WHAT ARE PHOTO ZINES ?

A zine is defined as a product of an individual person or small group of people with the main purpose of exposure or raising awareness of an issue, or simply spreading your own work in a more put-together and professional way. The content of a zine isn’t limited to photography, and the concept of a zine is also used in illustration and design. (also historically forming the basis for comic books)

“A photography zine, for example, is a tool that photographers can use to tell a visual story, to inform an audience about a specific topic or issue, to showcase and advertise a new idea or simply create a preview of an ongoing project.”

There aren’t any set rules for making a photo zine, any theme or topic can become a zine as a form of creativity and self-expression. As a result, they can be very personal to the photographer or tackle sensitive subjects in the zine, often bordering on topics to do with family, personal trauma, mental health or childhood.

ARTIST REFERENCE: DUANE MICHALS

My zine is based off two shoots, one angel scene, and one mirror scene, both with different but singular characters. My black and white mirror scene is inspired by the work of Duane Michals, an american sequence photographer.

Duane Michals, widely known for his work with series, multiple exposures, and text, first made creative strides in photography during the 1960s. Michals famous sequnces are an appropriate cinema’s frame-by-frame format, creating a narrative that plays out through one consequent scene.

He has been awarded with many prestigious awards such as a CAPS Grant (1975), the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Art (1989), and an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, Mass. (2005).

I’ve decided to base my zine shoot of this sequence of Michals, which is one scene of a woman looking into a mirror but her reflection is contorted and stretched, creating an unrealistic image. It fits my narrative with the angel, representing a somewhat nightmarish scene which would call for the ‘guardian angel’ to appear. Perhaps it is all a dream or maybe just a visual representation of inner turmoil in the character.

She studied at south wales uni – media history photography for A level

Claude Cahun inspired Shannon because of how rebellious she was with shaved hair wearing male clothes. she was also jewish who did things she thought was right

Duane Michals- simple but affective film stills, black and white and visually inspiring 

Casa Susanna- shot in the 60’s, transgender men and women fled here to be free. private images, lucky to have been found. 

Walter Pfeiffer- young gay man, he died shortly after they were shot. calm, poetic. Subject took control over what he wore n how he posed 

Adi Nes – Jewish Israeli photographer – masculinity, sexuality and Israeli (war) culture, staged model photos 1996 – masculinities catalogue 

Judith butler book Gender trouble – constructed ideas of gender roles relating to sexuality, deconstructs ideas in society  

June singer book Androgyny the opposite within – idea of gender fluidity, picking and choosing areas of structed gender roles and re defining 

Shrinking Violet- her A level project. based around her mum’s role and the role she has at home and at work. mocking the traditional role of women. 

ABORT MISSION- in Cardiff, anti-abortion protests. pro-choice protesters. standing outside an abortion clinic. focusing on religion. same road had gentlemen clubs- strip clubs, duality in her photographs. 

BY YOUR BEDSIDE- based on her mum who had been put into a coma because she couldn’t breathe for herself. trauma of the hospital every day. Christmas day taken into hospital and put on the ventilation system- then induced coma for a month due to bacterial pneumonia in the intensive care unit. Project a year later acted as a therapy for her. Lot of issues that she had and dealt with. “Susan’s sleep” film with layered audio, with interviews and childhood home footage. 

THE CAT AND MICE- riverside in Cardiff, the suffragettes. acts of violence, lighting up post boxes etc. cat and mice title because based on an act passed for suffragettes who went to prison and went on hunger strike (forced fed through their nose). archive data. books etc. work made contemporary. the peace hall where they had riots, not significant anymore, turned into a Tesco’s. photographed contemporary women activists. 

That’s not the way the river flows – questioning her own gender identity. Made a short film layered with reading of her own poem. ‘moving stills’ poem about questioning gender and why society follows a strict binary of male and female. Able to be silly in front of the camera, gendered clothing, uses film and screenshots stills afterwards to edit. 

Technical

The photographer has used dim natural lighting, although a reflection can be seen on the shoes so there may have bee a flash, or that could just be window light. This photographer has not captured her images as still photos, but uses screenshots from films to then pick out and edit after. This image seems to have upped the contrast and highlights in post editing, with a wide focus of the whole image.

Visual

The image is in a black and white filter with a lighter tone. There are many different textures that give a deep amount of detail to the image, with the crossed carpet material and tartan trousers contrasting to the plain white (but not perfect) background and the smooth shine on the shoes. The focus on the image is centered towards the trouser lengths, with the foreground being unimportant and plain to highlight this.

Contextual

This image holds historical context as it is highlighting a predominantly male aesthetic, a suit,

Conceptual

In this shoot i showed the selection of my images using P for Pick and X for reject. Then giving them stars and colours to show my best and least favourite images

I used the compare view between my 2 best images

I started editing my image using all the adjustment settings such as tint, white balance and contrast etc. Then used sync settings to apply all the adjustments to the other images. I then went through all my images and slightly adjusted the settings to match each photo individually

I then exported all my images, saving it in a chosen folder on the media drive, renamed the images to have a more fitting title and therefore easier to find later. Then adjusted to a jpeg with 1000 pixels along the long edge, best for the blog, and exported

I then applied sync settings and made everything black and white, making slight tweaks from helpful tools like spot removal and the brush

I have continued a star rating and colour rating for my shoots following a system of – 1 star means no good, 2 meaning alright, 3 meaning possibly (range of similar images with slight differences) 4 meaning good am likely to use, and 5 for my favourite images.

I then filtered to have equal to three stars and above, giving purple to good possible images, and green for most likely to use.

WHO-

In the first shoot i will just have one friend as the main ‘angel’ character, in a white angelic dress and soft glittery makeup, and all pictures will only be showing her in this one scene

The second shoot will also be one character, my friend ollie, who will be in very basic everyday clothes in one continuous scene

WHERE-

This first shoot will be in my bedroom, with the background covered in a big white sheet to create a heavenly plain backdrop, and ill be using led lights to create a pink/purpleish hue to create a magical looking scene

The second shoot will be in a large window that overlooks rozel bay, and my character will be sitting on the window seat as a nightmareish scene plays out

WHEN-

My first shoot is planned for just after school in my house, as i will be using artificial coloured lighting the time of day doesnt matter

The second shoot will take place in the afternoon when it is still light, but a windy or darkened sky would be the ideal setting

HOW/EDITING NOTES-

The first shoot will need minimal editing as i plan to do the majority of my look pre-shoot, with the makeup already done as i want and the lighting set up to the hue i want already. I want all my photos to have a sharp focus and be largely zoomed in to focus on the models emotions and face, also to highlight the angelic makeup.

The second shoot will be edited to have a higher contrast, and underexposure to create a dark and largely contrasting scene to the magical purpleish hue of the angel scene. I might also use a slow shutter speed to blur some movement.

STORY: What is your love story?
Describe in:

• 3 words – Human and Angel
• A sentence – The emotions of a guardian angel protecting its designated human on earth
• A paragraph – Showing the love between a guardian angel and its ‘person’. The feelings of protection, hurt, love, empathy of watching over someobody’s life – following the persons more bleak life, contrasted to a magical angelic scene.

Angel look inspired by euphoria’s character Jules, i would like to mimic the makeup and use the same purple hued lighting – the style from the show is referencing juliet at the ball in the 1996 remake of ‘Romeo and Juliet’

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Character on earth just wears normal clothing and capture just mundane everyday scenarios in black and white with low contrast and slightly overexposed

Edit – try to capture a series of one nightmarish moment, that would call for an angel to be needed

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NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?

• Story would be shown through 2 contrasting scenes
• One focuses on a guardian angel in a purple/blue smooth looking scene, with elegant clothing and glossy soft makeup – mostly close ups with contrasting of showing emotion. Perhaps have a body of water with reflection shots, but also use as the means for the angel to watch over.
• Second narrative would show the day to day ups and downs of life, through aerial view of events, emotions, places the character experiences. Have pretty bleak scenes in black and white. End with a happier scene showing character glance at a new love interest, have higher contrast/bolder coloured scene – would be cutting between Angel and human throughout
• Edit^ – second narrative is going to be a sequence of pictures progressing through one nightmare-ish moment that would call for an angel to be needed. Dark black and white images continously but presented cutting to and from the angel scene

AUDIENCE: Who is it for?

Audience would be younger, millennial’s who perhaps are more spiritually connected and have hope through what could be watching over us. Could be religious or follow a culture that believe in spirituality and heavenly figures.

On first page use definition of guardian angel as a small glimpse to give more of an idea to the audience.

During book switch between full page and one image for angel, and multiple or reduced size for character.

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Henry Mullins started working at 230 Regent Street in London in the 1840s and moved to Jersey in July 1848, setting up a studio known as the Royal Saloon, at 7 Royal Square. He found many islanders willing to pay half a guinea to have their portrait taken by him.

He was especially popular with officers of the Royal Militia Island of Jersey, who would often have portraits taken, as well as their wives and children for the more senior officers.

An advertisement in the Jersey Times of 5 June 1849 states that “Portraits are taken in groups of two or three, or the single figure, or bust, and of various sizes, even small enough for a ring, the charge for which is reduced to one half of that in London, viz: 10s 6d for the portrait complete. Instruction given in the Calotype, Energiatype, or photographic processes, and proficiency guaranteed for a fee of five guineas”.

The term iconic often describes something or someone that is considered symbolic of something else, which can then connote different feelings or connections of spirituality, evil, corruption etc. Therefore an iconic image depicts a specific scene often with impactful historic or eventful context, as well as a collection of many different outside aspects. Iconic images also hold a social value and you can evaluate its importance with how it may reinforce or undermine dominant ideologies.

An example of a highly used iconic image is a portrait of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, taken by Cuban photographer Alberto Korda in 1960. The portrait is named ‘Guerrillero Heroica’, and has become highly recognisable even without its political context which portrayed Che as ‘a symbol of militant Marxism’. To be continued…