In 2023 I attended a short zine making workshop in Stowmarket, It appealed, as a means to reconnect with zine making, an activity I had dabbled with through my sending of Mail Art some years ago. With the workshop completed, I returned home to my desk and considered making a few zines, striking while the iron was hot as such.
I enjoy that zines are very immediate, both in making them and in how they can communicate an idea quickly, cheaply and in many places at the same time with reproducing them being relatively easy. There is a sense of democracy with zines, anyone can create and distribute them, you do not have to class yourself as an artist to get involved with the making process or the community that centres itself around zines, zine making, swapping and sharing.
With a piece of Open Source software (Gimp) I was able to design a template to create a sheet that could be folded and cut to make an eight page micro zine. This was the vehicle to make something physical from a number of photos that I had been taking.
Each micro zine was completed on screen, turned into a PDF and archived, at this point two copies were printed, folded and cut and archived alongside other work that I was making at the time, thee project came to a natural end
Recently having seen a call for Zines to become part of a database of free single page zines (instagram @biggestlittlezinefair), I had a look back through my digital archive to locate this modest collection. With a few clicks they have been put online and a link placed on my website and social media, where anyone can have look, download and print a copy of their own. This fits well with the ethos of a number of my recent ways of working, where with recipe sheets I am encouraging anyone who has interest to make pieces of work themselves, though in this case its more the printing and owning a creative work than making one.
The archive of printable photo zines can be access by clicking on the following link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aNIB_VMj3m_B-XJeECSddtaeF2HjGLkU?usp=share_link
Portiphillio 