I had wanted to comment briefly on each, since I've somewhat just received and kept quiet so far.
Caustic - Paul Morgan
A5 portrait format, the cover shows a tyre being encapsulated by deposits, setting the theme for the work. There is no introduction, and working through the pictures we are lead into a landscape gradually being changed and engulfed by industrial waste. None of the pictures are 'unpleasant' but some make the viewer ask what is really happening here, wondering if this can be in the UK. The images themselves, all colour, are embedded in a variety of configurations, some framed with a border, some touching one or more edges, some filling the page, and a mix of portrait and landscape. At the end is the explanation of the landscape and why the photographs were made.
Cearnagach - Barry Toward
The cover is wonderfully tactile, with the soft coated finish, and the white text on purple very strong, and the square format emphasising that. Considerable thought has been put into both the foreword by Bruce Percy and also by Barry, and it sets the tone for the rest of the zine. The images themselves are careful and thoughtful, of beautiful landscapes and carefully seen details. A nice touch is the purple line that goes with the page numbers. Image organisation is again thoughtful and beautifully done, with some mono work in the second half of the book. Locations are listed in the front, with page numbers being the only text by the images. It's a zine to inspire.
Poultry In Motion - Ian Turpin
The second coated, tactile cover in A5 format, the cover image is a chicken that looks almost as though it were hiding its eyes with feathers. The zine is a tribute to 'Alisons Eleven' chickens, rescue birds, and the last of an era. Each bird has it's own portrait and profile, some clearly being strong characters. Some shots are 'straight' and some humorous, but weighted to tell the viewer something about the bird. The rear cover photo is also very light-heartedly amusing.
From the sea to the Land Beyond - Julius Smit
The cover photo brings the idea behind the theme, with the sea on one side and cliffs plus grasslands on the other. There is no foreword, but the colour photos, some carefully constructed and others as observed, walk the reader through a transition between water, beach and the land beyond following through the sequence of images. The pictures are all colour with a clear guiding hand in style and in a variety of formats, without text other than what is in the pictures themselves. Julius explains the thought process behind the images on the final page, and how the project was developed.
Fragments Of Memory ELLADA 2005 - Marinos Kampisioulis
Outside of the words on the cover, produced above, and the creators signature & date in the back, this A5 zine contains no text. It’s a collection of monochrome images that carry an unusually intense sense of authenticity – many street images, but more than just street, often windows into lives. I’ve been to Greece many times, had Greek friends over the internet, and this is the real deal. It also feels personal, though it's not really possible to spot relationships from the pictures, but it feels like some of these people must be family.
PHOTOS FROM ANDALUCIA: PEOPLE AND PLACES - Motaz Mohamed.
This has a glossy cover and is the only zine perfect-bound (printed by Amazon, A5) both of which give it a very smart feel in the hand. The cover, and indeed many of the photos inside, is from the Alhambra. But it’s not just tourist attractions and there are street scenes, architectural details and it works to give a good sense of city life in southern Spain together with cultural heritage. The pictures are all colour and in various formats. As previously noted, the final comment about how to take pictures of somewhere over-photographed gives a key to the production.
Within One Mile – David Yeoman
Another tactile cover here in square format, with strong co-ordinated images front and rear and a strong orange back and front to make it stand out. David gives a short foreword to explain a little of why he chose Dungeness, then it’s into the pictures. These are almost all landscape in various sizes, carefully curated to work together, and all in soft colour. There is some text, little at the front, more towards the back, and having gone all the way through I went back to the beginning to try to find the words that I thought I’d overlooked. The final statement titled architecture also gives details about the present condition of the place.
BRUTAL – Nigel Fishwick
The cover of this A5 zine is plain white with the title emblazoned in a raised shadow-style grey font to emphasise the starkness. In the foreword Nigel describes the brutalist building in Sheffield that is his subject, and how he had opportunity to take pictures. The images inside are all toned mono, and either portrait on single pages or landscape across 2 pages, and carefully processed as a set. Many are strongly graphical, sometimes abstract, and one has the feeling this building has a lot of corridors, as though it’s somewhere difficult to escape.
Thank you all for including something of yourselves in your zines.
