Sunday Zine Review #90: Kievbound by Mariya Ustymenko

Antler Press is an independent publishing house based in the UK. A couple of weeks ago, Antler Press messaged me to see if I'd like to review one of their zines. They sent Kievbound by Mariya Ustymenko, the first zine from their Antler Document series which focuses on documentary photography.

Mariya Ustymenko is a Ukrainian visual artists who currently lives in England. I spoke about her recently when I reviewed Adventitious, the zine that Mariya and Carlos Cancela Pinto have started to put together.

In Kievbound, Mariya documents daily scenes from her life in her native city, Kiev. Mariya describes these images as "a very personal perception of her surroundings that convey a state of mind rather than document a certain place or time".

Mariya protrays her friends, the buildings and animals of the city where she grew up. There's some sense of decadence in Mariya's images, but she states that "beauty or ugliness is beyond equation here. The story, I guess, is about the humanity of its characters".

Kievbound is published in a limited edition of 50 copies and is available at Antler Press' online shop.

You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to have your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com

Sunday Zine Review #89: Dienacht 13

This is the second time I review dienacht here on the Sunday Zine Review. Last February, I wrote about the magazine's 12th issue and today I'm talking about their latest issue, which has been released one month later than usual but that has been definitely worth waiting for. 

For those of you who haven't heard about dienacht, it is mainly a photography magazine although there's also space for illustrators and graphic designers. Each issue usually features the work and series of a selection of artists coming from very different photography genres, a couple of graphic design and illustration portfolio showcases and a final section with zines, books and magazines reviews.

Issue 13th features the work of New York-based photographer Chad Moore, whose book "Between Us" I reviewed here last year. It also showcases the series "Nature Morte" by Ingar Krauss, the nocturnal landscapes of Daisuke Yokota, Francesco Merlini's black and white work, Verena Brandt's daily life images and Johan Bäuman's Albino project amongst other features.

dienacht 13 is a limited edition of 1,000 copies and is available at the magazine's online shop.

You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to have your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com

Sunday Zine Review #88: Accidentally on Purpose by Ben Richards

Sometimes accidents in photographs can turn them into something special. One of my favourite photographs is an image I took a few years ago and that is almost completely overexposed due to the fact that I opened the camera without realising that the film wasn't over.

In Accidentally On Purpose, graphic arts and design student Ben Richards has compiled photographs he took and that at the the time of development were not desired. Ben has created a a series that show how these once unwanted images can also be beautiful.

From light leaks and expired Polaroids to accidental shutter releases and errors during development, Ben shows how these unwanted images can be more desirable than technically perfect, staged photographs.

Ben Richards has released two volumes of Accidentally on Purpose that have now sold out, but keep an eye on his website for future releases!

You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to have your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com

Sunday Zine Review #87: Bruised 02

Bruised is a zine published by creative collective Freeways Collide. Established in 2009, first as a blog and later as an art space and sponsorship program, Freeways Collide decided to focus their strength and create their first zine, Bruised, earlier this year.

Bruised is a photography zine edited by Freeways Collide's founders, Lowell Ong and Sara Todd. The second issue is called 'Merging Oceans' and is a collection of photographs taken by Lowell and Sara, showcasing moments of their lives in California.

I've really enjoyed the selection of images for this issue, maybe because I love anything that has to do with California, but I like that there's a voyeuristic element in some of the photographs and how there's, somehow, an overall feeling of loneliness in the zine.

Bruised is available at selected bookshops in the US and also at Freeways Collide's online store.

You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to have your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com

Sunday Zine Review #86: The Thames Link by Dorrell Merritt

Today's second review is The Thames Link by Dorrell Merritt. Dorrell is a fine art photographer and writer based in London. I came across Dorrell online (probably Twitter or Tumblr, really can't remember) a while ago and we exchanged a few emails about photography. 

Quite recently, Dorrell messaged me to talk about his first book and he seemed really excited about it. There's lots of reasons to be excited about a first book, but Dorrell should also feel really proud of The Thames Link.

In this book, Dorrell has collated photographs from his night journeys on the Thameslink train line. There's always something really intriguing in everyday situations and routines like riding the train or bus to work, but it's difficult to portray this and to find the unexpected in something we do every day. Dorrell has managed to do this in The Thames Link, capturing the loneliness of the night ride and details that probably remain hidden for most of the regular passengers of this train line.

The book also includes three poems that Dorrell wrote on his own experiences, memories and the historical significance of the line. 

You can buy the book online at Dorrell's website or at Tate Modern, Claire de Rouen and Donlon Books in London.

You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to have your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com

Sunday Zine Review #85: Shoppinghour 10

I'm really happy to talk about Shoppinghour again on today's first review. In October last year, I published an interview with its editor, Peter Eramian, here on the blog. Peter introduced the magazine to the Sunday Zine Review readers and also talked about the whole cycle of producing a publication.

Now on its tenth issue, Shoppinghour presents a bigger format that reflects the growth and evolution of the magazine. This is a well-deserved change for a publication that focuses on, somehow, niche topics, bringing the arts, social sciences and humanities together.

This new format is also accompanied by a larger number of contributors from all over the world. South African photographer Nico Krijno, Glaswegian artist Niall Macdonal or Polish director and writer Michal Kosakowski are just a few of the collaborators who have contributed their photographs, artworks and texts to the tenth issue of Shoppinhour.

Shoppinghour 10 is now available at Shoppinghour's online shop and also at selected bookshops across United Kingdom, Europe, New York, Tokio, Seoul and South Africa. You can find more information about the distributors on Shoppinghour's website.

You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to get your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com*

Sunday Zine Review #84: Loch Ness by Jamie Stoker

Today's second review is Loch Ness by Jamie Stoker. When Jamie messaged me to show me his book Loch Ness, I was really excited to receive a copy for review.

The first lines of this little photography book read: 

"While most children dream of becoming an astronaut or footballer when they grow up, it was something far more obscure that held my attention as a boy... I wanted to be a cryptozoologist."

I'm sure some of you felt the same way as Jamie when you were little, at least I did! I wasn't maybe that obsessed with cryptids but I remember a phase when I was reading a lot about the Yeti. What attracted me about Loch Ness is that Jamie decided to bring back this childhood fascination and turn it into a photo project that now has also become a book.

In Loch Ness, Jamie has collated part of the research and photographs he took whilst visiting this Scottish lake. The book features fragments from his interviews with people who have dedicated almost their whole life to prove the existence (or non existence) of some type of creature living in the lake. The book's format is also really nice, using Riso printing and with a layout and design that works really well with Jamie's photographs.

If you're interested in Loch Ness, you can view the whole project and buy a copy of the book on Jamie Stoker's website.

You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to get your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com*

Sunday Zine Review #83: Incandescent 03

This weekend I'm also reviewing two zines. I've received many submissions in the last few weeks so I thought it would be nice to try to review them as soon as possible so they're still relevant.

Today's first review is Incandescent, a "colour photo zine" from Portland. Incandescent is run by photo enthusiasts Marissa Csanyi and Helen Jones, who founded the zine along with Michael Cardiello. 

Incandescent is published twice a year and was created as a platform to provide artists an opportunity to share their work free of charge. The zine focuses on film photography and more specifically, colour film photography - Graham Bell's foreword to this issue is a great introduction to the zine and why it showcases colour photography and not black and white.

The third issue of Incandescent features photographs by artists from all around the world showcasing different themes, although landscape photography has an important presence in the zine - which I love, of course.

Marissa and Helen are currently looking for contributors for the fourth issue of Incandescent. The deadline to submit your photos is June 15th. For more information about submissions and to buy copies of previous issues, have a look at Incandescent's website.

*You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to get your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com*

Sunday Zine Review #82: Adventitious 01

Today's second review, Adventitious 01, is a very special one. Mariya Ustymenko and Carlos Cancela Pinto, the editors of Adventitious, contacted me a few months ago to see if I would be interested in participating in a zine they were putting together. They asked me if I'd like to set a brief for a new photography zine and I agreed, of course.

Adventitious 01 is the result to my brief: HOME. When Mariya and Carlos messaged me, I had decided to finish my series "I used to live here" a couple of months before that. "I used to live here" is a collection of memories from all the places I lived from 2009 until 2012. During that time, I moved cities and even countries a few times and the word "home" had somehow lost its meaning to me. 

Adventitious 01 showcases four photography series by Mariya Ustymenko, Carlos Cancela Pinto, Marija Strajnic and Carla Andrade. Each of this series is a response to the word "home" and what it represents to these artists.

The result is beautiful and I love how each of these artists has decided to give their own meaning to the brief. Carla has shot some stunning landscapes of her hometown in northern Spain, Carlos explains how the notion of "home" has changed from a place to a way of living, Marija has decided to portray and classify her personal belongings based on the type of object and colour, and Mariya has captured the light of her new home in East Anglia, far away from her native Kiev.

I'd like to thank Mariya and Carlos for all their hard work and really hope to see a new brief and second issue of Adventitious soon! If you'd like to purchase a copy of the first issue and support this project, you can do it here.

*You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to get your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com*

Sunday Zine Review #81: Pudim 00

Today's first review is Pudim #00 by Portuguese collective I hate Bandages.

I Hate Bandages define themselves as a "for the moment" collective that gets together every once in a while to create new things lik t-shirts, prints or posters.

They also make zines, and Pudim is their most recent publication. This zine features work by some of the collective's friends, including names like Adriana Pacheco, Catherina Cardoso, Erica Lou and Joao Sobral. 

From holiday snapshots to abstract illustrations, Pudim's pages showcase the work of all these different artists creating a very interesting selection of images that represent well the collective's manifesto: " we want to share things we like and learn with others,and maybe motivate people to keep doing things just because they want to."

You can find more information about Pudim on the zine's Tumblr.

*You can check all the previous reviews here and follow Sunday Zine Review on FB. If you want to get your zine reviewed, leave a comment below or drop me a message to igortermenon@gmail.com*