A really quick few words about a the contents of my postbox today (and I don’t mean the new tax disc I received)…
A month or so ago Tim and I arranged to send each other our latest zines. And in the last couple of days, we’d been in touch as his zine had never made it over to Ireland. He was due to send out a new copy tomorrow, but today, in the nick of time and via Canada, that first copy arrived.

It’s a great little publication that records films that Tim shot through the Littlest Holga during her stay with him earlier in the year. In case you’re unaware of the project, the Littlest Holga is a cheap and nasty, glow-in-the-dark Chinese camera that travels around (the UK so far, but now Denmark and hopefully Ireland one day soon) to spend time with photographers who share the work they create with it. A (biscuity) Twitter account also Tweets on her behalf.

Tim’s results are up on his excellent website with the edited highlights of his five rolls included in the zine. He shot some old Ektachrome at a classic car show, a roll of Lomography slide film around a funfair, and three rolls of his ‘go-to’ Ilford HP5. 

Tim’s pictures are usually instantly recognisable, especially as he records the valleys around is home in Wales. He seems to be much more adventurous than me in the variety of film stock that he uses but despite this, has a personal aesthetic that’s recognisably his.

Tim and I exchanged many messages earlier in the year as we both seemed to get around to creating zines at a similar time. He has used the same company as I did (Mixam in Watford) for the four zines he has produced so far and so this release has a familiar feel.
What I really like about this book is the small size (148mm square) that fits in the hand/pocket nicely and the consistency of the layout. The Holga produces square pictures and so presenting them on a square page with a white border looks great to me.
I also like the simplicity of the layout in that Tim tells us what each roll was but little else, but the final page gives you all the links you’ll need if you want to explore the work further.

Tim was also good enough to include a couple of prints with the book that show the full effect of Ektachrome slide film combined with sunshine and the vagaries of the Holga lens.

I hope that plenty of people get to see Tim’s book. Even if people don’t like the content (although I’m sure that won’t happen), it’s a great example of what can be done with zines produced by low cost printers such as Mixam. I hope that anyone that sees it will be inspired to create their own physical release and learn about what that brings to any photographer’s practice.
By editing one’s work into a concise set, thinking about layout, paper choices, cover images and narrative text, a photographer will begin to give purpose to his hobby and a physical end result to their practice.

Please, give Tim a shout, buy his zine, and be inspired…