A while ago, I bought a few zines and wrote about them here. One was by the Photozine Collective, and they invited me to join them soon after. It wasn’t why I wrote the post, I was genuinely impressed by their production. I was really honoured and a little intimidated by the thought of being a member.

Soon after, they informed me of the theme for the next zine, Opaque. They tend to choose one-word titles. To keep the zine uniform, they ask that we all use the same film. This time it was to be Rollei Retro 400s. I ordered some, and while waiting for it to arrive, I thought about the title, “Opaque”. The dictionary definition said, the absence of light. How was I supposed to capture the absence of light when the very essence of photography was capturing light?

It led me to a train of thought which I included in my submission.

An opaque train of thought
Opaque = absence of light
But what captures light = eyes
So what captures the absence of light = a representation of eyes
Statues have eyes that cannot see
Angels have eyes that see into your soul
The eyes of an angel statue capture no light, and also the light of the soul
The opaque light.

Well, that was it, that was my idea. Maybe not an original idea, but it was mine.

I knew of a cemetery which had some amazing memorials, there were bound to be some angels there. So off I set with a Pentax ESii loaded with the appropriate film. I chose my four favourite photos and submitted those along with the thought train.

Here are my photos.

Then it was waiting for the wonderful ‘collective’ to submit their ideas and for the amazing Yant, the editor, to put it all together. Finally, after donating, I received a copy through the post.

I can’t believe all the different interpretations of the theme contained within the beautiful zine. Have a look at the video produced by Yant.

I hope I get a chance to join another collective project, but at the moment, it is coming to the end of the school year, and I have a few things to take care of. Hopefully, I can help out a bit more instead of being a silent contributor.

The zines are now available to buy. You can get your own copy of the zine by clicking the button below. All the work has been donated, and profits will go to Asthma + Lung UK.