Personal projects are funny ol’ things. You start with all good intentions, and run through multiple phases of varying activity, and it’s a lottery whether they ever see completion.
Here’s something that I’d had “pinballing” around my head for a little while, that I’m delighted to say has come to fruition.
It’s a little “zine” (why do I feel that’s not a real word?) of images taken at home since the onset of the “covid era”. Inspired in part by Andrew Sanderson’s excellent book “home photography”, my effort, entitled “inside 29” is a mercifully short mini-tome of just 16 pages.
Working to a strict budget, and having no confidence in the colour accuracy of my PC and monitor, I opted for a greyscale print, so any tonal subtlety from the original images is lost, but the concept of a zine is based on low quality output anyway, so I’m happy to maintain at least a cursory nod to the original 1970s punk ethic.
On the design front, one thing I didn’t want, was plain white pages, so I shot some random patterns and abstracts around the house to create desaturated low contrast backgrounds, which I quite like. Pairing and sequencing images was interesting. Most facing page pairs had obvious relationships so felt quite intuitive , and the final sequencing was settled fairly quickly. I chose a “typewriter style” font for the few words to keep the low production value look of the design, and overall I’m pretty happy with the final outcome.
Inside 29 was created using simple tools. All image editing and page creation was with my ancient version of Photoshop Elements. PDF conversion for the printer was with a free download of Scribus. Final layout pages were uploaded to Mixam, who’s website is full of helpful information. The thirty copies I ordered were delivered within one week.
My initial intention is to swap for other zines, so if you’ve created anything similar and you want to trade, drop me a message. And if you haven’t created a zine, what are you waiting for? If I can do it, anyone can.