Introducing: Zine Club!
For the last couple months I've been hard at work developing my photography practice. It's my goal to make at least one photography project a month. I've been shooting professionally since 2024, and it has been such an amazing journey. While I have been hard at work maintaining an events and portraits photography practice, I've been thinking about how to return to the artistic outlet that photography provided when I first started.
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As a photographer in a province where nearly half of the year is too cold to use my current gear outside, the idea of building a creative practice that survives year round has been difficult to sort out. Between the lack of weather sealing on my camera equipment to my own relationship with chronic illness during the winter months, I found I needed to dust off my skills when the snow began to melt. Saskatchewan is famous for its temperamental winter weather, so much so that a colloquial saying is a parody of Mary & Pippin from The Lord of the Rings Series:
“We've had one winter, yes, but what about second winter? third winter? what about fourth winter?” “I don't think the rest of 'em know about fourth winter friend...”
A photo of me from 2020 wearing 4 layers of winter gear. You can just make out my hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes being frozen.
Building a year round photography practice
While I do consider myself very lucky that people continue to hire me to do photography and A/V services for events and shows throughout the winter, I often feel my creativity shifting away from photography. This past winter I built the whole Crow Collective technical infrastructure – from this blog platform to mass file storage. However, I've been finding it hard to do photography over cool code and tech stuff.
My solution? Monthly pocket zines!
A photo of the first zine, with camera and SNES sized controller for scale.
I've made a number of zines in the past using my photography, and it's always felt strangely powerful. There is something about making quick layout choices for a printed “book” to elevate the work from photos to a story. I've played with zines as photo essay, wordless portrait books, and literary explorations of queer politics. So, to hold myself accountable, I've started building a little bit of a backlog of zines that I can release. However, I started having so much fun that I had too many to know what to do with!
Enter the Zine Club idea! I figure because they can be mailed in a standard letter, and because they cost so little to produce, why not offer them up monthly as a delivered to your door art service! It feels like a novel way to cut through the noise of the online photography space (namely, instagram). Photography as a medium becomes elevated to something else once it is made physical. Holding a photo or an album connects to all of our senses, allowing us to engage much deeper than a scroll and a double-tap like on instagram.
A black and white photo of 2024's “Transcend” zine which documents the 10 year anniversary of the passing of human rights protections for trans people in Saskatchewan.
Since the beginning of my photography journey, I have always been fascinated by the ways in which it can be a tool to preserve. Whether it be the photos of a lover who tragically passed away or the joy in the eyes of someone truly being themselves, I am fascinated by the idea of leaving those moments behind for the next generation. The invention of the photograph and handheld camera democratized the question of “who gets to preserve or document” more than ever before. Conversely, the prominence of photos now being something that exists behind our screens has made it harder than ever to truly usher something into the world. The zine club, then, is my personal resistance against the modern age of photography, and a way to embrace a more personal and forward thinking way of being.
So join me as I explore what it means to document, preserve, and uplift queer and trans lives and joy. Every month we will explore new topics from radical queer politics to broad visual themes. There are only 20 slots available, so join quickly!
If you find yourself interested in signing up to receive monthly pocket zines on a number of topics, consider subscribing via ko-fi using this link!
*Memberships only cost $5CAD/month, and go directly to supporting queer and trans work! Only 20 slots are available, so act fast!*
Situated in Treaty 4 territory, Ariana Giroux is an award winning advocate, photographer, and musician. As a self taught photographer, their practice is centred in her trauma informed, queer, and trans way of knowing. Through an experimental lens, she aims to capture the nuances inherent in the experience of living a queer and radical life.
Regularly working with clients from many diverse backgrounds, Ariana spends her time building community and seeking the best cup of coffee.
Find more of her work via her littlelink.