Let’s be frank here: social media can surely help us grow as photographers. But a diet of only social media is like only eating rice and beans. Can you survive on this? Sure. However, you’re not going to thrive — you’ll need to find other ways to get all those other vitamins and minerals into your diet. Similarly, social media shouldn’t be the only part of a photographer’s diet. You could make it your staple, but it’s unsustainable. This is part of why I think that a photography zine is so important to the work that you do.
If you make photographs, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t print them and bring them to life. You can surely do this with group gallery exhibits and such. But why not also make your own zine? This lets you gather your best work together around a central idea. Take any of the photo projects that you’ve worked on and put them together into a statement about whatever you’re passionate about.
Let’s backtrack on that: how do you make a zine?
Gather Your Images into a Project if You Haven’t Already
First, if you haven’t curated your images into a specific photography project, that can be done with the same mindset you have with making a photography website. I haven’t updated this section in a while, but my multiple exposures have continued to grow. However, I don’t think that I’ve done enough work in this segment of my art to make it into a zine.
On the other hand, my In-camera paintings, Photojournalism, and Street Photography are surely ready to be made into a zine. And these are things that I’d clearly make a statement about in the world.
- With in-camera paintings, I’d make people understand and change their ideas of what photography is.
- With photojournalism, I’d show people that there are intimate moments in everyday life. However, even though this is a bit too wide, I’d want to narrow it down more around a certain subject. Perhaps that would be food and the massive diversity of it in NYC.
- With street photography, it would be able to show folks the intimate moments that we often miss in life.
All of these could then be finalized and turned into a zine of some sort of no more than 75 pages or so.
This is where the content creators start to really differentiate themselves from the photographers.
Pick a Service to Make Printed Zines With
Years ago, I used Blurb for the Phoblographer’s zine. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t use them again. There are more affordable options out there. And you should do the work to explore what’s available with zine making.
Print the Zine and Order Some
When you’re done with the layout, print the zine for yourself to see what it looks like. But do more than just see. Feel it in your hands. Experiment with how it looks in various lighting situations. Take it with you everywhere for a month and look at it. Then make observations, refinements, etc.
Show the Zine to Folks Important to Your Photography Career Growth
When you’re done, order a few zines and show them to people who are important to your photography growth. That could be editors, curators, gallerists, etc. I remember years ago, Justin Aversano gifted me a zine of his work that I still have today. Now, he’s sold one of the most expensive photographs in history.
Make it Available for Purchase.
Lastly, make it available for purchase and tell people about it.