Originally from Portugal, Rui describes himself as an anti-social 'workaholic’.   After speaking to him I sensed the dedication that he has for his magazine (Volt).  Rui Faria decided to move to the United States to study Filmmaking, as he wanted to be a film director.  He became interested in fashion photography while at college studying film and after seeing a film “The Eyes of Laura Mars” he attended the Fashion Institute of Technology.  He moved to London in 1990 where he’s now based.  Rui eventually started his own agency called Areia, which represents photographers and stylists.  With his new found success with Areia Agency, there was still something missing.  I believe when one is full of creativity there is no limit to what one can accomplish. 

Three and a half years ago, Rui decided that he wanted to start his own magazine stating: “It was literally out of sheer frustration, because I'm a very visual person and I was actually having a conversation with a friend (at the bar). I was just expressing my frustration at the fashion magazines that has this obsession with celebrities from reality TV shows.  As a photographer, as a visual person, when I buy a fashion magazine the thing that interest me the most is the fashion, the image. I'm not interested in the celebrity a, the celebrity b, that sort of thing.  I felt that it was a complete waste of paper and energy and resources to have these sorts of things in magazines.  This friend of mine said ‘why don't you do something about it and start your own magazine’.  I came up with this concept of doing it in an extremely large format.  The reason why the magazine is not bound is that each image is a poster and the ideal behind it is that people can either frame the pictures or just put them on the wall as a poster; that's basically how it went and obviously I didn't know anything about publishing or how magazines worked or anything about distribution, so I had to learn as I went along.”

 Naming the magazine ‘Volt’ came from shooting Volt’s first beauty story.  “I'm a photographer by trade, that's what I do, that's my main business.”  Rui says to me.  “I did a beauty shoot, it was very bright, and someone said to me 'oh my, this looks very striking', and that’s basically where I came up with the name Volt.  Like a volt of lighting.”

I said to Rui, “when purchasing the 7 issue (which is now sold out) it's quite large and when I opened the pages looking at the large sized fashion spreads I said to myself, 'is this a poster'?”  Rui replies;

“Well I'm glad you asked; that’s the intention.  I absolutely love fashion magazines, I absolutely think that it's a crime, and I cringe when I see people ripping magazines apart, 'oh no, please don't do that you are destroying the magazine'. When I buy magazines they stay intact as they are, and I don't like when people fold them.  The Ideal behind Volt is you don't have to destroy the magazine itself, the ideal is, if you like an image, you can put it up on the wall without having to rip anything.  Obviously, Rui says; “one of the first issues that we had when we went to find a distributor was that the first issue came as it was, then the problems that we had; were that the pages kept falling out when you put them on the shelf, so I came up with the idea of putting the magazine in a plastic bag, and easily displayed on the shelves.”

I look at Volt magazine as a collectable, like something to be cherished.  He says; “absolutely, that's the idea, it’s something that you know people buy because they love it, they want to collect it, and it's become something that people have become very passionate about and very possessive about. For example, with issue 2 everybody wants to get that particular issue and no one has it, including me.  I don't have a single copy of it.  I don’t know what happened, he says with a laugh.  You know it completely sold out, I wish I had kept it.”

Rui says that he wants to keep a good quality magazine, and in photography, the other thing about Volt that is unique is that it's printed on organic paper, which makes the actual process very expensive. Volt is probably the most expensive magazine to print (a unit), and because of its size, it's not done by a machine, the folding itself is done by hand because there aren't any machines that can fold the pages, so as you can imagine there's a lot of work that goes into putting the magazine together.  Rui says; “it is a labor of love.  I'm extremely lucky and grateful that I have a great team behind me; people that are passionate about it.  We all do it for the love of it.”

 Rui tells me how Volt chooses the concept and the model.  “We sit down and have an editorial meeting where  we decide who will shoot which story and then the choice of the model really comes down to the 'fashion editor as well as the photographer'; we collaborate as a team, basically, we choose the model that would be the best for the story.” 

Having two successful businesses, one could ask, how do you keep everything running so smoothly? Rui says; “Well it is a lot of self-discipline, I'm a workaholic, I have no personal life, my life consists’ of work.”  Rui is very passionate about what he does and believes in performing, to the utmost, in excellence. “I've always been passionate about what I do, I just find that if I get involved in something and if I don't do it in the proper way, there is no point in doing it.”

Starting a fashion magazine and scouting for a great team that can grasp the creative concept can be challenging.  Rui states that when he published Volt's first issue it was very difficult, “I honestly didn't know what I was doing, I’d never been a publisher before,” he laughs; “it's like being on the other side of being a photographer, being commissioned by a photographer, and then once it's done that’s it.  I didn't have formal training; my degree is in photography and advertising.”  Rui has worked in the industry for a number of years, and has gained connections within the industry.  He slowly gathered his team, first with Cynthia Lawrence-John, who presides as Volt's Fashion Director, “I approached her and asked if she would like to be a part of the magazine, she said yes, I was delighted,” Rui continues; “I have a great team of people who collaborate, work with the magazine, and I have a great fashion director, Cynthia, who takes care of all the fashion and basically, commissions everything.  We have meetings and we speak every day.  We also have a beauty editor, (Linda Ohrstrom).  Rui says that his main position at Volt magazine is to deal with the potential advertisers and printers and to make sure that everything is running smoothly.