Introducing 10 Men Australia Issue 26: Transformation, Evolve, Joy

EDITOR'S LETTER

We are going to be shooting the musician Calum Hood today. It’s one of those wintry Sydney days rich with blue-sky optimism, and then here we are in the nondescript doorway of Hibernian House. This is a trip in itself. The smell, the dust, the rustle of time and the intense graffiti throughout the building, all five, maybe six, or seven, floors. Every inch. And then into Lolly Loft – the bohemian studio where Byron Spencer is setting up. Music pounding. Peter Simon Phillips is styling Tommy Jeans, and Calum, on time, is already in the grooming chair. After more than a decade as part of 5 Seconds of Summer he is launching a solo album, Order Chaos Order. Hibernian House is the perfect place to meet him, then. He is thoughtful and perhaps a little bit nervous when faced with full-wattage all-of-us, but he navigates and gives his calm, quiet best.

The album’s 10 songs are rich with personal storytelling. My favourite is Endless Ways, with its “one more dance and one more cry”. Out on the street we wander down to the local barbershop and into the streets of Surry Hills. People look. Up on the roof, he is as free as can be. He doodles in my notebook and writes on a T-shirt “Fragile, do not open”, but he is open and the album says so much about where he’s at.

Byron also photographed Ruben Moreira in Paris for this issue. Ruben is a thinker, and a boxer. His hero is Muhammad Ali, who was the master of courage and throughout his life fought not only in the ring but was a symbol of racial pride. He was also a man of great words. Ruben is a poet inspired by love right now.

Another champion of Black humanity, Edward Enninful was interviewed by Anders Christian Madsen as he begins the next chapter of Edward with his new company and magazine, EE72. He tells us, “I’m just doing me, building a world true to me.” The artist Shaun Daniel Allan, aka Shal, is also in his truth and shares a glimmer of his journey to Darwin in search of the perfect ochre for his next project with Hermès. Kai-Isaiah Jamal, a London-based poet, model, activist and musician, says “be whatever, but just promise you’ll be”. Jamal is constantly transforming, exploring the boundless, and wears Pharrell’s finest Louis Vuitton for us. Add the amazing performance artist/musician Casey Spooner, an incredible group of LGBTQ+ artists in NYC who are fighting against Trump’s anti-queer rights, and so on… These are but a few of the heartfelt stories in this issue, which is dedicated to transformation, joy and the bravery of self-awareness.