What is a Zine?

A zine is a small-circulation booklet or magazine, often created by hand or using digital tools through self-publishing. Unlike traditional magazines, zines are characterised by their DIY ethos and independent spirit. They cover a vast array of topics, from personal stories to art, poetry, and music. They’re standout pieces of print media because they can be as varied as the creators behind them.

Zine Definition

‘Zine’ is derived from ‘fanzine’, a contraction of ‘fan magazine’. Traditionally reproduced using photocopiers or home printers, they can be entirely hand-drawn, typed, or digitally designed. These do-it-yourself publications often embody a homemade aesthetic, taking many forms but are generally a mixture of text and images.

What are examples of Zine?

Art Zines: They showcase artwork, photography, and illustrations, serving as portable galleries for artists. They can be thematic, focusing on a specific medium or concept, or a collection of an artist’s recent works. Art zines often include commentary or essays about the artwork, giving readers insight into the artist’s process and vision.

Political Zines: These zines raise awareness, inspire action, and provide alternative perspectives on current events. They can include essays, interviews, manifestos, and resources for further reading or involvement. Political zines have historically played a significant role in social movements, giving activists a platform to disseminate their ideas and rally support.

Personal Zines: Also known as perzines, these are autobiographical, sharing personal stories, experiences, and reflections. They can cover multiple topics, from mental health and relationships to travel and daily life, providing an intimate glimpse into the creator’s world. Perzines often read like diary entries, offering raw and honest insights that foster a deep connection with readers. 

Music Zines: They focus on music scenes, bands, and genres. They often feature interviews with musicians, album reviews, concert reports, and discussions about music culture. Music zines have been integral to developing various subcultures, from punk and metal to indie and hip-hop.

Literary Zines: These publications include poetry, short stories, and other scholarly works. They provide a platform for emerging writers and poets to share their work without the gatekeeping of traditional literary magazines. Literary zines can range from experimental and avant-garde to more conventional forms of writing.

Comic Zines: These zines feature original comics and graphic stories. They are a popular format among illustrators and comic artists who want to share their work with a broader audience. Comic zines can be humorous, dramatic, or anything in between, showcasing the versatility of the medium.

What are Exhibition Catalogues?

These are books that describe a temporary exhibition within a museum or art gallery.  Some of these exhibitions may travel over a period of years to many different art museums.  Eventually the exhibit will be disbanded and all works on loan for the show will be returned to the owners, either private or museums.

How are these Exhibition Catalogues useful?

These catalogues contain images and detailed descriptions of the pieces within the exhibit.  Also, they are likely to contain articles on the subject of the exhibit which provide context to the exhibit’s theme. These articles are likely to be written by the exhibition’s curator or other top specialists/researchers within the field.

Also included in an Exhibit Catalogue. They can also include bibliographies and indexes which can lead to additional materials.  Some catalogues will include chronologies.

How you want your design to look

Format, size and orientation

paper size A5, portrait orientation

Narrative / visual concept

there all black and white images with a common theme of houses.

Design and layout

I’m laying it out with two images on every page bar the middle one this is called a dual picture layout.

Rhythm and sequencing

k

Images and text

k

Title and captions

k

favourite images

Typologies

In this typology I wanted to capture different buildings ones that looked older and one that look modern. The interesting part is that all these building are in the same are however they look very different.

Typology photoshoot 2

For this photoshoot I walked around took pictures of building and doors that I found interest or even boring because It creates a contrast.

For this typology I had the idea to take pictures of different doors, colourful, different shape, thin,… The only thing wanted to achieve was that all the doors would be different and in my opinion I achieved that.

For this typology I took pictures of buildings/ stores in town that most of them look very similar but also have different components that make them look different, the structures of the buildings I would say are almost identical however the windows are different or the colour or even the decoration and this is what makes it interesting.

For this photoshoot of new topographic I decided to photograph industrial areas.

This image reflects the ideas of the New Topographic movement, which consists on showing another type of landscape which is the one altered my man. this image shows an industrial area with large storage tanks, a truck, and metal structures. This image doesn’t have the intention to be beautiful and dramatic, its shown as it is, The image highlights how people have changed the land, with man made objects taking over the image while a few trees in the background reminds us of nature. This image inset trying to send a message its just showing how the world has changed, and documenting the everyday look of industrial spaces.

This image also fits well with the New Topographic style, showing an industrial scene in a plain, straightforward way. The photo includes large metal buildings, storage tanks, and a tall fence, with a small road or path leading into the space. In this image there is no intention to make the landscape beautiful, its only showing the viewer how an industrial space looks every day.

This image fits the New Topographics style by showing an industrial scene in a plain, The tall tower building are shown without trying to show any beauty or drama, just as they are. The lack of people and simple black and white tones focus on how human structures change the landscape, highlighting everyday places that we normally ignore.

The image shows tall, modern tower standing in the middle on trees. It’s in black and white, which makes everything look more serious but also calm. The sky is cloudy, and the light is soft, adding to the calm. The tower is slightly off to the side, and the plants/trees around it are messy and natural, which makes the man-made structure stand out even more. Nothing in the image feels dramatic or posed, it simply shows what’s there.

This image is different from the others since nature is in front of the industrial building instead of at the back or on the side, I think this idea is interesting because it reflects on how nature was here first

This image shows a row of houses build along a beach, facing the sea. The houses are different in style and color, some old and decorative, others more plain and modern. A stone wall separates them from the sand, this can show how it separates human and nature. The image is calm and quiet, with no people or movement. It doesn’t try to make the place look beautiful or perfect, it simply shows how people have built their lives in front of nature maybe to feel more connected with it.

For my typologies photoshoot, I wanted to create a typology with a focus on the New Topographics.

Contact Sheet

Selection Process

Best Photos

I picked images which were all similar so they would look well when presented as a group. I aimed for pictures which were objective and documentary-like rather than subjective images.

Initial Presentation Ideas

Each image works well with one another as they are all different German bunkers/architecture leftover from WW2, however the sky and sea in some of them are taking away from the objective feel that I was going for so I will likely turn these parts into negative space in editing.

Each image works well as one group since they each feature lots of signage and industrial architecture, which creates an uneasy/restricted environment as well as clearly contrasting with romanticism (reinforcing them as New Topographics style images). However, the sky again adds more of a subjective element to each image which takes away from my intentions so I will make the sky more of a negative space when editing to elaborate on the sense of objectiveness.

Editing

Each image will be in a 1×1 square resolution as well as being black and white (similar to work like ‘Pitheads’ from Hilla and Bernd Becher).

Final Presentation

1

2

Virtual Gallery

Evaluation

Overall, I think the New Topographics typology was really effective and I was able to edit and group images together to achieve my intentions of making each individual image as objective and sterile as possible.

Contact Sheet

I went to the recycling centre near Fort Regent for my photoshoot, taking pictures of the industrial area and buildings.

Best Photos

I found this image to be successful since it clearly has aspects of the New Topographics with the industrial buildings, signs and cars which overpower the landscape in the top right and stand out more.

I find the tower really effective in this image since it towers over everything and becomes a clear focal point of the image, whilst still maintaining aspects of the New Topographics with the industrial buildings and cars closer to the foreground.

For this image, I focused on angle and perspective, trying to make the building’s stature seem as big and menacing as possible. I took this photo from the ground up, and found that I managed to capture this initial idea I had really well.

I focused on rule of thirds with this image, positioning the sign on the second third. The sign which reads ‘town centre’ creates a nice contrast with the industrial buildings in the background, as well as the arrow and leading lines from the sign almost implying to the viewer to get out of the area.

The seemingly dying grass in the foreground contrasts really nicely and effectively with the fence and the industrial buildings, linking the themes of the New Topographics and creating a clear divide between nature and humans.

Similarly to the previous picture, the divisions created between nature and man with the fences and no entry signs link to themes of the New Topographics.

These 3 images will all go altogether in a triptych, since they were each taken of the same area. They all are also really objective and sterile, which groups them together even more.

Editing

Most of my editing will be experimenting with black and white, since the New Topographics photographers typically presented their work this way. I aim to make use of Ansel Adams’ zone system when editing images to be black and white, featuring a wide range of tones from light to dark.

Image 1

Light tones in the cars and road, midtones in the sky, darker tones in the signs and mountains.

Image 2

Light tones in the cars, midtones in the road and darker tones in the sky and tower. Focus is brought onto the tower, which when combined with it towering over other elements of the image creates a greater sense of intimidation.

Image 3

Light tones in the fence, midtones in the buildings and dark tones in the sky. The darker sky also contrasts with the lighter buildings and creates drama.

Image 4

Lighter tones in the road, midtones in the building and sky and darker tones in the sky.

Image 5

Lighter tones in the grass and industrial area, midtones in the grass and darker tones in the sky. The darker sky also helps to create more drama and add to the mood of the image.

Image 6

Light tones in the building, midtones in the road, dark tones in the sky and grass.

Image 7

Light tones in the sky, midtones in the buildings and darker tones in the road.

Image 8

Light tones in the sky, midtones in the background buildings and darker tones in the scaffolding.

Image 9

Light tones in the sky, midtones in the tower and darker tones in the buildings.

Initial Presentation Ideas

Diptychs:

Triptychs:

I also wanted to experiment with presenting my images in typologies, so I cropped them in a 1×1 resolution (square).

Presentation in ArtSteps

Diptych:

Triptych:

Typology:

Comparison/Critique vs Artist References

Overall, I think my images were able to replicate the Bechers’ styles somewhat successfully, although my images are from a wide range of different angles and perspectives rather than all being shot dead-on at the exact same angle, which adds more drama and atmosphere to each individual image compared to typical work of New Topographics photographers.

Both images have similarities in the sense that there is minimal nature present, but the main focus is still on New Topographics which creates a divide between nature and humanity (for my image there is grass visible which is cut off from the industrial area by fences, and in Adams’ picture there are mountains visible in the background). However, the main difference comes from Adams’ sky being used as negative space in contrast to the sky in my image being dark and having clouds, which again creates drama and takes away from the focus on New Topographics.

visual gallery –

second set –

Robert Adams- Case Study

Introduction to the Photographer

Robert Adams (born 1937) is an American photographer best known for his images documenting the changing landscapes of the American West. Originally a literature professor, he turned to photography in the 1960s as a way to explore the impact of human expansion on nature. His work is closely associated with the New Topographics movement, which rejected traditional, romanticized views of the landscape in favour of a more neutral, documentary approach.

His photography is both critical and contemplative, capturing the tension between nature and human intervention. His images often highlight the environmental consequences of industrialization, and deforestation while maintaining a subtle, poetic quality through careful use of light and composition.

Types of Images He Captures

Adams’ work focuses on human-altered landscapes, particularly in the American West. Some key themes include:

• Suburban Expansion – Housing developments, shopping malls, and roads replacing open land. Example: The New West (1974) documents the rapid suburbanization of Colorado.
• Deforestation & Environmental Impact – Images of cleared forests, barren landscapes, and environmental degradation caused by human activity.
• Industrial and Urban Scenes – Photographs of highways, factories, and commercial spaces, often showing the contrast between human structures and nature.
• Light and Atmosphere – Despite the sometimes bleak subject matter, Adams’ use of natural light adds depth and a quiet beauty to his images, reflecting both loss and resilience.

Image Analysis

Technical

This black-and-white photograph demonstrates precise technical execution, likely taken on film due to its smooth tonal transitions and slight grain. The sharp focus across the entire scene ensures that both the foreground and background elements are clearly defined, emphasizing the interaction between the built and natural environments. The lighting is soft and diffused, casting subtle yet effective shadows that enhance depth and texture. The composition is carefully arranged, with structured, geometric forms in the trailers contrasting against the rolling landscape in the distance.

Visual

The image relies on a strong contrast between human-made structures and the organic landscape. The trailers form a repetitive pattern of rectangular shapes, which is subtly broken by the presence of winding roads and scattered vehicles. The sky, filled with dark, heavy clouds, adds a sense of atmosphere and suggests an impending change. The absence of colour shifts the focus toward shape, structure, and tonal contrast, reinforcing a detached, observational quality. The way the image leads the eye from the trailer park toward the distant hills creates a sense of scale and perspective.

Contextual

This image aligns with the New Topographics, as it combines human-altered environments with natural landscapes. The trailer park setting suggests temporary or transitional living, reflecting how suburban expansion has altered rural areas. This theme is central to many photographers associated with topographics, such as Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, and Stephen Shore, who sought to capture ordinary, often overlooked landscapes without romanticizing them.

Rather than presenting nature as untouched or idealized, the image highlights the way built environments invade open landscapes. The distant hills appear secondary to the presence of the trailers, reinforcing the theme of human intervention in natural spaces. The lack of dramatic lighting or strong emotional cues is characteristic of New Topographics photography, which aims to document places as they are, rather than how they are traditionally perceived.

Conceptual

At its core, this image explores the expansion of human settlements, the impermanence of modern living, and the evolving relationship between people and their surroundings. The contrast between temporary structures and the vast open land raises questions about the impact of development on rural areas. The absence of people creates a sense of emptiness, reinforcing the idea of isolation or detachment from the environment. Instead of making a clear judgment, the image adopts an observational tone, allowing the viewer to reflect on how urbanization and suburban expansion have reshaped modern landscapes.

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Stephen Shore- Artist reference

Stephen Shore, born in 1947, is an American photographer widely recognized for his pioneering work in colour photography. He became a key figure in the New Topographics movement, which emerged in the 1970s. Shore is best known for capturing the ordinary aspects of daily life, particularly through images of suburban landscapes and urban settings. His use of colour and large-format cameras helped redefine how photography could document everyday environments.

Themes and Style:

• Color Photography: At the time Shore started his career, black-and-white photography was still dominant in fine art. However, he embraced color photography, which allowed him to present everyday scenes with a new sense of vibrancy and realism.
• Focus on the Everyday: Shore’s work is often centered around the banal, unremarkable scenes of daily life. This includes motels, parking lots, and gas stations—places typically ignored in traditional art. His photos highlight the ordinariness of American culture, creating a sense of detachment while drawing attention to the beauty of these overlooked spaces.
• Large-Format Cameras: Using large-format cameras, Shore captured images with incredible sharpness and clarity. This level of detail contributed to the sense of objectivity in his work, making the viewer see the subjects as they are, without embellishment.
• Documentary Influence: Shore’s photography carries the influence of documentary photography, but instead of focusing on people, he chose to document the spaces they inhabit. His images avoid traditional notions of beauty and focus on presenting scenes in a straightforward, almost impersonal manner.

His Most famous pieces:

1. “Uncommon Places” (1982): This collection features color photographs taken across the United States, capturing everyday scenes like suburban developments, roadsides, and motels. Shore’s compositions are both meticulous and full of life, and the use of color contrasts with earlier trends in fine art photography, helping to reshape the way photographers viewed the ordinary world.
2. “American Surfaces” (1976): In this series, Shore documents his road trip through the U.S., photographing diners, motels, and highways. The work explores themes of American culture and identity, focusing on unremarkable yet significant moments in the journey through the country.

Connection to New Topographics:

Shore is often linked to the New Topographics movement, a group of photographers in the 1970s who sought to document landscapes in a way that was neutral and devoid of romanticism. The New Topographics photographers rejected the traditional view of nature as pristine and beautiful, instead focusing on how humans have altered the environment.

Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print

Technical

• The photograph is taken using a large-format camera, producing sharp details and an extensive wide depth of field, ensuring clarity throughout the scene from foreground to background.
• Natural daylight creates an even, neutral tone across the image, with cool lighting and a clear sky contributing to the stark, detached aesthetic.
• The hard-edged shadows emphasize the geometric forms of the gas station structures, reinforcing the rigid, structured environment.
• The square format and precise framing create a sense of order, yet the low horizon line allows the sky to dominate the upper portion of the image, contrasting with the cluttered foreground.

Visual

• The foreground is busy and cluttered, filled with cars, signage, and urban elements, while the background opens into distant mountains, offering a sense of escape.
• The composition uses leading lines created by the road and sidewalk, guiding the viewer’s eye toward the centre, where various gas station signs overlap.
• The horizon line is set low, giving prominence to the sky while compressing the lower half of the image, enhancing the sense of congestion and overdevelopment.
• There is a strong use of geometric shapes and linear elements, such as the rectangular signs, road markings, and structured architecture, contributing to an almost mechanical, impersonal feel.

Contextual

• The image reflects themes of industrialization, suburban sprawl, and car dependency. The gas stations symbolize a society built around mobility and consumption, yet they also highlight environmental consequences tied to the oil industry.
• The sense of nationalism is reinforced through the dominant colours—red, white, and blue—which appear in the branding of Chevron, Texaco, and other American corporations. This suggests a patriotic connection between capitalism, mobility, and national identity.
• The photograph subtly critiques suburban expansion, with cars and gas stations becoming symbols of how people are pushed further from natural spaces, relying on automobiles for daily life.
• The signage, advertisements, and corporate branding reflect a culture driven by commerce, where even the visual landscape is shaped by consumerism.

Conceptual

• The contrast between urban congestion and the distant mountains suggests a tension between human development and nature, reinforcing themes of escape vs. entrapment. The mountains in the background may symbolize a longing for open space and freedom, yet the heavily structured foreground reminds us of urban constraints.
• The road and signs act as visual directives, subtly guiding the viewer toward an unseen destination. This can be interpreted as a commentary on direction and progress—are we being led toward opportunity or further into urban confinement?
• The American Dream is both celebrated and critiqued—on one hand, the image portrays a society built on movement and prosperity, but on the other, it suggests that this same system leads to environmental damage, overcrowding, and a loss of connection to nature.

Formal Elements

• Line: The road, signs, and shadows create strong linear elements that structure the image and guide the viewer’s eye.
• Shape & Form: The rigid, rectangular structures of the gas station contrast with the organic, soft forms of the mountains in the background.
• Texture: The smooth, polished surfaces of the cars and signs contrast with the rougher textures of the road and distant hills.
• Pattern: Repeating elements, such as the signs and gas pumps, reinforce the industrial and commercial nature of the scene.
• Tone: The clear sky and strong light create high contrast, with deep shadows adding a sense of sharpness and definition to the composition.

New topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/new-topographics

New Topographics is a style of photography that emerged in the 1970s, characterized by a detached, documentary approach to landscapes, often focusing on human-altered environments.

Key Features:

• Neutral, Deadpan Aesthetic – Avoids romantic or dramatic portrayals of landscapes.
• Human Impact on the Environment – Captures industrial sites, suburban developments, parking lots, highways, and other man-made structures.
• Black and White or Muted Colours – Many images are in black and white, emphasizing form and composition.
• Inspired by Documentary Photography – Influenced by early 20th-century photographers like Walker Evans but with a more detached, objective approach.

Notable Photographers:

• Robert Adams – Captured suburban sprawl in the American West.
• Lewis Baltz – Focused on industrial parks and urban developments.
• Stephen Shore – Used colour photography to document everyday American scenes.
• Bernd and Hilla Becher – German photographers known for typological studies of industrial structures.

The movement was a reaction against traditional landscape photography, which often glorified untouched nature (e.g., Ansel Adams). Instead, New Topographics photographers emphasized how humans shape the land, influencing later movements in contemporary landscape and documentary photography.

What was the New Topographics a reaction to?

The New Topographics movement emerged as a response to major changes in post-war America, especially in how the landscape was being reshaped by urban growth and industrialization.

Post-War Expansion and Changing Landscapes

After World War II, the U.S. went through a period of rapid economic growth, leading to suburban expansion, new highways, and industrial parks. Cities spread outward, replacing open landscapes with shopping centers and residential developments.

Photographers in the New Topographics movement responded by capturing these transformed spaces, showing how human activity was altering the land in a way that was often overlooked.

Environmental Awareness

During the 1960s and 1970s, concerns about pollution, deforestation, and urban sprawl were growing. Books like Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and events like the first Earth Day in 1970 brought more attention to environmental issues. This shift influenced photographers to take a closer, more critical look at human-altered landscapes.

A New Take on Landscape Photography

Traditional landscape photography, led by figures like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, focused on the beauty of untouched nature. In contrast, New Topographics photographers rejected this romanticized view. Instead of grand, dramatic scenery, they captured everyday places shaped by human presence e.g parking lots, trailer parks, motels, and industrial sites, presenting them in a neutral, almost detached way.

Artistic and Cultural Shifts

• Redefining Beauty – The movement challenged the idea that landscapes had to be visually stunning to be worth photographing. By focusing on ordinary or even unattractive scenes, they expanded the definition of what was considered artistically valuable.
• Minimalism and Conceptual Art Influence – The straightforward, objective style of New Topographics was influenced by Minimalism and Conceptual Art, particularly the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, who systematically documented industrial buildings. Their influence helped shape the movement’s structured, documentary approach.

The Bigger Picture

At its core, New Topographics reflected a shift in how people viewed the landscape-not as something untouched and pure, but as something constantly shaped by human activity. This perspective continues to influence contemporary photography today.

Bernd and Hilla Becher

Hilla and Bernd Becher are key names in the photography typology world. Their aim was to preserve landscape especially buildings soon to be demolished. They tried to capture disappearing subjects to document the changing world and how that period of history’s landscapes stood out as it as the building of the country after WW2. They were married from 1961and travelled together in a VW campervan taking images.

They used a large format camera to take the shots however it was time consuming as it would only take one shot at a time. They took 8 different angles of each of the structures they photographed. Hilla reports being inspired by looking at biology books specifically by Karl Blossfeldt who created a book of images of dried plants on a white background for his art students to draw pencil drawings from.

Hilla and Bernd Becher aimed to recreate the style of photography with the white background and grey tones in the buildings to contrast the background. If the lighting was too bright they would wait for a cloud or another day or a different season. They wanted for it to be a grey day for less shadows and white sky in background. The Bechers put the images together in a grid pattern to show similar patterns in architecture.

They ended their photography career with the legacy of being opposed to romanticising. Make realistic images “as close to what the subject wanted to be” and inspired many to look differently at what photography could represent and be a form of documentation and art simultaneously.

Fort the last typology I thought it looked good in both black and white and colour

I made a virtual gallery to display the photos side by side and chose a dark wall to be able to see the borner better.

Comparison