dermografia VI - first to know
Hello hello,
It’s here! My little zine I’ve been working on is printed, stitched and now available on my website - check it out.
I’m telling you about it before anyone else, because you signed up to this newsletter and have stuck around and I think that’s awesome.
The origin story of this small DIY publication is a love of riot grrl zine publishing plus a growing interest in how we preserve and document performance art.
The instant photos in the zine were taken behind-the-scenes at Tempting Failure 2018. I had some new black and white film I wanted to experiment with, but knew photographing performances was off limits, the auto flash on the camera would be too disruptive in live work. So I started thinking about what happens after, what is left to record, and what marks the piece leaves on the artist.
All these photos (with one exception - I couldn’t resist including Sebastian H-W on the roof of a Croydon shopping centre) were taken in the moments right after the audience leaves the space, the work is finished and the artist is in a rare post-performance state. I am very grateful to all these artists for letting me snap them at what I know can be a strange and vulnerable time.
I’ve made just 50 of these and one of them could be yours.
//Advice on zine making
aka things I learnt making this one.
- Think about printing early on in the process. If you know you want it professionally printed, you’ll need the info on how they receive artwork. If you do this first, you’ll get it right first time and not end up having your artwork rejected/trying to add bleed margins to a finished layout.
- Each step will take a little bit longer than you think.
- Work in sets of 4 pages, or maybe even 8 if you’re working at smaller than A4 size. Means there’ll be less wasted space/paper.
- Maybe try working out how to use InDesign. It can’t be that complicated right?
Thank you, hope you enjoy this // x Hellen
PS: Join us tomorrow for Thomas John Bacon’s CHTHONIC from sunrise to sunset.