ABRAXXX The Ultimate Porn Magazine

ABRAXXX - The Ultimate Porn Magazine is a publishing project inspired by vintage pornography
from the 70s and 80s, in which eroticism and sexuality were more often than today represented with expressive force, careful attention to the choice of outfits, makeup, sets, and settings, often immortalized by high-level photographers sometimes with a bit of irony. The idea came from Davide Fossati, aka Abraxass, who, after reading Jack Fritscher's biography of Robert Mapplethorpe, became fascinated by and delved deeper into the aesthetics of late 1970s underground porn magazines. This led to the idea of recreating a product that combined explicit with high aesthetic standards.
But rather than simply reproducing concepts and graphic aesthetics, Davide fills the pages of the magazine with his own personal imagery, dense with more or less explicit references and
quotations ranging from esotericism to literature and art history. The photos are accompanied by texts that serve as their conceptual counterpoint, without explicitly addressing the sexual theme but placing it within the broader context of human experience: from childhood to the development of awareness of death, from desire and its satisfaction in a cycle that seems to close
like a vise between boredom and dissatisfaction. Within the magazine, there are also “easter eggs” and hidden meanings which the author has inserted with the intent of sparking curiosity and inviting the reader to explore and discover beneath the surface of the images. Closing the magazine is a parody of a vintage cigarette advertisement that ironically puts into focus the death drive and the tendency toward self-destruction. The entire project is dedicated and in memory of
Luna Angelini, artist and Davide’s best friend and soulmate, who committed suicide on July 27 / 2025.
Davide Fossati aka Abraxass is a visual artist, performer and art director based in Milan.
His work has appeared in art, fashion and lifestyle magazines such as King Kong Magazine, Vice,
Lampoon, Next Gen Magazine, Coeval Magazine, Pornceptual and others.
Luca Santese and Marco P. Valli are Italian photographers based in Milan.
While studying at the Academy, Santese worked as an assistant in Alex Majoli’s studio. In 2008,
he founded Cesura, a group of photographers focused on promoting photojournalism,
documentary photography, and artistic research. In 2010, he was selected for the World Press
Photo with his project Detroit 2009–2010. That same year, he first exhibited Found Photos in
Detroit at Le Bal in Paris, followed by shows at Kulturhuset (Stockholm), OGR (Turin), MoCP
(Chicago), and other international venues. The book of the same title, published in 2012 with
Arianna Arcara, was selected by Martin Parr and Garry Badger for Photobook: A History Vol. III.
In 2011, after completing a program at CFP Bauer, Valli began an internship at Cesura and later
became an active member of the group. In 2017, he published his first book, Bakeca, a
photographic research on sexuality and exhibitionism. His work has been featured in several
exhibitions across Italy.
In 2018, Santese and Valli began a long-term artistic collaboration. Together they created
Realpolitik (2018–2024), a satirical visual project on Italian politics after the 2018 elections; Il
Corpo del Capitano (2020), a critical work on Matteo Salvini’s propaganda and iconography; and
Texas Trigger (2025), a photographic project on key cultural and political themes in contemporary
America.
Their work has appeared in Time, Vogue, L’Espresso, Internazionale, Libération, Vanity Fair, La
Repubblica, Le Monde, Die Zeit, Stern, Der Freitag, Vice, Sportweek, Corriere della Sera, and
Politico Europe.