The Pre-Production of My First Photo-Zine

Photo-zines have become quite popular of late, with several people jumping on the bandwagon of using film cameras to take pictures. Social media apps like Instagram and Facebook have been flooded with users posting their developed photos and YouTube has copped its fair share of video tutorials on how to develop film and

Vlog style videos taking us with the user when photographing their subjects.

All of this has promoted the use of film and all its creative platforms and procedures that come with it, such as Photo-Zine Printing. And I love it.

I quite like this 'trend' that's happening. It has given so many jobs back to the people who work with printing and distributing film. I watched a video on YouTube stating that the re-birth of film development and film photography is because of social media, and I couldn't agree more.

Click here for the video.

I called it a trend earlier but I think it's here to stay. I have been shooting on film since I got my first 35mm camera at the end of 2016. It has allowed me to appreciate the act of taking a picture and capturing not just what you see, but the feeling it produces too.

So many other doors open up when working with film as there are so many aspects to it, such as the film roll. There are so many different styles of film rolls you can choose from. Certain types for certain cameras, and depending on the film roll you choose, the developing technique might be different too.

Then there's the styles and brands of cameras. A lot of the digital cameras today follow a similarity in style and design, with their goal to be user friendly and compact. Film cameras come in all sorts, shapes, and sizes, and I can barely tell you about them. There is one though called Nishika N8000. It has 4 lenses to give a 3-D effect when the images are stitched together. It became quite popular after the release of a music video by Mura Masa you can see here

It sparked an increased interest in film photography at the time of its release.

This all connects back to the statement I mentioned that social media is the reason for the re-birth of film.

Even though I've taken hundreds of photos with film, I couldn't tell you how film is developed, or name 5 good film cameras. I'm still new to this. But what I can tell you is that film has made me truly appreciate how much time, effort, creativity, and talent goes into the process of film photography and its several stages.

I am currently in pre-production with putting together a Photo-zine. I've been wanting to do one for a while now but didn't know where to start. After some research on YouTube channels such as Willem Verbeeck, Eduardo Pavez Goye, and Nick Exposed, I went through all the photos I've ever taken on film and organised them into themes.

I know that this isn't the best way to do it but it has worked for me so far. I'm still learning of course.

The themes I've chosen are:

- Night-Time

- Beach

- Sunset

- Black and White

Once I put them in folders I then printed them out and laid them across my floor to see the colour palette and which worked best next to each other.

Since these are going onto pages, I grouped the ones that worked best and then started to think of the placement on paper and what size I would be dealing with.

I want to print these zines in a diary-sized format. Something like 20cm x 15cm.

For the Night-Time themed zine, I am going to put some quotes/poems/one-liners that fit in with the overall theme and feeling I want to convey.

This is as far as I've gotten.

The plan next is to find the style and texture of the booklet the photos will go in. What type of paper and possibly what colour of paper I want. A visual representation of the colour palette I want. The style and sizing of the font. And how many pages I want the Zine to be.

I recently got InDesign on my computer so I will be learning how to use that and then import all my pictures and put together the blueprint of how I want to zine designed and then look at where to get it printed. I'm thinking of doing 25 or so prints for my first one.

I have a couple of other ideas in the works for other zines.

I know that I want to put together a type of visual journal of all my travels, categorised on each trip. One for Japan, Europe, London, etc.

The other ideas I will be starting from scratch (pictures to be taken) which will be interesting as I would be running through the whole procedure for the first time. I want to make a form of visual catalogue for my friends' clay making business. I think I could get pretty creative with that one. And the other idea is to make a type of memory journal for my current job to give the owners and workers before the business is sold. Taking photos around the shop and of the workers and possibly customers. It would be a bit of a personal piece which I like the idea of.

If there is anyone reading this who has made photo-zines before I would greatly appreciate it if you were to get in touch and share with me some of your knowledge. Any tips would help, like - What went wrong during the processes, what worked, how to make the process easier. Organising techniques.

I'll be looking into trying to develop my first roll of film at home soon so even if you have some tips on how to do that and what equipment I would need.

I'll be doing a follow-up on the process of the Photo-Zine in another blog so if you're interested in following this journey, consider becoming a member!

Till next time.