After developing my own personal research in to the creations of zine’s i started to focus on how i wanted to structure and develop my own. the first step was selecting around 16 images that i wanted to use within my zine. during the selection process it was essential to keep in mind the focal point for instance would be the relation to the occupation and the historical significance it holds, therefore when looking at each image in detail i needed to decide if the image was essentially appropriate and of high quality. i had now my selection of the image i wanted to use which had been cropped and edited to help project the feeling and affects i hoped to be portrayed through the zine. To continue the next thing to decide was the order and size of the photographs on each page, for example, will it fill the whole page/ half the page/one side/ both sides/ how many images will on each page? etc. An example of where this type of mind thought came in to play was the back page, it was determining whether having an image would be have a dramatic effect or not, after careful consideration i finally decided to fill the back page with one image of a silhouette of a soldier on rocks looking out towards the sea, i deemed this to be a perfect ending for the zine as the photograph has connotation of a more calmer semantic field and has suggestions of a deeper meaning of an end and finishing, with the solider looking out to the future and a new start.

I used light room to help me select and edit my images and refine them to the minim amount in order t be able to move on to actually creating the zine, furthermore this lead to be to the conclusion that all of my images being represented in a black and white form, to me this really helped reflect the historical features and what has come of Jersey and our surrounding since then whilst still holding and portraying the historical importance.

INDESIGN work:

For my front cover i decided to keep it simple with a plain black background that continues to be displayed throughout the rest of the zine. For the title i chose a word ad translated it in to German to represent the historical features form the war, in this case i used the word ‘die reise’ which means the journey, this fitted perfectly as previously mention, is a genre i was concentrating on whist making the zine.

Finally after deciding on a definite structure and layout i printed out the zine making sure when it was printed and folded everything would still be in the correct position. As well as these factors i had to consider the over edges from the paper being folded and made sure there were no white stripes down the side of the booklet i did this by extending the image on indesign by an extra 3mm and trimming the pages when they were printed off, this resulted in a tidier and more complete finish.

The printed out zine:

This is the overall layout of my zine. For my title I decided to use a very military style font to display how the zine is about WW2. I also decided to make the front cover a double page spread, the front cover a has the gun turret and the back has the seagull in the sky. 
The first pages are also a double page spread with a black and white image with the bunker then an archival image or a soldier looking through a telescope. I decided to put these together as the bunker gun and the telescope look very similar.
 I then placed a picture of roman numerals that were on a bunkers wall alongside an image I took of a picture of a soldier that was in a bunker. I put these together because I like how simplistic but bold the numerals are and the defiant look on the soldiers face. 
I then did a double page spreak of a black and white image of a bunker. I wanted to include this image as it looks like the path is leading the audience to take the journey to explore the bunkers which is reflected in the next pages that features images of the canons and bunkers. 
I featured a black and white image of a sculpture of a man which was a memorial at La Hogue Bie dedicated to the fallen soldiers of the war. I made this black and white to emphasize the textures of the sculpture and give more depth to the image. 
The next pages feature a hat and the top of a bunker. I placed these images together as I feel like they imitate eachother. It creates humor in the book as they are almost making fun of eachother. 

I named my zine ‘war with nature’ because I wanted to capture the relationship between the islands scenery and the man-made bunker. the key concept was to photograph how nature as grown around the fortifications similarly to how after the occupation everyone had to rebuild themselves with what had been left behind my the German’s. The harmony in which bunkers and natures now live in symbolizes the end of the war and how Jersey is now peaceful place, war free. The fact that the bunkers are permanent to the island, mirrors how the soldiers after WWII had to live with permanent PTSD and trauma from the war fields. The majority of German fortification are on Jersey’s coastline which have some of the islands most scenic views, the fort and bunkers add a sense of historical background to these landscapes.

I went for a minimalist font, which looks like a typewriting, providing war connotations. This image is of the sea wall on the north of St Ouen’s coastline. The wall is structured like stairs it moves in height with the uneven land, my title is mimicking this shape.

Next I used another image from the sea wall fortification at St Ouens bay like the font cover image. I put a border around it to seperate the two images, to signify the spread of bunkers across the island. The second image of a bunker at Noirmont Point part of Battery Lothringen. I wanted to start the book simple and set the scene and theme with images of bunkers in and amoung nature. The typography is of a German soldier and Jersey soldier, I chose this font as it creates a typewriter effect. I placed them parallel to each other to express that even though they were enemies they were still both human.

I then moved onto a double page spread which was of the weaponary on Battery Lothringen. This time nature is represented by the sea, which is a large part of Jersey because of it’s size. We also forget how significant the sea was during the war for transporting things like Red Cross parcels.

The next two images are close ups of features of bunkers, so the narrative is becoming more detailed by focusing on their characteristics. The first image is very dark and gives connotations of the unknown which is how the locals felt during the occupation, in a state of not knowing whats next.

Again I have gone even further into the bunker with his image of the lighting. Light was such an important part of life in the bunkers because they didn’t have the sun as there source. When it came to lighting that was where nature couldn’t adapt, which is like how some people during the war couldnt adapt back to normal life and had severe PTSD.

The next two images are of the radio tower at Corbiere so the book is chrongically making it’s way along the Jersey coast line. The first image is of my own photography and the seccond is a merger of my own and an archive image during the occupation. I wanted to capture the change in the nature around the tower and how its adapted to live around a man-made histroical eye-sore.

This image is also at Corbiere but is of a German look out town, which would have been stragetically placed within the greenary for camoflague. The shrubs have continued to grow around it and inside of it, which helps it to look like part of the landscape. On the other page is a poem from Kingsley Amis called Wasted which he wrote during the occupation. I included this poem to also move focus to the people rather than the environment.

I am focusing back on nature with this image with a bunker from Le Houge Bie. This bunker is different from all the others as it’s fully submergeed by greenary. The second image is of the inside and it create a juxtaposition between the green exterior and concrete interior.

I finished with an enigmatic image of a eerie looking corridor to bring home truths of the occupation. Although people moved on and started a new life, it was still a burden of memories they had to live with for the rest of their life. The war bought many changes, some for the best, others for the worst.

A photo zine is a self-published, often handmade collection of photographs laid out in a magazine style. It can include written text and illustrations as well as photos. They are designed to display and share photo stories. A photo zine can be a single, one-off publication. The type of zine I will make is a single-section zine. This is the standard zine which is like a small book. My zine will be A5 paper size. I am going to feature photographs on their own pages as well as some having a double page spread.

Examples of Zines:

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For my final configuration, I largely left it the same as version 3, however I decided to make Most of the images black and white except for pages 5 and 6, because i found that the images were much more impactful in the slightly warmer colour, acting as a sort of throwback to the days of colour film cameras. I also made the final spread in full colour as it is meant to represent the liberation of the island. I also changed pages 9 and 10 to show a larger image that bleeds onto the next page instead of having 2 smaller pictures. overall I think that this is the best variation of my zine yet, as it incorporates all of the elements that I wanted it to, in showing the harsh and unsaturated world of life in the bunkers, as well as the more positive aspect of the liberation of the island.

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With school, we went to visit the WW2 bunkers at Noirmont. Tony Pike guided us around the bunkers and told us information about how the bunkers were made and the specific uses that everything had. We were then given an hour to go around by ourselves and explore the bunkers. We then went inside the bunker that has been restored and looked at the objects and infrastructure of the bunker at Noirmont. After I then went outside and climbed around the cliff to photograph the outside of the bunker that faces out to the sea. 

My Photoshoot

About The Shoot

My photoshoot consists many aspects such as the exteriors of the bunkers, the interiors of the bunkers, objects inside the bunkers, the surroundings of the bunkers and photographs that were inside the bunkers. I wanted to take a wide spectrum of images for when I created my zine, I have as many choices as possible to create a certain narrative.

My Manipulated Images

To manipulate my images, I rated all my photographs with a certain number of stars, 5*= the best and 1*=the worst. I then selected my images from 3* and above to then go through them and colour coded them. Green=the best and red=the worst. I manipulated all of these images and then went through them again and re-colour coded them.

The Colour Coded Selection

Here are my colour coded images. I also considered the yellow images as they had potential. By colour coding my images meant I was able to make a more concise selection of what images I wanted to use in my zine.

My Best Manipulated Images

To manipulate my images I used Adobe Lightroom Classic. I adjusted settings such as highlights, shadows, whites, blacks, clarity, contrast, vibrance, adjusted the white balance and I also cropped some of my images. After using the rating and colour coding system I decided that these would be the images that I will use in my zine.

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