The magazine has received these awards:

2021 Best Periodical Design (GMK Turkey - Graphic Design Association of Turkey)
2020 Editorial Design Achievement Award (GMK Turkey)
"Project We Love" (Kickstarter)
Magazine of the Week (magCulture)
Best New Indie Mag (Page Magazines)

And magCulture had this to say about us:

"Hamam is so appealing because, at its (steamy) core, this is a magazine about something all of us grapple with — how to live. It explores the common idea of, and desire to cleanse ourselves — physically in water, spiritually, and mentally."

A Declaration of Letting Go

Calling All You, Curious Minds — 

It is with great jubilation that we write today to cordially invite you to celebrate the art and culture of bathing. On this occasion — and with sincere intentions of more to follow — we emancipate ourselves from the technological trappings of the modern world and release mental afflictions in the name of pleasure, relaxation, and growth. We ask you kindly excuse whatever preconceptions you hold regarding identity. There is no judgment or self-censorship here. 

In these pages, we create space for the greatest liberation: the freedom of expression. Here, we offer our distinguished audience contemplative retreat. 

HAMAM is not simply a magazine! It is an object of Letting Go that you can hold in your hand.

Let us explore these varied practices together, and we will  — with due regard and great consideration — unearth the many particulars of history's greatest healer: the bath. It is this ancient practice of transformation from which our inspiration flows endlessly. At the place where water and skin meet for ritualistic cleansing we declare a solemn truth: nobody is the same, but everyone is equal and welcome. Our confession is unabashed … we are bathing obsessed. 

If you choose, we wish you safe passage beyond our friendly waters. However, we hope you will abide, and enter our safe harbors so we may collectively nourish our minds and heal our bodies. We assume this mantle, rather boldly, in our sacred role to rid the world of suffering. 

To you, Unconventional Spirits — with open hearts, creative & big ideas — we dedicate HAMAM.

With fondness,

Ekin & Steve

Summer 2020

Our Issue With Back Issues

It’s been two years since we launched our crowdfunding campaign to support the debut issue of Hamam. Like many other independent magazines getting started, we didn’t have readers that advertisers would pay to reach, so we set our campaign goal to cover the whole cost of printing and shipping the first issue and paying our contributors an honorarium. Thanks to family, friends, and a surprising number of internet strangers, we officially became publishers in fall 2020.

The first issue was embraced by the indie publishing world—we were blown away by the reception from juggernauts such as magCulture, Stack Magazines, and Creative Review. We received offers from around the world to stock and distribute our magazine. But as our stockist list grew, we noticed the extent of advertising’s influence on all recurring publications—whether they run ads or not. 

The arrangements proposed, and eventually accepted, to sell Hamam all had similar terms, which are not particularly friendly to publishers. With rare exceptions, distributors and retailers work on consignment and will market an issue for a certain amount of time or until we publish a new one. Not all magazines subsidize their revenue with ads, and not all magazines are collected and cherished well beyond the issue date, but stockists don’t make that distinction, so any leftover copies were destroyed or returned at our expense. This has been the fate of our beloved back issues.

Selling creative work takes guts. We know lovers of Hamam see and appreciate this, because they tell us. (Thank you—you make our day every single time.) We’re okay accepting the risk of putting something new into the world, which is why we’ve decided to only sell Hamam through our website from now on. Whether you’re a stockist or just a big fan, we’ll automatically discount any bulk order (that’s at least 10 copies) by 40%. We also removed issue numbers from our website so as to avoid any back issue bias. Regardless of when it was printed, each issue of Hamam is a timeless work, and we hope you’ll collect and cherish them in any order.

Stay wet,

Team Hamam