Colors 76 - Teenagers

Some of the stories that made the print edition were posted on the website by people with an established relationship with Colors or Fabrica, the Communications  Research Center that puts out COLORS, like talented young photographer Kitra Cahana. After a week at a rainbow gathering in the middle of New Mexico, Kitra posted a series of stunning images in COLORS' new open source framework for creative conspiracy.

Other stories were uploaded by brand new collaborators, people like Japanese photographer Kensaburo Fukuhara, who got one of his images on the magazines' cover.

Other stories came from young artists completely unknown to us, like Elena Chernyak, a 20-year-old Russian who asked teenagers from her grandmother's hometown in South Siberia to put on a seductive pose. Using a Canion 20p, Elena proved that a camera with significantly less technical brawn than the typical teen's digital point-and-shoot can reveal an unconventional and creative view of the world. 

In some cases, stories were printed exactly as they were uploaded by our users. In others, the uploaded image or text was the starting point for a story that ended up in the print edition after we contacted the web contributor and paid them to work on a specific story as we've done for years with professional, veteran collaborators. 

The level of input for the first issue to be produced using Colors Lab took us by surprise and has led to a growing network of collaborators that is bigger, more diverse and more spread out than it has ever been.

We are, of course, just beginning and improvements will keep coming. If you have any ideas, illusions, snapshots or just want to shout something, let us know. We hope to print your story soon.