Luis Venegas

Luis' career started in Paris in 1996 when he was working as a designer for Thierry Mugler. In 1999, he moved to Madrid to work for Spanish fashion designer Sybilla as Creative Director of Communications until 2005.

In 2004, the first issue of Fanzine137 was born, with a limited edition run of 1,137 copies. The magazine is a collection of Luis Venegas’ objects of attraction at the specific time of publication.

Every issue is unique in size, theme, materials, layout and graphic design changes.

Cover of Fanzine 17.137 The Black And White Issue with Timothy Kelleher shot by Thomas Giddings

The list of contributors of Fanzine137 has included Steven Klein, Terry Richardson, Alasdair McLellan, Ryan McGinley, Christian Lacroix, Javier Vallhonrat, Tom Ford, Rodarte, Richard Prince, Tim Walker, Larry Clark, Gus Van Sant, plus interviews with Linda Evangelista, Bruce Weber, Juergen Teller, Carolina Herrera, Joe McKenna, Grace Coddington and Oliver Zahm among others. It has also posthumously presented portfolios by photographers such as Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts and Francesco Scavullo.

Venegas launched his second magazine, EY! Magateen in Spring 2008. The magazine was originally called Electric Youth!. The title of the magazine makes homage to Debbie Gibson’s 1989 song Electric Youth, taken from the album with the same name.

Cover of EY Magateen Brazil issue 7 with Marlon Teixeria shot by Marcelo Krasilcic

EY! Magateen addresses the energy, power and vitality of young males, most of them aged between 16 and 21 years. Each new issue is about a specific country or a city and is limited to just 1000 copies. The group of young people on display in EY! Magateen is a mix of handsome unknowns: mostly models, emerging artists, actors and athletes. The magazine features quirky comments and suggestive nudity.

Issues 6, 7 and 8 featured collaborations with American Apparel.

Venegas’ third magazine, Candy was launched in October 2009. According to its slogan it is The First Transversal Style Magazine. Following the tradition of his other two magazines, Candy has an exclusive limited edition run of 1500 copies. It is a fashion and art magazine completely dedicated to celebrating transvestism, trans-sexuality, crossdressing and androgyny. The title of the magazine makes homage to Candy Darling.

Unlike other publications related to the LGBT community, which generally advocate for rights form a political standpoint, Candy stands out as a celebration of this lifestyle. For Venegas, “Candy isn't about rights, but I do think the fact it [Candy] exists helps.”[1] In an interview with The New York Times, Venegas made his statement clear:

Cover of Candy with James Franco photographed by Terry Richardson

Photographers like Bruce Weber, Terry Richardson, Steven Klein, Tim Walker, David Armstrong, Ellen von Unwerth, Ryan McGinley, Walter Pfeiffer, Juan Gatti, Daniel Riera or Danielle Levitt and writers like Tim Blanks, Derek Blasberg or Hilton Als -among others- are regular contributors.

For the launch of the second issue, Venegas collaborated with Swedish design house Acne, creating a limited run of unisex blouses named after characters from the American soap opera, Dynasty.

Issues 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8 had a single cover printed, with the 8th issue's being a gatefold cover. All other issues had multiple different covers, some featuring the same person on the cover (issues 5 and 9, featuring Connie Flemming and Miley Cyrus, respectively), others with different people on each different cover (issues 10 onwards). For issues 9 through 13, the number of different covers matches the issue number.

In 2020 Venegas edited THE C☆NDY BOOK OF TRANSVERSAL CREATIVITY celebrating the 10th anniversary of the magazine. With the subtitle THE BEST OF C☆NDY TRANSVERSAL MAGAZINE, ALLEGEDLY, the book is a compilation that includes photography and art from over 100 artists from the first 12 issues, as well as new writings reflecting on the magazine's cultural impact.

Invited by Christian Lacroix in 2008 he was a judge for the prestigious photography festival Rencontres d’Arles alongside Elisabeth Biondi, Caroline Issa & Masoud Golsorkhi, Nathalie Ours and Carla Sozzani.

As a Creative Director in Spring 2012 he directed a video for the launch of Loewe’s Oro Collection which became popular and highly controversial in Spain. As a result, the collection sold out and it turned out to be the best seller of the year for the LVMH's Spanish brand.

In 2013 he took part as a panelist for a Fashion Seminar in Helsinki curated by Daniel Thawley in which also participated Marc Ascoli, Michel Gaubert, Jonathan Anderson, Benjamin Bruno and Karen van Godtsenhoven held at the Aalto University.

Venegas has also DJ’d in various venues around the world including Plastic in Milan, George & Dragon and Bistrotheque in London, Razzmatazz in Barcelona, Kaiku in Helsinki and at the Boom Boom Room in New York City.

He occasionally is a professor in Madrid and Barcelona.

• By Luis Venegas website
• Luis Venegas's Vimeo Page
• Fab 40: Luis Venegas, Publisher at wallpaper.com
• Bold Crossings of the Gender Line at nytimes.com
• Insiders | Luis Venegas at anothermag.com
• Luis Venegas at home in Madrid at theselby.com
• Candy 4 at models.com
• Fashion's candyman Luis Venegas sounds off on fashion, trannies and the digital age of publishing!! at dirty-mag.com
• The Candy Magazine and Opening Ceremony monster party hosted by Chloe Sevigny and Terry Richardson at purple.fr
• Luis's Venegas Obsessions at industrie.nowmanifest.com
• Luis Venegas Mega Magazine Maker from Spain Likes Them Young at buttmagazine.com
• Luis Venegas is a Geek at vice.com
• I Want Candy at dazeddigital.com
• Fanzine Fare at style.com
• Now Eulogizing | Fanzine 137 at tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com
• Chronic Youth at tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com
• YCE: Luis Venegas at dazeddigital.com