All About Zines: July Issue

All About Zines: July Issue by Katia DermottJuly 19, 2025

© Ryan Searl, Soil Samples, Prairie Rambler Press, 2025

Welcome to the International Zine Month issue. Herein are three beautiful feature zines plus a handful of titles listed and linked at the bottom for anyone who wants a little extra photo zine intake this month.

Mutter (Mother)

“I thought I didn’t have enough pictures, not the right pictures for a zine. A zine about how I became a mother. Something I’ve had in my head for so long but have been overthinking for far too long. Apart from a few self-portraits and still lifes, all the photographs were taken by my husband. They are archive photographs. Documentary, without artistic aspirations, but with a deep sense of the raw, vulnerable, imperfect, often contradictory nature of being a mother. Selecting and curating the images was healing. Because it makes visible what our society still prefers to remain silent about. It shows that mothering is tough and above all: not perfect.”

Contributing artists: Nina Hagemann and Ralph Hagemann.

© Nina Hagemann, Mutter, Self-published, 2025

When I asked Nina Hagemann what her definition of a zine is, Hagemann wrote:

I love stories and that’s exactly why I love zines. For me, they tell stories separated from the big picture. Stories of strangers, which are maybe always a little bit our own. They open up very personal perspectives. When you look at them, you feel a bit like you’re leafing through someone else’s diary or family album. Looking for connections, similarities, answers. My zine is also such a personal story, which is intended to open up the space for the unknown viewer and thus connect. Connection, maybe the existential aspiration of all human beings.

Is This It

“Is This It is a zine about the neighborhood I’ve lived in for almost two decades. The images here were taken in the last five years—mostly at the height of the pandemic when I was forced to move back in with my family. At the time I’d take daily photo walks within our gated subdivision, within what felt like a bubble from COVID and the chaos that brought. The regular practice was a form of respite and escape. Without intending to, the resulting publication depicts both the awe and contempt I’ve felt toward this place I call home.”

Contributing artists: Sara Erasmo.

© Sara Erasmo, Is This It, Self-published, 2024

When I asked Sara Erasmo what her definition of a zine is, she wrote:

Zines are a way for artists to take ownership of their work by creating their own publications. It’s an attempt to turn their work into a concrete, tangible object that exists in the real world. It’s the main reason I self publish my zines (even going as far as binding them myself), and why I’ll continue to do so with my photographs.

Soil Samples

“Soil Samples is a 24-page photo zine of medium format black and white film photography, collecting work made across Northern and Central Illinois in 2024. Taking place in small agricultural communities of less than 20,000, like the one I live and work in, this zine explores the specter of 20th century American manufacturing and the blight it left on the land. Each book includes a tipped-in card with 6 soil samples taken at sites where some of the photos were made – several of which were/are home to EPA superfund sites. The work in this zine, mostly landscape images, explores contemporary rural life – filtered through the visual language of the Farm Security Administration. The images substitute the once looming threat of a dust bowl with a crisis of potable drinking water, hardscrabble tenant farming replaced with debt-saddled mega farms. The work debuted at the Black Beach Art Book Fair in March of this year in an artist book edition of 10. The half-letter sized full run is an edition of 60, limited quantities remain. “

Contributing artists: Ryan Searl.

When I asked Ryan Searl what his definition of a zine is, Searl wrote:

I view photo zines as something like an EP, a low barrier of entry physical good that allows for the percolation of bigger ideas or the immediate release of smaller self-contained projects. While my zine is a simple half-letter black and white publication, I hoped the addition of the tipped-in soil sample card would elevate the project to that gauzy middle ground between zine and art object – giving it a handmade touch while still keeping the price point low.

A few more zines to feed your fancy this month:

Epiphany from Bookshop M. Photographs by Shimpei Yamagami.
Standstill from Deadbeat Club. Photographs by Ward Long.
On the Edge of Town from Wych Elm Press. Photographs by Josh Chaney, Jp Gibson, Stuart Graham, Judith Hornbogen, Matthieu Kaercher, Morganna Magee, Nika McKagen, Linda Nasdalack, Robby Neighbor, Jason Pevey, Izabella Provan, Abigail Tinnion, and Wouter Van de Voorde.
Puntas Abiertas from Matarile Ediciones. Photographs by Lauren Oliver.
023 from Setanta Books. Photographs by Sara Silks.

Tags: Abigail Tinnion, Is This It, Izabella Provan, Jason Pevey, Josh Chaney, Jp Gibson, Judith Hornbogen, Lauren Oliver, Linda Nasdalack, Matthieu Kaercher, Morganna Magee, Mutter, Nika McKagen, Nina Hagemann, Ralph Hagemann, Robby Neighbor, Ryan Searl, Sara Erasmo, Sara Silks, Shimpei Yamagami, Soil Samples, Stuart Graham, Ward Long, Wouter Van de Voorde