Posts Tagged ‘zines’
ZINES IN MELBOURNE: Sticky Institute’s Festival of the Photocopier
Town Hall foyer sign
On Sunday 12 February the Melbourne Town Hall and was packed with sellers, lookers and buyers attending the Sticky Institute’s Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair. At a guess, there could have been around 100 zine tables with a variety of zine-makers: both showing their own work, or representing other zinesters. For the visitor to the Fair there was an opportunity to see and handle almost any kind of communication that could put onto a sheet of paper, or into collated pages – folded, stapled, glued, stitched and sewn. Each ‘publication’ representing a personal approach to what the medium “zine” means to the author. And, as the ‘Zine’ is a slippery medium those within the discipline keep pushing the limits by integration of opportunistic technologies and ideas gleaned from contemporary media.
PHOTO: Doug Spowart – Stickies Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair 2017
The content of the zines presented to us were from a broad church of visual and written media including: text as prose, poetry or as visual typographic forms, and calligraphy. There was a rich diversity of illustration from photo-realism to comic flat field work, photographs and even, in one sighted example – the ancient art of marbling. The narrative forms in these publications ranged from concrete poetry, prose, comic stories and disjointed stream of consciousness curated visuals.
In keeping with the tradition some zine makers aired their political opinions while others shared a fascination of contemporary everyday life. There were groups that concentrated on gender issues, music and issues of the street, while others presented dreamy naive and whimsical scenarios, adventures in suburbia, the road and outer space, nonsensical ghoulish and vampire episodes.
Our specific interest were zines based on or utilising photos sometimes referred to as photozines, as well as others that use photomontage in their narrative or conceptual work. Examples seen dealt with topics like the destruction of traditional family homes in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, skateboard stories, and a faux streetscape made up of photos of distressed buildings.
The Fair was a place to network. Greetings were made with like-minded people across the display tables and discussions took place about zines, life and art. We caught up with a few people we knew – David Dellafiora, Gracia and Louise and Glen Smith – Queensland’s zine hero Jeremy Staples was in the building somewhere but we didn’t get to meet. Zine-makers, or sellers, were keen to engage with us to tell the story of the work and where it fits with their practice and their life.
But did anyone sell anything? Many visitors were seen toting quite a few brown envelopes and calico bags filled with new additions to their personal collections. Perhaps a personal experience might shed some light on how success for such an event could be measured. It was right at the end of our shop, we had spent our budget and were talking to two young zinesters who were actually making their little photo zines on demand at their table. Their selling price was $3 and we wanted one of each but could only scrape together $5 in coin. One of the zinesters said ‘that’s fine, I’ll take the $2’, and stated that, ‘it’s important to have my zine out there…’
Being out there with your work. That is what zines are all about … your message in print as a democratic multiple … telling your story, was always what zines were about. That tradition it seems, continues…
Doug Spowart
February 13, 2017
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SOME ZINES ADDED TO OUR COLLECTION
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Trudi Treble at the Fair
Trudi Treble: united states of america – october 2017 – november 2017, my diary. #6/25.
Trudi Treble – Instagram: trud.i
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Johanna Ng at the Fair
Johanna Ng: carlingford twitter poetry
Glen Smith at the Fair
Glen Smith: Constructed Landscape
Glen Smith: https://nofrillsart.net/
Gracia and Louise
Gracia Haby: Under the water with a two-colour eye-glass, something similar (2014) #49/100
Gracia and Louise: www.gracialouise.com
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martinpf: At least we’re not your kids – a photozine. #81/100. Published by Russian Glue Press
martinpf@hotmail.co.uk. Russiangluepress@gmail.com
David Dellafiora Field Studies
Field Study (David Dellafiora): Wipe No.88
Field Study – https://daviddellafiora.blogspot.com.au/
Alice Fennessy at her table
Alice Fennessy: Blood Vessels – A collection of poems about me memories
Alice Fennessy Instagram: @alicefennessy
Claire Wakeford and her zine
Claire Wakeford: Untitled
Claire Wakeford: www.clairewakeford.com
Ning Xue: An Urban Village
Ning Xue: http://www.xuening.me/me.html
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UNTIL NEXT YEAR …
PHOTO: Doug Spowart – Sticky Institute’s Festival of the Photocopier Zine Fair 2017
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Copyright in the zines is retained by the authors. All photographs + text + video ©2017 Doug Spowart
Regional Selfies: Communities and Self-Documentation
Through documentary photography and social media Victoria Cooper and Doug Spowart have explored connections with Place in urban and regional communities in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. The purpose of these Nocturne Projects is to capture everyday scenes of each community in nocturnal light, dusk and dawn. These images are then posted on a Nocturne project Facebook page to evoke stories, memories and shared experiences from the community.
In each project Spowart and Cooper found different ways to include community participation. In 2014, they were invited to work in Miles, a major town of the Western Downs Region of Queensland. The Nocturne Miles Community Documentary project sought to engage with the broader public to undertake self-documentation projects and skill development in nocturne photography. Both local and temporary residents who enjoy taking photos, as well as those more skilled in photography were all invited to participate. After an initial workshop, Spowart and Cooper mentored the 18 participants to create images for the project including self-portraits and daily assignments and produce Facebook reports and a zine.
Vicky and Ashleigh Campbell in a pre-event planning meeting
To begin the project consultations were undertaken with staff from the Western Downs Regional Council’s Cultural Development team Ashleigh Campbell and Anne Keam at Dogwood Crossing to refine the project to match the needs of their community. Then centre staff sought out members of the community who could be interested in the project. Possible candidates then completed an Expressions of Interest form to provide some information on their experience and the photography tools they had access to e.g. DSLR camera, point and shoot camera, mobile phone or tablet cameras. Another important consideration was that the applicants were going to be in the region during the project to participate in briefings, workshops and shootouts as well as the final day’s zine making activity.
Project Flyer – Nocturne Miles
While numbers were limited there was a desire by the artists and Dogwood Crossing that the project accessible to as many participants and be as inclusive as possible. The one proviso was that project participants needed to live and/or work in or near Miles including the smaller surrounding towns or on properties/work camps in the Miles district.
The participants engaged with the project in a variety of different ways including:
- An initial introduction to the project and skill development workshop;
- Guided evening photography shoot-outs in the main Street of Miles as well as at the Miles Historic Village;
- Daily photo tasks over the week of the project assigned through a project Facebook group;
- Optional mentoring sessions, where required, to enable images to be prepared and uploaded for the project;
- Display of participants photos to a digital screen at Dogwood Crossing; and
- A practical ‘zine’ making workshop.
Doug doing a briefing
The project began on Sunday November 30 with an introductory workshop, briefing and a shootout. Progressively images were collated and uploaded to the Nocturne Miles Community Facebook page. Each day a new topic was presented a challenge and their interpretation formed into a photocollage. Communication with the participants was made through a private Facebook group page that enabled hear 24hour contact with participants and Cooper+Spowart. Some participants came into Dogwood Crossing with their photos or with requests for support in making and/or optimising better photographs. On Wednesday evening special access was provided to the Miles Historical Village for group to experiment with ‘painting with light’ and ‘projection’ techniques.
The Nocturne Miles participants at Miles Historical Village
Facebook page
Cooper and Spowart added their images to the Facebook page as well and some visitors to the page posted stories about the places pictured. By the project’s end the page had 241 Page Likes, 60 Posts and the Total Reach was 17,771. Both the group page and the community page are still active.
Vicky and Doug in the Dogwood Crossing foyer
Some of the photocollages that formed the 8 page Zines that were made using the Dogwood Crossing’s A3 colour photocopier. These were cut and folded into zines that were inserted into a red and yellow special edition of the Centre for Regional Arts Practice’s Artists Survey Books.
Nocturne Miles Zine making workshop
Some of the Photocollages
Breakfast – Nocturne Miles
Water – Nocturne Miles
Miles Historical Villiage – Nocturne Miles
The photocollages presented here are examples of the image sets created by the participants. It is interesting to note that the original images may have emanated from all camera formats fro iPhone, simple digital point-n-shoot to sophisticated DSLRs.
We hear a lot about documentary photographers and student photographers travelling out into the country to create documents of life outside of the metropolis. Once on the ground these photographers seek out subjects to pursue and photograph. In this way significant documents are created of these outlying communities. However, the subject of the of the photographer’s gaze, and what is photographed, is based on the view of ‘outsiders’. The photographs they make may match preconceived ideas, and mythologised opinions, that they bring with them rather than how the people who inhabit these places feel about how and where they live.
What the Nocturne Miles project shows is perhaps that in an age where everyone can be a photographer what is important is the photograph itself. What then stands out the most is the link between the photograph and it’s authenticity. With this in mind these photographs are actual fragments of the lives of local people, whether they are from the farm, or people engaged in extractive industries, or those who work in administration roles or students at school, their voice in this conversation adds another view we can have of our regional communities.
The project was undertaken between November 21 and December 7 2014 and was overseen by Western Downs Regional Council’s Cultural Development Coordinator Ashleigh Campbell and Cultural Development Officer Anne Keam. The success of the project was also made possible by the enthusiastic support of the WDRC team at Dogwood Crossing.
What follows are more photocollages and individual images from the project
More images are on the Surat Basin.com.au website HERE
Murlilla Street – Nocturne Miles
The front gate – Nocturne Miles
Selfies – Nocturne Miles
Footwear – Nocturne Miles
Text and photos unless otherwise accredited are Copyright ©2014 Victoria Cooper+Doug Spowart
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