Rufus Marlowe

Culture Writer · London

Rufus Marlowe writes about food, material culture, and the contemporary revival of analog technologies. His essays appear in Monocle, Gastronomica, and Design Observer. He is the author of "The Permanence of Things" and has curated exhibitions on craft and consumption at the Design Museum London. His writing examines nostalgia, craft knowledge, and the politics of slowness. Based in London, Marlowe has held residencies at the Slow Food Foundation and the Crafts Study Centre.

culture

Why Everyone Suddenly Owns a Film Camera

The grain is the point. On nostalgia, scarcity, and the fourteen-dollar roll of Portra, and what a generation raised on infinite digital photos is really buying back.

Rufus Marlowe · June 14, 2026 · 5 min read

culture ◆ Members

The Restaurant Review Is Dead. Long Live the Restaurant Review.

The critics lost their expense accounts. The algorithm gained a palate. Between a vanishing institution and an indifferent aggregate, dinner hangs in the balance.

Rufus Marlowe · May 17, 2026 · 5 min read

culture

The Vinyl Bubble and Its Discontents

Records outsold CDs again, for the fourth year running. Most of what got pressed will never touch a turntable, and the supply chain was not built for this much demand.

Rufus Marlowe · March 15, 2026 · 4 min read

culture

The Museum Gift Shop Is the Museum

You exit through it for a reason. On postcards, tote bags, and the souvenir theory of art: the gift shop isn't an afterthought to the museum experience, it's the argument the museum has been making all along.

Rufus Marlowe · January 18, 2026 · 5 min read

culture ◆ Members

The Great Cookbook Glut

Four thousand new cookbooks a year, and nobody is cooking from any of them. On the strange afterlife of the cookbook as a genre that has stopped being about cooking.

Rufus Marlowe · October 19, 2025 · 4 min read