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Make a Photography Zine at Home: The Flux 24-Photo Zine Generator
https://flux.dantesisofo.com/generator/24
What’s poppin’, people? It’s Dante, currently at home, working on a new zine generator for my photography.
I wanted to share some behind the scenes of how I’m thinking and give you the opportunity to participate and produce your own zines.
FLUX 24 — CREATE YOUR ZINE ↗The Archive Is the Artwork
Here we have a bunch of zines that I’ve been producing. These manila folders are storing around 33 different zines that I’ve produced over the past year. The work itself is automatically created using the Flux system that I developed at home.
There’s a protocol page that describes how the zines are made. Within the work, there are 36 pictures, and at the back, there’s a contact sheet. It’s an homage to 35mm film, which is why I use 36 pictures per zine.
There’s a QR code that allows anybody to access the full archive on my website—to download, distribute, and do whatever you like with the work, freely and openly.
This workflow automatically sequences the work chronologically, using the timestamps from when the photographs were made.
The archive is the artwork.
That’s my mindset going forward as a photographer who produces ruthlessly, daily, and is looking for a frictionless workflow to produce the physical output of my photography.
Inspired by Junk Water
Just recently, I was on the streets photographing the Day of the Dead, and a local photographer handed me a free zine.
Here we have Junk Water, produced by Jim O’Malley, who has been photographing in Philadelphia. I was really excited when I went through this work, and it inspired me to produce a new zine system for my photography.
This is Junk Water, Volume One. We have, I believe, five sheets stacked on top of each other and saddle stitched.
I really appreciate the lightweight, small format of this zine, as opposed to the 36-frame versions I’ve been producing, which are much more archival and much more hefty.
It’s a very simple zine that anybody can produce at home. And I essentially made a tool for you to do that.
You can check out more of Jim’s work at junkwaterphoto.com.
The 24-Photograph Flux Zine
I’ve just produced my own zine generator to create a 24-photograph version of the Flux zine.
At the back of this zine, we have the 24-frame contact sheet, which is also an homage to 35mm film. Now we have both the 36-photo roll-of-film version of Flux and the 24-photo roll-of-film version.
Here, I have a random assortment of photographs I made over the past couple of months. There’s the protocol page describing how the zine is produced, followed by some recent photographs I threw together as a test.
This is the prototype, and this is exactly what you can make at home using the Flux system.
I’m currently in the process of uploading the generator to my website. Essentially, you upload 24 photographs to the system, and it will automatically use their timestamps to sequence the work in chronological order and give you a PDF file that you can download and print at home.
Small JPEGs and Simple Materials
I highly suggest using monochrome. It’s a very simple way to produce work.
You don’t need anything fancy. You can shoot with a small JPEG.
I personally use the Ricoh GR and a small JPEG workflow, using the high-contrast black-and-white JPEG files. It produces a beautiful picture to put on these accessible materials that anyone can find anywhere in the world.
The accessibility of the materials, and the output being extremely simplified through the Flux system, is providing more joy and less friction in my workflow.
I’ve been producing some tests at home. The system automatically sequences and lays everything out. All you need to do is upload your 24 photos.
I also have the Flux mini zine generator that you can access to produce mini zines at home. But this new 24-photo version is really special.
You simply need six sheets of paper.
I use a Brother MFC-L2820DW monochrome laser printer at home that takes toner. I load it with regular printer paper—the kind you find in offices.
Bureaucratic Aesthetics
One thing I just picked up recently is some banker boxes. I’m going to start storing my work in the manila folders inside these boxes.
I’m really leaning into these bureaucratic aesthetics.
I even purposely limit the user to this simple, blank document as the cover. I don’t want the photography to be at the center of the zine’s cover. I want the simple information to read almost like a bureaucratic document you would find in an office.
That’s why I keep the zine extremely minimalist and use Courier text. It’s almost an homage to a mechanical manual you might find online for software or hardware.
I’m keeping all of the work as streamlined and simplified as possible.
Let the Sequence Fall Chronologically
Relinquishing control and allowing the sequence to fall chronologically is extremely inspiring for me.
It removes that part of the process of sequencing, which is sometimes a little tedious and boring, personally. But simultaneously, it gives me this surprise when I look through the frames and see the way the chips fall as they may.
That surprise is what keeps me curious to keep producing.
Not only in my individual images and my photography, but now in the physical output of what falls together in the zine.
Produce Your Own Zine
Visit the Flux generator and produce your own 24-photograph zine at home.
You can also submit the work directly to me through the website. I can review the work, add it to the catalog, print it out, and review it here on my YouTube channel.
There’s also a Flux Discord server community that you can access through the video description. Feel free to join and share the zines you produce, or any photographs from your daily walks. Just come in and chat about photography.
You can also stay in touch through my Substack. The link will be in the video description.
I’m looking forward to seeing new zines produced using this 24-photograph version of the Flux zine generator.
We’ll continue producing more tools, more videos, and more resources for you to find more joy in photography.
Once again, shout out to Junk Water for inspiring this new zine. Definitely check out junkwaterphoto.com. Really cool stuff. Great zine.
Shout out to Jim. Really great work.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you soon. Peace.
https://flux.dantesisofo.com/generator/24
DANTE SISOFO · · dantesisofo.com/make-a-photography-zine-at-home-the-flux-24-photo-generator/
