‘I believe the photographic book is the best medium for photography. The ability to create impact by pairing, juxtaposing and sorting pictures into a flow in order to tell a story or instill an emotion in the viewer is unsurpassed by any other photographic medium. Having something tactile in your hands that you can keep and look at on your own terms is also very important. A zine is an accessible way for someone to create this object and they can take on many different forms – from a very DIY aesthetic to high end magazine print quality.‘ – James Moreton

How do I want my design to look and feel?

I want my photo zine to look well put together and interesting, I want the reader to feel like its been made with detail and with purpose. Rather than a random mix of photos put together with no meaning or concept.

Format, size and orientation

My zine will be a normal size, however the photos will be different sizes depending on what suits it most.

Narrative and Visual concept

The narrative is that my zine shows different people/ tourists in St Malo, and the pictures capture what they are doing and how they are using their time. It ranges from pictures of families, single parents with their children, couples, the elderly and just people on their own as well. I think its interesting to see and observe these type of things especially as St Malo is known for its tourists, and considering I went there as a tourist to photograph the town I thought this particular concept/ narrative suited most. Also after looking and organising through all my images it came clear that this was the best option instead of randomly putting together some pictures with absolutely no story or coordination at all.

What is a narrative?

Narrative photography is the idea that photographs can be used to tell a story. Allen Feldman stated that “the event is not what happens. The event is that which can be narrated”.

Linking this to the St Malo trip I am creating a photo zine which I hope gives a narrative of the trip.

THREE WORDS

My zine will be called: St Malo Tourists

This is because all my images will show a story and selection of different tourists all different ages and what activities they have been captured doing whilst we were on the day trip. This can also link to nostalgia as i have captured certain moments in my pictures which would be nostalgic for the people in the pictures… as I’m photographing a ‘memory’.

HOW WILL I TELL MY STORY?

To easily lead my story i will have sentences/ titles on most pages to show the clear separation in which tourists are doing what. For example all the images of old tourists/ people will be on one page, this goes the same for children, teenagers etc..

Narrative is constructed when you begin to create relationships between images (and/or text) and present more than two images together. Your selection of images (editing) and the order of how these images appear on the pages (sequencing) contributes significantly to the construction of the narrative. So too, does the structure and design of the photo-zine. However, it is essential that you identity what your story is first before considering how you wish to tell it.

MOODBOARD:

SIZE OF ZINE:

InDesign
Create new document
width: 148mm
height: 210
pages: 16
orientation: portrait
columns:2
column gutter: 5mm
margins: top, bottom, inside, outside: 10mm
bleed: top, bottom, inside, outside: 3mm

RESEARCH:

FURTHER READING: Something Tactile: Why Photographers Should Create Zines

WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO MAKE A ZINE?

Creating a zine allows you to express your photography in a different way. The ability to create something so impactful by the composition, juxtaposition, and sorting of images to allow the flow of the story creates a different emotion and understanding in the photographer and the audience. A zine also allows something that is hand-held and physically in your hand that you are able to see; and not through a computer or electronic device. A zine allows people to engage socially and express feelings about their opinions with each other.

WHAT’S THE CREATION PROCESS LIKE? WHAT BIG QUESTIONS GO THROUGH YOUR HEAD AS YOU’RE EDITING AND PUTTING STUFF TOGETHER?

The creation process, personally is the most stressful. While you are placing your images you are trying to create a zine that looks aesthetic and the pairing of images and the flow images in a sequence is crucial. This is because if two images do not work together then the message and the flow is broken; however if you put two good images together is can make a powerful combination and transform the whole page. During the creation process I tried to create a well place, clean zine as far as I created a sequence in pages for it to flow smoothly.

DO YOU FEEL THE EFFORT IS WORTH IT? HOW DO YOU MAKE IT WORTH IT?

You make it worth it by creating a zine you are 100% happy with and proud of. By putting in the effort you are able to create something that is worth it; you need to put both aspects in otherwise then it will be pointless and you wont be happy with the result.

Editions Bessard is a paris-based independent publishing house created by pierre bessard in 2011. Focusing on working with artists, writers and curators to realise intellectually challenging projects in book form:

ANALYSIS:

• How you want your design to look and feel
• Format, size and orientation
• Narrative and visual concept
• Design and layout
• Rhythm and sequencing
• Images and text
• Title and captions

WHEN YOU THOUGHT ABOUT MAKING ONE, WHAT WAS MOSTLY IN YOUR HEAD FOR HOW YOU ENVISIONED IT AND WANTED IT TO LOOK, FEEL, ETC? WHAT DID YOU WANT IT TO BE ABOUT? – Question taken from ‘Why photographers should create zines’

When created the zine I already had an idea of the title which was ‘Bonjour St Malo.’ This title was inspired when I was making my double page spread for a different magazine; however I believe it fits with the requirements for this current zine as using the French language gives further connotations of the St Malo trip. By using the French exclamation ‘Bonjour’ it gives a sense of nostalgia to my zine bringing back the native language. My main idea for this zine was to use images which best describe the tourism of St. Malo; therefore instead of adding text I used images that showed in a visual format what I would be expressing in words. The sizing of images are all the same as I kept the style of the layout sequenced through my zine as I was trying to created a clean polished look. By using a clean design and layout is keeps the magazine more composed and organised. In the design of my zine I used a range of different orientations of my images (portrait and landscape) this so my zine would have more of a diverse image range and create different formats in the zine. I decided not to add any text or captions, this is so the images can speak for themselves.

STORY: What is your story?
Describe in:

3 WORDS:

St Malo Streets.

A SENTENCE:

A school trip to St Malo exploring the walled city.

A PARAGRAPH:

The story behind my zine is based on our school trip to St Malo, France. We too the boat to France in the morning where we walked into the walled city of St Malo and explored the area while experiencing and embracing the French culture. The images picked out for the zine, I believe have captured the French culture really well.

NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?

I am going to lay my images out in a way which creates a sequence so every image next to each other will have a similarity or be linked to one another.

What is a narrative?

A narrative, is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional or fictional. Narratives can be presented through a sequence of written or spoken words, through still or moving images, or through any combination of these.

To create more nostalgia, I was going to add in one archival image into my zine however, while experimenting in InDesign i decided not to include the archival image as it did not fit in with the rest of my images and it looked quite random.

Focus and Depth of Field: The focus is used to direct and prioritise elements in a shot and therefore prioritising certain information. It will determine who the audience should look at (even if we are not listening to them). It may switch the focus (known as a pull focus / rack focus / follow focus) between one element and another. Remember that the elements may not be people, but could be objects, spaces, shapes or colours, which may represent an idea, theme, belief etc.

Editing is the process of manipulating and adapting separate images into a continuous piece of moving image. This is used to develop the characters, themes, spaces and ideas through a series of events, interactions and occurrences. It is often linear and sequential and moving image products usually position the audience into a particular moment to leave them at an equally unresolved moment.

One of the basic rules in editing is not showing everything literally and just enough information to provide ideas and suggestions for your audience to develop empathy and a sense of involvement with the characters, themes, setting, plot. What you leave out known as ellipsis and is just as important as what you put in. The ideas of space/size/scale are really important, because it is necessary to frame your shots with appropriate SIZE AND SCALE and also trim shots so that they are not too long e.g. creating the appropriate SPACE for ideas, characters, themes, the plot etc to develop.

The Shot / Reverse Shot. The basic sequence runs from a wide angle master shot that is at a 90′ angle to two characters. This sets up the visual space for filming separate close-ups, that facing each other having a conversation. The shots are usually over the shoulder. Firstly, they include both characters – which are called EXTERNAL REVERSES. As the drama increases, the framing of each shot then excludes the back of the head of the other character and moves in to a much closer over the shoulder shot – which are called INTERNAL REVERSES.

Looking directly at the camera creates a very different relationship between the characters and the audience and is a technique that is only used for specific techniques / genres / film-makers.

Shot progression usually involves the following shots. The use of these shots allow the audience to understand SPATIAL RELATIONSHIPS between locations, people, movements etc. The length of shot will determine the drama, empathy, theme etc. The choice of how to sequence each shot will determine the AESTHETIC QUALITY of the product. The next sequence will then follow a similar pattern, which again allows the audience to understand concepts such as SPACE, TIME, DISTANCE, MOVEMENT, MOTIVATION, PLOT, THEME etc.

• establishing shot / ES, moving to
• wide shot / WS,
• to medium shot / MS,
• to close up / CU,
• to big close up / BCU;
• and then back out again

• parallel editing: two events editing together – so that they may be happening at the same time, or not?
• flashback / flash-forward – allowing time to shift
• montage – a series of independent and perhaps unconnected shots to be edited together

Continuity editing can be seen as the opposite of montage editing as the main aim is to create a sense of realism or ‘believability’ known as verisimilitude and has it’s own structure of rules where shots are edited together at particular times or on particular shots. For example:

• match on action
• eye-line match
• graphic match
• sound bridge
• 30′ rule
• 180′ rule