DIGITAL EDITION. Welcome to the Please Take A Seat issue, where we explore the radical act of sitting as a lens to investigate our fragmented new zeitgeist. In roughly 300 pages, we examine sitting through the polychromatic lens of sexuality, racial politics, spirituality, capital punishment, and the American justice system. What does it mean to sit? What does it mean to have a seat at the table?  

This issue includes a fascinating 35-page, in-depth exploration of the life and work of the inimitable Nan Goldin, and a portfolio of recent photographs, which include candid, personal images of her friend Thora, landscapes, the summer uprisings, and stills from her new film, Sirens. For the past five decades, Goldin has captured the turmoil of love, loss, trauma, dependency, and personal resurrection in her iconic images of friends and lovers with searing, visceral honesty. Her celebrated Ballad Of Sexual Dependency changed the way we experience contemporary photography forever. In an intimate interview, we discuss her life and work during lockdown, making the critics cry, and her advocacy group P.A.I.N., which was founded in response to the opioid epidemic in a quest to take down the Sackler Family for manufacturing and distributing the drug Oxycontin.

The issue also features captivating conversations between Miranda July and Isabelle Albuquerque on companionship and July’s new film Kajillionaire, Kembra Pfahler and Hans Ulrich Obrist on the extremism of performance art, Sterling Ruby and Lucinda Devlin on capital punishment, Derek Fordjour and Torkwase Dyson on Black consciousness, Jermaine Francis and Beatriz Maués on sustainable fashion, and Gajin Fujita and Gabriella Sanchez on visibility in the diasporan panorama of Los Angeles.

The issue also includes Peter Opsvik’s “philosophy of sitting,” a feature on Mario Ayala ahead of his inclusion in Hammer’s Made in LA biennial, Peter Shire interviews emerging furniture designer Ryan Preciado, nine Black LA creatives discuss what it means to have a seat at the table by May Daniels, Otani Workshop discusses ancient Japanese pottery techniques, Marlen Keller explores biophilia, a suite of drawings by the late, great Japanese femdom artist Namio Harakawa, and a 14-page portfolio of photographs from artist Paul McCarthy’s latest legendary drawing sessions where he and German actress, Lilith Stangenberg take on the roles of Adam and Eve, Adolph and Eva, Arts and Entertainment.

Autre invites you to take a deep, dark dive down into the psyche of a strange new era—a time when many of us are doing more sitting, more reflecting, and more introspection than we ever imagined.

Fashion editorials by Eddie Chacon, Josh Hight, Lucas Christiansen, Marianna Sanvito, Till Janz, and Vitali Gelwich.

(Warning 18+ only. Strong Sexual Content and Mature Themes)