Inevitably, you stumble across them, whether covering a whole page or squeezed into its very last corner. For many of us, adverts are inseparably entangled with our favourite magazines. Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not only an admirer of the written word, exciting stories and compelling photography, but equally digging clever adverts. It’s just about keeping a balance. Well, if I’m flicking through the pages of most lifestyle, fashion or culture-related mags, all you basically do is jumping from one random perfume, clothing or technology ad to another. The actual articles quite often wither into mere fill-in amongst the crowd. To me, something’s wrong here. Annoyingly wrong. People (supposedly) buy magazines for content in the first place, right? At least I do. So where’s the value and appreciation for the creatives behind it – writers, editors and photographers – if the focus is constantly distracted from the real deal? The photographic print journal The Quarterly however proves that things can be done quite differently, devoted to an ethical, art-valuing and ad-free concept. Well, let’s step back and get to the bottom of it. …