Here, take a look at it:
By the way, how does the little voice in your head pronounce it?
Wait, do you a have a voice narrating your thoughts, or do you have just images and feelings? Neither? Both?
We humans are werid.
Anyways, I made zine(I have been told it should be zeen, but I want to say zain), a physical thing with my own photos. How amazing is that? It is very much amazing, in my honest opinion. It is just so good to hold it in my hands, to touch my own work.
I came across a substack post that prompted me to try to make the zine. I couldn’t find the post itself but here is the guide that was linked there on how to do it.
It is such an easy and elegant way to present something. I wanted to try it. I figured let’s make a test piece, and for that I picked a topic, that I have wanted to do for some time. A collection of analogue photographs that I took and developed myself. It is quite fitting to use these pictures for the first zine I make, as developing those film rolls was an experiment in it self, just like making this booklet.
Well, this experiment went pretty well. Not because the result is good, on the contrary. It is, because I learned a lot about how to make one of these.
Like, for example, it is really important to align the paper correctly in your printer, make sure to fold your paper precisely, A3 and A3+ papers have different side to side ratios, and lastly, do not cut the extra edge you got from folding your paper incorrectly.
You see, the idea with this technique is to be able to make a booklet from a single sheet of paper, where you can flip pages without the need of any sort of binding method. Well I did the first cut properly, but then i wanted to correct my bad folding and cut the folded booklet edge to make it in line, which resulted in removing the fold that holds the paper together… So I had to glue some pages together.
Lessons learned.
I have to say, it is amazing to hold my creation. I have been printing my photos occasionally, made a couple one off prints and one or too photo books. But it is always difficult with choosing papers online through the printer’s site. Also there are limited options to choose from, and the more interesting paper stock is so expensive.
At home I have a few types of paper that I have tried and I know what I like already. I wanted to see my photos on that paper. Obviously, there is a disatdvantages with this approach: I have to get the colors right on the monitor, set up paper profiles for the printing, testing, making sure every setting is as I want it to be. There is so much that can be tinkered with and I’m right at the beginning of this learning curve. But so far, I’m enjoying it immensely.
Since the first one, I have made another zine. This time on a double sided photo paper, specifically purchased for this, bound with stiches. It is just a small 4 page proof of concept. Still a lot to figure out, to correct, to make it elegant.
As you can see something went wrong with turning over and putting back the paper through the printer after one side was printed… It was an experiment, okay?
Anyways, I enjoyed making these and I want to make even more. I feel like this is the next step in my art journey and also the next step of evolution for each one of my photos.
It is nice to have these photos here, next to me, and “use” them. To look at them. That is their purpose, isn’t it? Once I made the first zine, I kept it on the table, or on the top of my bed, and so often, when I noticed it I picked it up and flipped trough it. (These photos have been looked at more by me than any other that I have uploaded to Instagram or to my website.) I feel like when I upload a photo to instagram, it is so short lived. I see it when I press share, when I check for likes. It will appear or might not appear in people’s or my follower’s feed for a day. Then it practically disappears. I won’t look at it, people won’t look at it. It has lost its purpose.
The same applies for photos that I don’t share. They just rot away on hard drive, or on a cloud storage, without anyone looking at them.
Printing them individually or making a zine out of my pictures gives them a new life. Or rather, this allows them to be alive. I and others can interact with them, hold them, get lost in them.
This is the way to find the joy, the beauty of our shots. I mean, of course you can look at those photos on your screen, but how often actually do you do that? How often do you scroll through thousands and thousands of photos in your gallery or your screen with the mindset of actually seeing them, enjoying them, instead of just scrolling by?
To put it a bit differently, it is nice to spend more time in the physical world. To have the ability to enjoy these creations outside of our screens, without the distractions of new stories and posts that one inadvertently sees when one opens any social media app.
I think this concept of spending more time in our physical world ties back to what I have been writing about in my previous essays, titled Showing up and Slow living. This is all connected to the question of where our focus, our mind is on a daily basis.
I’m trying to reduce my time spent on content consumption and what I consume should be intentional. Having my art printed is not only about giving it a new life, a space for it to really live. But about shifting where I spend my time, where I take action. Holding the photos in my hand feels real. Moreover I can share my work with friends in person, allowing them to have this physical experience as well, alongside with me, instead of guiding them to my instagram or wherever.
I would highly recommend experimenting with a zine of your own. It is a lot of fun and the result might even surprise you.
Until next time, take care.
Mátyás