A while ago I was asked to contribute to the Opaque zine from the Photozine Collective. That was fun, but a little stressful, so I decided not to participate in their next publication…But I couldn’t resist and changed my mind.

The theme word changed, and so did the film choice, but the altruistic nature stayed the same. All proceeds from the publication would go towards Asthma + Lung UK, inspired by the life and work of the photographer John Whitmore.

The film choice for this zine was Kodak Gold, we could use it in any way we deemed would fit the title.

It took me a while to settle on an idea. Every time I researched the word, I was bombarded with vivid colours. That was fine, but I wanted to do something different.

Then I had a thought, what if I used my school computer to do the research, would I get different results than from my ‘hobby’ computer? So, on a break, I did just that. Sure enough, the hits were different, education-based. The main ideas were how to encourage vivid descriptions in writing tasks. With that, I thought about vivid emotions and the question, “Do you have an item that evokes a vivid emotion?”

As I was at my workplace, I asked my fellow educators to participate. They were a little reluctant at first. So I promised to use a low aperture and blur their faces, focusing on the item. That worked, and I got some willing volunteers.

I shot one roll and chose 4 shots from the results below:

The items and reasons for their selection were varied. After hearing the connected stories, the emotional connections to their owners were clear to understand. I ended up choosing just 4 due to zine space allocations.

Which would you choose without knowing the vivid reasoning?

The finished publication arrived this week, and I am enormously proud to be included with the other talented artists. The different interpretations of VIVID are interesting.

The copies are limited, and if there are any left, you can get one through the button below.