Get unlimited access to everything VICE has to offer.

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

Turn off all ads on VICE.com

Exclusive New VICE Documentaries

Member Exclusive Features & Columns

4 Magazines Delivered to Your Door

Letters From VICE Magazine’s Editors: Spring 2026

Ben Ditto and Kevin Lee Kharas introduce The Not The Photo Issue, a bumper 184-page special that asks, which images are most fucking us up today, and why?

By Ben Ditto and Kevin Lee Kharas

Share on X (Opens in new window)X

Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Facebook

Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard

In these letters, our Global Editorial Director Ben Ditto and Editor in Chief Kevin Lee Kharas introduce the spring 2026 issue of VICE magazine, THE NOT THE PHOTO ISSUE. Buy it now—or get 4 issues each year in the mail, by subscribing.

There was an old Tumblr meme. A Nintendo 64-style low-poly head floating on a pink-green ombré background, with a quiet smile and a pair of binoculars stuck to its face. “Looking at image s,” read text surrounding the face. “‘Yes! I love to see it’”.

This meme pretty much defines my life because I do, indeed, love to see images. I spent an unholy amount of time in libraries as a kid. Reading, for sure, but mostly looking at images. Endless science, sci-fi, history, and fantasy books, just satisfying my desire to perceive images. Then came the internet and the floodgates opened. 

Rabbit-holes, image boards, Flickr, Yandex, Tumblrs… Then along came Instagram and weaponized image-liking, adrenaline-boosted by Silicon Valley’s most nefarious marketing algorithms. Mood board accounts sprung up, competing with each other for clout by refining their aesthetics and posting rare and unique content. They spawned thousands, then millions of imitators. Instagram hit a billion users. 

Over a decade later, we are running out of images. We have seen them all, and we need something new. Traditional modes of image production can no longer satisfy those, like me, who love to see images. 

“Images still have the power to pierce the psyche, but they no longer need to pretend to be real”—Ben Ditto, Global Editorial Director, VICE magazine

“Images still have the power to pierce the psyche, but they no longer need to pretend to be real”—Ben Ditto, Global Editorial Director, VICE magazine

Perhaps recognizing this, tech overlords have steered users away from quiet, still images towards the total sensory immersion of Reels. The mood board accounts became carousel accounts as the algorithm punished single-image posters. Meme accounts were mercilessly persecuted, nuked for simply reposting. Around........

© Vice