After recently finishing my “in the moment | collection 1” zine, I was looking forward to compiling the images I’d already selected for collection 2 of this series. This was a project I found myself naturally drawn to and unintentionally creating while my mental health struggles were very intense. I used my phone—because the best camera is the one you have with you—to capture things that caught my attention. This was not something I forced myself to do and it was a therapeutic process for me. You can read more about the story behind this project here.
As I prepared both the first and second collections of “in the moment” photos for print in a zine I was inspired by some videos I’d seen on The Art of Photography YouTube channel. On this channel Ted recommended using a blank sketchbook and printed images and attaching prints to the pages of the sketchbook for photo assignments. I used this idea for my layout and sequencing process.
I adapted this idea to my needs. I used printed 4×6 photos and first started by selecting which photos I would use—not every image I printed made it into the zine. Then I put together the images that I thought would work well together for each 2 page spread. Once I came up with a rough idea of which images to pair together I used washi tape to attach the photos to each page of the sketchbook so I have a better idea how the images would look in the zine format.
At this point I did some changing and rearranging and found this helpful so that I could make decisions concerning what images to include in specific places and how they fit together with the surrounding photos. I’ve mentioned this before: I love working with printed images rather than only working with digital images on a screen. I understand this may not be appropriate for every person or project. For me, it’s a delightful feeling to be able to hold the images in my hand, physically move them to different areas so I can see what effect that may have on the layout of the zine, and I find it nice to see the printed photo without the backlighting of a screen. This is a therapeutic part of the process I’m thankful I get to experience.
These images are just a few pages of the blank sketchbook I used for this process. Just a few days ago I was able to finish the zine making process, upload the file to the print company and now I’m (not so patiently) waiting for my test print of “in the moment | collection 2” to arrive in the mail.
I’ve enjoyed creating this zine—though it hasn’t been easy for me to complete due to my intense struggles—and it is also my hope that perhaps there can be something beneficial, peaceful or enjoyable for you within this project as well. Thank you for taking the time to check out my project!
Amanda Creamer Photography 