As I didn’t go on the St Malo trip, I decided to base my project on my brother who competed at the 2023 Guernsey Island Games. I chose to photography him during his events as well as the preparations he made and after the events to give the viewer a whole story. I used many different angles when shooting to make my images feel more engaging and to fully capture the image that I wanted to achieve. I think that many of my image turned out how I wanted them too which allowed me to create a zine with images that successfully show how his events went and what he achieved. One thing that I like about my images is the lighting. As they were both quite sunny days I think that that helped me to achieve the final results in the images which is what I was hoping for. I also thing that the colours in my images contrast nicely especially the red with the blue sky making for an eye catching image. Overall, I am happy with this project and think that with out context a viewer would be able to understand my project.

contact sheets:

process using screengrabs and annotation

Experimentation of zine covers

The photo on the right is one of my inspiration photos I found during my research and planning process. On the left is one of my own replications of this design for my zine cover. The following are other examples of this with other final images from my St. Malo collection.

I wanted to experiment with my zine cover and try out different designs before deciding on a final design. Above is another of the inspiration photos I liked during the planning process, as well as my own responses below.

I only managed to create a few possible designs for my cover as the creation process moved quite quickly.

This is the final image I used as inspiration for my zine’s cover. My responses are below, I believe these are my best and favourite designs I have created. The design allows me to incorporate the name of the zine as well as my name, without covering and blocking the image in any way.

Experimentation of zine pages

This is a spread where I played around with using different photographs. The top spread is the before, and the bottom spread is the final design. I realised the image in the top spread contained colours and therefore didn’t fit with the black & white theme I was trying to create. I also realised that the photo I chose to replace it with added to the story more than the previous. The final design contains images which I believe show and communicate the subjects’ lives and storylines, overall looking more personal and intimate.

This is more of my photo selection process for the spreads and experimenting with what I think looks best on the page.

These images are a few of my St. Malo outcomes I edited by turning down the vibrance and turning up the saturation. This presents them as black and white but allows a pop of colour. Specifically I tried to incorporate images with red, white and blue elements (the colours of the French flag). I have chosen these images for the centre page as they don’t fit the black and white them of my zine, allowing some differentiation to the rest.

During my research into zines, I looked for inspiration for my zine covers but also my zine pages. This was an example of experimentation with double borders which I wanted to try.

Although I haven’t layered the images in real life like in the inspiration photo, I have used InDesign to create this double border effect. By bordering the images with white and then black, it creates a sense of contrast and draws more attention to the photos and their colours. This differs from the typical layout and theme for my zine, but I think it is acceptable because it is the centre page.

Final pages

I believe my zine creation process has been overall successful and that I have created a zine which is well-made and enticing to look at. I have varied my page designs as much as possible to make it more entertaining and exciting. I chose a black and white theme for my zine, with pop of colour and a differentiation in design for the centre spread to make it more fun.

The front cover I wanted to include the a homeless mans dog, who was almost looking at where his owner sleeps but he isn’t there, which would attract the reader, but also how the image is strong with contrast and has subject.

here I used a double page spread to show the publicity of some of the local areas, and how it shows many tourists. Even in the second one There where locals and Travelers, with some smoking and relaxing in the sun, and tourists walking around and eating enjoying their time.

I used the same here because of the angles I got from getting these photographs, but also the contrast of action and relaxation.

These images included a lot of character in the way where it uses couples enjoying themselves and a man smoking with some expression.

And lastly I used the homeless man and his dog lastly to also show the poverty in St.Malo.

These are the photos from the St. Malo trip that I wish to use for my zine. I want to follow a vintage monochrome aesthetic, and to make the images appear this way using editing techniques in Lightroom Classic.

One of these techniques includes using the tone curve, to heighten and lower specific tones, and maintaining this similar curve in all of my final images to achieve the same effect.

I’ve recently started experimenting with using the radial and gradient editing features to use exposure and sharpness settings to subtly bring more focus to the subjects of my image, and it’s something I practiced heavily with my photos for my zine. I’m impressed with how they look and can barely notice the editing, but I’ve also noticed that I’m significantly more absorbed into these images and I believe this is a fantastic technique.

For my front cover, I wanted to establish the minimalistic style with the placement and font of the title of my zine – ‘malo.’ – in the bottom left corner. I decided to use only lowercase for the title as I thought it would bring more attention to the cover image instead, as I find uppercase to be more attention-grabbing and bold. I also find the photograph that I used to be quite appealing, as there isn’t much going on, but it’s still attractive to the eye and has a mixture of both hard and soft tones.

For my first pages, I want to introduce the reader to St. Malo, and to subtly display the town’s rich heritage and it’s popularity, which I plan to expand on in the text I want to add on the right-hand page, discussing the fortifications and the links the place has to WWII.

The next four pages are double-page spreads, featuring a landscape of the architecture and two scenes in one of the children’s parks. I think the buildings illustrate the history of St Malo and place it within a specific time period, opposing modern architecture and its placement within bustling cities, meanwhile the shots in the park display activity in the town today, showing St Malo’s adaptation to both the modern world and the rise of tourism; still remaining an interesting and beautiful place.

On these pages, I plan to discuss the small resident population within the castle walls and how St Malo is a transitional space for tourists to explore and eat, not really as a space for long stays or to live in, much like it has been throughout its history. I used two photos of a server in a restaurant and a couple looking for somewhere to eat to reinforce this subject into the reader’s mind.

This double-page spread features an image that I think clearly demonstrates Cartier-Bresson’s style – focusing heavily on the sharp angles and geometry featured in his work at St. Malo, which I’m very proud of.

On these pages, I want to discuss St Malo as a “human environment,” by which I mean that despite the town’s idealised reputation as a gorgeous tourist destination, and as a place to ‘escape’ to if you’d like, the residents and tourists still face their own difficulties here, much like anywhere else in the world, such as purse-snatchers, people who have to beg to survive, and witnessing animals tied up with chains and abandoned, similar to the photos on these pages, or how it appeared to me as I walked past.

I used another double page spread to end the zine on a more positive note, showing people enjoying their time on one of the pools on the beach queued up to use the diving board.

For the back page, I just placed a similar landscape of the town’s architecture to mirror the front cover of the zine.

Zines are self-made, printed set of images used to tell a story. The word comes from the word “magazine” as it follows the same style, and sometimes layout.

Some of the most famous photography zines:

• Chloe Sevigny — No Time For Love.
• Daniel Arnold — Photos.
• Hamburger Eyes — Celly Brain.
• Ari Marcopolous — Directory.

This is my zine mood board:

My zine will be 5.8”x 8.2” and have 16 pages but zines can be any shape and size.

Homeless dog without its owner as the front (and back) cover to attract attention with a title of “City Of St.Malo”.

Double spread of tourists and locals getting food from what looks to be a small business.

2 images. One being foreign tourists who looks to be trying figure out where they are and cool down from the sun. The other image consists of people eating at a restaurant with a couple passing by. I chose this layout because I thought it looked good, unique.

These images are similar as it is of the same restaurant, but I wanted to capture people eating from a low angle and the activity of the restaurant, but also wanted to capture an image of people walking by and making the exposure time longer to create a blurry effect, whilst the people sitting down look normal.

Normal double page spread of an image of a small restaurant with passing people, and added a boarder to make the whole zine look even.

I liked this layout because it involves two couples young and old, gives a good contrast in the images, and shows them enjoying their time at St.Malo.

I wanted this image to be double page spread just because of how funny and cool this guy looks, and it shows the variety of people who visit or even live in St.Malo.

I chose this for the last image to also show the poverty that lives in St.Malo, and how its not all good, there are always areas in places which have this. And there is a dog.

-A photo zine is a self-made, printed issue built of photos and captions. The term comes from the word “magazine”, as zines follow the style of magazines with headings, text, and illustrations put on a grid. An important feature of a photo zine is visual storytelling.

-A photography zine 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. 

Inspiration

Cover:

I like the idea of a colour theme (except I was thinking about using black and white. I also like the border to add detail and how it draws attention the small photograph in the middle. The small photograph causes the cover to be minimalistic and give a taste of the zine without revealing too much. I think this is something I will do for my own zine, however I would like to include a title.

Inside:

I like the use of blank space and how the photos don’t use up the entire page. However, I might use writing like quotes to slightly fill up the space without making it too crowded.

I think this is also a successful layout option as the slightly different image sizes look very effective.

Photos that fill up the entire page also look very good, the white border left around it drawing attention to the image in the middle. I will use this layout technique for some of my favourite images. Instead of the white background however, I will make it black.

I want my zine to be quite minimalistic and simple, with some bits of writing and pages with various layouts. I want my layout to be quite meaningful, arranging the photos using the composition of the photo itself (for example, positioning a photo of a person walking to the left of the image on the left side of the page). I want the reader to notice these small yet meaningful choices and how it ties all the photos together.

STORY: What is your story?
Describe in:

• 3 words- People in St. Malo

• A sentence- Exploring the citizens of St. Malo and the tourists, as well as their environments

• A paragraph- The year 1960 marked the end of the 12 years it took to rebuild St. Malo, and ever since it has been a place overflowing with people- tourists and residents wondering its streets. St. Malo is a place for everyone, this was clear as soon as I walked in through the town’s entrance. The warm weather invited a lot of activity, the air filled with a welcoming atmosphere. People were everywhere, eating in restaurants, shopping, exploring the old town. It was difficult to focus on singular individuals, however, after supressing the initial excitement, I began to break the crowds of people up, noticing details. It was a fascinating experience, seeing how both couples and individuals enjoy themselves within the walls of St. Malo. I wanted my photos to be an exploration of people, taking into account the different moods that each person experienced. The idea of loneliness seems to be forgotten about within these walls, the contrast between groups of people, families, couples and individuals being interesting, especially since everyone appeared to be content, whether in others company or just their own.

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. Some see it as a recount of events, in a more artistic manner.

The word derives from the Latin verb narrare (to tell), which is derived from the adjective gnarus (knowing or skilled).

NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?

For my zine, I have selected photos that explore people and their surroundings. I think my photos are most effective in black and white, which is why I based my entire zine of these two shades. I will include some typography in my zine, using quotes from Henri Cartier- Bresson (my inspiration) and a short paragraph explaining my reasoning for my theme of photos, and the though that went in. Although most of the photos include people, I have also used a photo of graffiti, as I think it can be be a portrayal of the thoughts that people have. I will only be using real images of St. Malo, as for me AI generated images don’t provoke any feelings of nostalgia.

My zine is about the people, buildings, and history of St. Malo. I noticed after editing this images how the people were behaving, exploring together and learning about the history of the town as we were, peeking into small rooms inside the towers placed around the castle walls, looking over the wall at the vast ocean in front of them, fascinated by the views and exploring the maze of cobbled streets around them. I wanted to present the people as they were, going about their daily lives in the street, sat in a park with their dogs and children. As my inspiration for this trip was Cartier-Bresson’s street photography, I didn’t want to interrupt a single moment by stopping someone to ask for their photo or standing in the middle of the road; I wanted to blend in and catch people in a moment that portrays them naturally and uniquely. One of the subjects from my photographs that I’ve become primarily interested in was the man sat on the side of the street with his dog, a man I assume to be homeless. I feel that those images perfectly represent selfless behaviours that people often have whilst struggling for money or food – something that I relate to on a deeply personal level – these people don’t believe, or want to believe, that they’re suffering enough to not help another person or animal, especially one that they love and care for, much like the dog. I’ve noticed quite a lot that with homeless people or people on lower or no incomes that they truly give their all to support and provide for their loved ones over themselves, like how a parent should for their children, and it’s something that really strikes me when I see it.

I also focus on the architecture, both new and old, in the town, as I find the older-fashioned buildings to be something that seems quite reliable, created from stronger, longer-lasting materials that outlives the cheap, mass-produced materials often used in construction today. I captured images of the structures that really took my interest, such as the hotel in one of the photos I plan to use. I felt attracted to the building’s personality, it was something that felt quite homely to me as a welcoming place to stay that had stood the test of time, playing a small part in the lives of every guest that entered, providing them with a place to stay, eat, and recover from their day of travelling and exploration. Among my other images I found myself engrossed in the strong, geometric architecture created from thick stone bricks, encasing St. Malo and protecting it from the outside world. I’ve researched the town and learned about some of it’s history as practically a home base for privateers, government-sanctioned pirates that were permitted to plunder from foreign governments and ships they found on the seas, before sailing back to their safe haven, the small port town. The way the buildings are placed creates a sense of this, that it was a hideout for a lot of criminal activity, with cramped alleyways and large clumps of houses stuck together on every street. St. Malo was known for its incredible defense against attackers with its thick walls and battlements at various vantage points around the walls, which is a key reason for its destruction in WWII, when planes were commonly in use, and an easy bypass over the looming walls to bomb the town, taking a powerful stronghold from the French and allied troops.

I plan to create this narrative by starting with the architecture for a 400~ word segment before moving onto a two separate segments about tourists and the relationships between people and their loved ones.