35mm Film + GTTF Zine GIVEAWAY!
Celebrating Girls To The Front Zine Issue 2 With A Chat & A Giveaway...
Housekeeping
Wow this year is flying by! We are already at the end of October and before we know it Christmas will be upon us.
Before we arrive their though let’s chat about the exciting new Issue of GTTF zine. This project is a labor of love put together by one of my oldest friends Jessie Dinan, who is an amazing artist and lover of music, culture and all the good stuff.
This zine is special because it has a purpose and brings a community together to celebrate what makes each of them unique. I admire the dedication Jessie has shown to this project and am so excited to have my work be a part of this second issue.
This project connected me with another local female creative, Charlotte Beers, who I captured on film for issue two. I sent this film off to Jessie to develop and scan at home, making this a collaborative project between the three of us. So fucking cool right!?
I wanted to ask Jessie what it was like to organize, curate and print this second issue in the hope that breaking down the process would help readers to feel inspired and motivated to create their own zines!
Enjoy the interview guys and keep reading for details on how to enter this giveaway to score 3 copies of the zine and 3 rolls of 35mm film.
Welcome back Jessie. I’m stoked to be chatting with you about issue 2 of GTTF and want to congratulate you on another banging issue of such a cool zine! Can you give us a quick run down on this issue and how it’s different from the first one?
Hey Lucy, thanks for having me. I’m really excited to share issue 2 with everyone here!
Issue 2 is slightly different compared to our very first. We still have a heavy focus on photography but have included a lot more text. Going forward our aim is to continue amplifying women and gender non conforming voices, and sharing their stories through these photographs with more interviews, stories and collages.
We have a very talented line up of people doing incredible things for their community such as Be Your Own Groupie and Dangerous Females. We interviewed the band Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers about their new album “I Love You”. Writer Renee Ruin has written a thoughtful and honest piece about music and mental health, and not to mention a whole host of kickass photographers that continue to blow me away with their generosity and talent!
Making a zine that has various people involved it’s actually quite a logistical task so I’m wondering what you learned from the first iteration that informed the process or choices in this second issue?
It’s quite a challenge to organize so many contributors and it takes a few months to do it. I have found myself working on future issues while finalizing the current one, especially when it comes to stories, interviews or hooking up photoshoots. You also need to give people time and you can’t really rush the process of creating art or writing stories. The best way I have found is to give people plenty of notice and have a deadline for the contributor. If they can’t make it because you know, life can get busy, that’s cool and there’s always the next issue.
I think It’s also important to have a clear goal if you're working with others. Especially for the people you don’t know personally. Make sure they understand the concept of the project so that all the work is cohesive and matches your vision.
I know you’ve been working hard on writing and applying for a grant so you can do bigger things with this project. Can you talk a little bit about that experience and offer any advice or insight to other creatives who might want to do the same to further their own pursuits?
Applying for a grant for me was an extremely time consuming process, so be prepared for lots of work, research and writing. You really have to dive deep into why your project is of importance to yourself and for the community.
Regardless of whether or not I receive funding for this project I found it to be such a good exercise. I really began to examine why this project is so important to me. To be honest, this is something I was never interested in or wanted to put the effort into. I’m an artist, not a writer. I didn't want to take time away from the fun of creating to write a whole spiel about the concept behind my work, I always thought it was such a load of bullshit.
Now after going through this process, I’m so glad I made the effort to really examine why this project is so important to me. Understanding why I create the art I do was actually quite rewarding. It also helped boost my confidence when talking about this project to others, so when people would ask “why this, and why that“ I felt a lot more confident. It took a lot of effort, but it has definitely paid off regardless of the result.
How do you plan the design of the zine Jessie? Can you give us a few practical tips on what you used and things that helped or were particularly frustrating in the zine making process?
My favourite part of the process is sequencing images and the articles together which I did through InDesign, as well as making collages. These are all the fun parts that I really enjoy doing.
Hands down the most frustrating part of zine making for me is the printing process. My background is in darkroom printing so it's all quite foreign to me, and seriously, it drives me absolutely nuts! I have learned, if you want those nice rich blacks you need to be printing in CMYK and not grayscale, of course this depends on your taste as well as your budget.
If you haven’t made a zine before I would suggest starting small, using a home printer or going to Officeworks etc; there are even some cool zine templates online you can use, which include just a single sheet of paper printed on both sides. Just put yourself and your creativity into it, have fun without pressure and see where it goes! Definitely don’t go into zine making expecting to make big bucks, it really is more a labor of love.
You seem to be super motivated to keep creating for GTTF and you even mentioned something to me about issue 3! Is there something about this that is lighting you up more than other projects and keeping you so engaged?
I've never been so driven and inspired by a project before. I have become a big believer that if you surround yourself with creative and inspirational people you can’t help but feed off them. It’s taken a long time for me to build up the courage to put myself out there, but meeting so many like minded and incredible people through the making of Girls To The Front Zine has really empowered me. Not to mention all the support from our readers and other zine makers out there. It’s so bloody lovely and makes my heart so full.
Are there any plans to include colour work in future zines Jess or is it strictly black and white?
Our first issue was all black and white. I have branched out slightly with issue 2 and have included pops of colour in our stories and interviews. I’m always naturally drawn to black and white images, and I think at times it can be difficult to sequence and balance black-and-white and colour together. In saying that, I’m definitely open to colour if it's an image that really jumps out and that I connect with.
Are you currently looking for submissions? If so, how and where can people send their work through for review?
I’m always keeping an eye out for creatives with that Riot Grrrl spirit and people that have similar beliefs to GTTF. I would love to hear from and to see more work by women and gender non conforming people, so head to our website to check out our submission details at www.girlstothefrontzine.com
Giveaway Details
To celebrate the release of issue 2, Jessie is kindly giving away the following to one lucky winner!
3 x copies of GTTF zine Issue 2 (1 for you and 2 to share with friends)
3 x rolls of Kodak Tri-X 35mm Film (To share or keep for yourself)
How to Enter
Head over to @lucy_lumen or @girls2thefrontzine on Instagram and give us a follow!
Like and share the giveaway post to your story
Comment and tag 2 zine/film loving friends
This giveaway is open internationally for anyone to enter and the winner will be drawn at random 9am GMT+10 time Friday the 6th of November. Keep an eye on your DM’s and our story posts to be notified on the day.
Good luck everyone!
If you would like to support the project you can grab a copy of the zine here for only $12! $2 from every zine sold online will be donated to charities RizeUp and Beyond Blue. A huge thank you to Jessie and to all the wonderful contributors of this issue, it’s an honor to be included.