for love nowadays.

Playgirl magazine cover