The Raw Society Magazine: A Space for Real Storytelling

There are plenty of photography magazines out there, but The Raw Society Magazine is something different. It’s not just about showcasing beautiful images—it’s about telling stories that matter. As a non-profit project, it gives space to photographers who dig deeper, who capture more than just a moment. It’s about social issues, politics, culture, travel, and history, but most of all, it’s about the personal narratives that bring those themes to life.

I recently received Issue Three, and right away, I could tell this was something special. There’s an interview with Sarah Leen, the former Director of Photography at National Geographic, alongside work from photographers like Ed Kashi, Jorge Delgado-Ureña, and Micah Green. The stories inside aren’t just visually striking—they have weight. They invite you to slow down, to engage, to feel.

Beyond its printed pages, The Raw Society Magazine also offers a unique way to support visual storytelling through its Adopt a Story initiative. Each year, selected story proposals are posted on the magazine’s website, outlining the photographer’s vision, motivation, and production costs. Supporters can contribute to these projects—partially or fully—helping them come to life. Stories that reach their funding goals are then published in the following issue, making readers an active part of the editorial process.

Holding the magazine in my hands, I had a moment of reflection: this is what photography can be. We are constantly surrounded by images, scrolling through them without much thought. But here, in print, each story demands attention. It’s a reminder that photography is more than just aesthetics—it’s a way of interpreting the world.

For me, success isn’t measured by numbers or sales. It’s about impact. Flipping through the pages of Issue Three, I could sense that impact. The fresh ink, the weight of the paper, the care behind each project—it all pointed to something that has meaning. It serves as a reminder that visual storytelling still holds value, and that there’s space for photography with depth.

In a digital age, The Raw Society Magazine invites us to pause. To reflect on stories. To appreciate the craft of seeing. And for that, it deserves a spot on my shelf.

About The Raw Society
The Raw Society, founded in 2016, began as a way to share a passion for travel and photography with like-minded individuals globally. Starting with on-location workshops in places like Nepal, Morocco, and Cuba, they've grown into a thriving community united by their love for photography.

They believe photography has the power to create change, and their workshops, conferences, projects, fundraisers, and membership program are all designed to foster this belief, one photograph at a time.

What sets them apart is how they do things: anyone passionate about street, documentary, or travel photography can join, no matter their experience level. Their workshops are small and intimate, offering personalized guidance in a supportive environment, with two mentors per group.

They’re committed to long-term growth, providing ongoing support through shared project ideas, critiques, photo books, pitching stories, and exhibition preparation. Their community is there for each other, and they offer mentorship for those looking to deepen their photography journey.

In addition to workshops, they host community events, live online sessions, and produce The Raw Society Magazine, along with any other projects that inspire their members.
therawsociety.org
@the_raw_society
The raw Society on YouTube

Cedric Roux: Before Rebirth

By Cedric Roux

Publisher : ODYSSEE

2024 | 96 pages

Empty storefronts dot the downtown, while massive brick tobacco warehouses stretch the length of city blocks—abandoned and awaiting creative reuse. Wilson, North Carolina, feels frozen in the 1970s. Invited by the Eye on Main Street festival, photographer Cedric Roux made several trips to this enigmatic town. For a photographer used to capturing the vibrant energy of New York City streets—his first book, My Wonderland (now sold out), vividly chronicled the bustling metropolis—his initial encounter with Wilson was a profound shock.

Expecting a town in the midst of a vibrant renaissance, Roux wandered Wilson daily, exploring its diverse areas: downtown, affluent suburbs, and struggling neighborhoods. On either side of the railroad tracks that symbolically and socially divide the city, he sought a light that might suggest an emerging revival..

In his latest book, Before Rebirth, Roux captures this sense of disconnection, using his lens to explore a promise not yet realized. With a population of just 47,000, Wilson is a far cry from Manhattan’s 1.5 million. Used to the dense human energy that fuels his photographic style, Roux found himself reimagining his approach. His work took on a more stripped-down, documentary aesthetic, yet it remains deeply rooted in place and retains the distinctive palette and framing that define his vision..

In collaboration with artistic director Jean-Matthieu Gautier, Roux drew from his imagination and visual archives to craft a narrative that stays true to his photographic roots while stepping far beyond his usual realm.

All About Cedric Roux

John Divola: San Fernando Valley

By John Divola

Publisher : Nazraeli Press

2024 | 60 pages

From the publisher: San Fernando Valley is where John Divola was born and raised, and it served as both backdrop and subject for his earliest, serious photographic explorations, made during the early 1970s. This previously unpublished body of work shows “the Valley” through the eyes of a young photographer who would soon become an internationally-recognized artist with the exhibition and publication of his much more conceptual “Zuma” series. The black and white photographs in “San Fernando Valley” comprise a series of subject groupings which, pulled together, show early manifestations of the deadpan humor and the ability to capture everyday scenes wrapped in loneliness, for which Divola is now well-known. The book is also, and not incidentally, a fascinating record of a quintessentially 1970s Los Angeles culture. John Divola’s work is the subject of numerous books and catalogues. Widely exhibited and collected throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia, Divola’s photographs are included in the permanent collections of many public and private institutions, including those of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

All About John Divola

Cig Harvey: Emerald Drifters

By Cig Harvey

Publisher : The Monacelli Press

2025 | 224 pages

Following her celebrated monograph Blue Violet (Monacelli, 2021), photographer Cig Harvey continues her personal study of sensory experience, focusing on the ephemeral nature of light, pigment, and vision. Her latest photographs are lush tableaux of her signature subjects – flora, cakes, domestic interiors, and the human figure in landscape – accompanied by prose vignettes on the science and art of color, written in her vibrant, intimate style. Featuring an afterword by award-winning novelist and poet Ocean Vuong, Emerald Drifters is a catalogue of pleasures and heartbreaks, and ‘an urgent call to live.’

All About Cig Harvey

Helmut Newton. Berlin, Berlin

By Helmut Newton

Publisher : Taschen

2025 | 244 pages

Born in Berlin in 1920, Helmut Newton trained as a teenager with legendary photographer Yva, following her lead into the enticing pastures of fashion, portraiture and nudes. Forced to flee the Nazis aged only 18, Newton never left Berlin behind. After his career exploded in Paris in the 1960s, he returned regularly to shoot for magazines like Constanze, Adam, Vogue, Condé Nast's Traveler, ZEITmagazin, Männer Vogue, Max and the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin as well as his own magazine Helmut Newton’s Illustrated. In 1979, the newly relaunched German Vogue commissioned him to retrace the footsteps of his youth to capture the fashion moment. The resulting portfolio, Berlin, Berlin!, inspired the title of the exhibition which celebrates 20 years of the Helmut Newton Foundation. This collection includes Newton’s most iconic Berlin images, as well as many unknown shots from the 1930s to the 2000s: nightcrawlers in uber-cool clubs and restaurants, nude portraits in the boarding houses he knew from his youth, and the Berlin film scene, featuring Hanna Schygulla and Wim Wenders at the Berlin Wall, John Malkovich and David Bowie. In October 2003, only months before his death, Newton moved large parts of his archive to his new foundation, housed in the Museum of Photography beside the Zoologischer Garten station―the very station from which he fled Berlin in the winter of 1938. This publication thus closes a circle in the story of his extraordinary life and work.

The Raw Society Magazine: A Space for Real Storytelling

Purchase a Copy of The Raw Society Magazine

Selected Books