Over the last couple of years, I’ve enjoyed creating zines of both my work and collaborations that I’ve been involved in. It’s brought a new dimension to my photography in that I now think about how pictures work as a collection and alongside one another. It also has me thinking about paper finish and weight, if I should include text, a cover design etc etc.

Best of all, it’s given an end result to my photography. Pictures stored away on my hard drive, that no-one will ever see, are pointless. Everyone’s pictures should be returned to the world in physical form. They should be shared, exchanged and stored away to be stumbled across at some point in the future, when they are long-forgotten.

So, I try to encourage as many other people as I can to produce their own books and zines to experience some of these learnings, but also to experience the thrill of knowing that your work is out there, being enjoyed (or at least looked at) by people around the world. And so, in my new, occasional role as an occasional podcaster, I put together a 25 minute long episode of the Viewfinder Vikings show to explain the process that I follow. You can hear it by clicking the picture above or this link.

The show describes the process of creating a zine but doesn’t go into huge depth, as to have done so could have been extremely boring, but I hope at least that is shows how simple such projects can be. I attempt to break the idea that such projects need to have been slaved over for decades and be the ultimate expression of your photographic voice. They do not.

It’s like that quote about the longest journey starting with a single step. Maybe the road to photographic fame and fortune starts with a single zine. Or maybe that road just leads to you having a fuller understanding of your photographic practice, and making you into a better, more fulfilled photographer. Point is, until you take the first step, you don’t know where it leads, so stop prevaricating and get on with it…

If you’ve listened to the show you’ll have heard me talk about giving away copies of the zine. If you’re interested, click the ‘zine shop’ link above, and if you’ve never produced your own zine before, your’s will be free!