Northern Utah has a new arts and culture magazine. The culmination of a three-year journey for photographer Cam McLeod and his wife and business partner Kelly, Salty Magazine officially debuted during a release party in the Stockyard Exchange neighborhood on October 19, 2023. The premium quality magazine is now available at shops and cafes throughout the Ogden area. And it’s free.
“Originally, the idea was to bridge the gap between adventure and arts,” says Cam. “If you look back at the primary voice of Ogden, which was Visit Ogden, and even our last three mayors, we did an incredible job of marketing and advertising the recreational assets. But as the community got bigger and Ogden started shifting, we were not talking about our culture at all. We just keep talking about how we have ski areas, and we talk about mountain biking… and we’re not really talking about the community itself. So that was the impetus.”
Salty nails the dichotomy between Ogden’s gritty inner city and wide-open adventure meccas. Features on mountain biking and an all-women’s skateboarding club mesh masterfully with stories on Ogden’s tattoo culture, home-grown musicians, the demolition derby, and tagging train cars with graffiti. Winterscapes from Nordic Valley, Powder Mountain, and the Huntsville Town Park nicely counter images from Historic 25th Street and Ogden’s rail yards. Intermixed are original poems and illustrations from local artists.
Much like Ogden’s modern image itself, Cam made his name in adventure sports, shooting for outlets such as Powder Magazine and Warren Miller Entertainment, and for brands such as Helly Hansen, Salomon and Atomic. For the McLeods—both of whom were raised in Michigan and now live in Eden, with notable stops in Telluride and Ogden’s East Bench—finding the right content for Salty meant breaking out of their inner circle.
“Some of it was just happenstance, like the muralist Don Rimx piece,” says Cam “It was such a significant project in the community, and I had already been contracted to document that project by Ogden City. So, that was an instance where the content had already been created, and then I just decided to write the article.”
“We got some of the other content from the people we kept meeting as we did each story,” says Kelly “As our network grew, we kept getting references, almost. And that helped expand our reach into what's going on in Ogden, which was a really fun process.”
This first edition of Salty features no advertising and was funded by Ogden City through Ogden City Arts and the Ogden Community and Economic Development Office. The grants covered payments for contributors and the cost of production—and it’s worth noting how it is rare to find a free magazine with this level of production quality. For the McLeods and everyone else involved in the behind-the-scenes, Salty was largely a passion project.
“We wanted to make a keepsake,” says Cam. “And it was to the financial detriment of ourselves. We put in a lot of time and a lot of people had to work for an under-market rate to pull this off, but this was what we sought to produce. It was like, if we only ever do one of these, let's just make sure it's the best one we ever do. And then the best case scenario is now we actually have a proof of concept."
Learn more about Salty Magazine at www.salty-mag.com or on their instagram
