LENSCRATCH - Fine Art Photography Daily

Andrew Fedynak: The Last Snows of a Warming World by Aline SmithsonMarch 15, 2026

I have been friends with Zatara Press founder Andrew Fedynak for number of years. He has always been a wonderful support to our Lenscratch Student Prize winners by providing books to help build their collection, but he has also shown a lot of grace in his role as curator, publisher, and photographer. I was delighted to receive an unexpected gift of his new book, featuring his own work, titled The Last Snows of a Warming World, published of course, by Zatara Press.

Shot in the cold over 6 years utilizing expired 2018 Polaroid Originals Color 600 Film Tropics Edition, this project parallels the ever-increasing rareness of experiencing snow in the American South due to the ongoing effects of Climate Change, through the intentional use of the film’s tropical bordered frames.

This publication benefits from the 2024 SFABF Publication Grant supported by Edition One Books.

Andrew Fedynak (Hartford Art School MFA and ICP One-Year Certificate Program) is a photographer, photobook publisher, and educator based out of Richmond, Virginia. Formally of Asheville, North Carolina, his projects are often centered on his personal views regarding the practice of Zen. These Fine Art Documentary photographs are regularly found around his home in the American South, and in other locations as moments occur. He prefers to see his finished projects in a book format, many of which have then been published, and exhibited globally. These books reside in the collections of many institutions such as Candela Gallery Collection, Museum of Modern Art Library, SCAD Atlanta – ACA Library Artists’ Book Collection, Virginia Museum of Fine Art Library, Yale University – Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and Walker Art Center Library. As a publisher, he created Zatara Press in 2014 to publish uniquely designed and collaboratively crafted “Artist’s Styled Photobooks”.

Instagram: @fedynak

Instagram @zatarapress

An interview with the artist follows.

Epilogue

We are imperfect beings
Created by other imperfect beings

There used to be more snow here
Now it only happens once or twice a season

Our hardiness zone has shifted
A new epoch is upon us

The photographs are imperfect too
Much the same as I am

Tell us about your growing up and what brought you to photography…

Family photographs were always all around us growing up. On my mother’s side, we had members of our family taking amateur snapshots, and/or having their portraits taken across many generations starting in the mid-1800s. I sort of fell into photography during my early 20s after I had studied History at university, while also experimenting with several other artistic mediums first. My earliest learning in photography was mainly DIY and thus much of that information came from books, for where I lived at the time in Appalachia that was the best resource. I felt drawn to document different facets of the human condition and my surrounding environment, which eventually led to a guerrilla short film I shot in 2009. To me documentary photography is a calling. It can also be a way for me to express myself artistically in an abstract creative manner. I think my childhood love of photography drew me to this medium, and the rest just sort of happened. This was about 18+ years ago from the beginning of it all. Our lives often go down paths we did not expect.

Congratulations on 12 years of publishing photo books! How do you balance your practice as the publisher of Zatara Press and being a photographic artist?

I struggle every day with the work-life balance of being a publisher and a photographer. I have yet to find an equilibrium in regards to that. The line between Zatara Press and my own artistic pursuits has certainly become blurred at times. I was a photographer and artist before I was ever publishing photobooks. I attempt to set aside separate, specific days or times of the week/year to do one or another, but that sort of scheduling often falls apart quite quickly. I miss the days of having a separate studio and apartment (before smartphones too) as that allowed for an easier separation in the mind. Alas, having everything under one roof can mean I end up working all of the time. I believe most artists have similar struggles balancing their teaching, family, artistic practice, and other required obligations. We could all be more open about this struggle in further public discourse.

What have been your biggest challenges as a publisher? And Artist?

These days the biggest challenge with publishing a smaller edition book is how to make it affordable given the rising costs of printing and binding. One way around this issue is to try to design a book with built-in limitations (smaller physical size, cheaper materials, DIY hand-assembled parts, jumping from one printing company to another). All books on some level are a compromise to publish something that will look/function the way we wish it was indented to be, while not completely emptying the bank account.

The other major issue is how to reach an audience through the internet echo chamber controlled by technology companies’ algorithms, and people’s shortened attention spans. Some ideas by others to try and overcome this problem have been a return to e-mail newsletters, traditional mail/guerilla mail art campaigns, and physical flyers/posters. All of these have had varying degrees of success.

Tell us how The Last Snows of a Warming World came about?

Since I began photography, I had often worked in the Instant Film format. I love the idea of the one-of-a-kind nature of each Polaroid. On a whim in January of 2019, I bought a pack of recently expired 2018 Polaroid Originals Color 600 Film Tropics Edition. I thought the Tropic Frame border was humorous, and I already had the idea to pair it against the snow. After shooting the pack almost immediately, I wanted to shoot more to continue to figure out what this new idea meant, but I found myself in a bind. The film was a sold-out limited edition, and it didn’t snow again where I lived until 2020. So, each year I spent time searching the world via the internet and paying highly inflated prices to buy whatever was left of this film. Then, I waited each winter for it to snow again, which rarely happened due to our shifting climate. That became the crux of the project, waiting for this now-rare chance of snow, and then documenting these surrounding neighborhoods with their empty traces of humanity within them.

Can you share about the visual party that surrounds the polaroids? The juxtaposition of the brightly colored surrounds and the last days of winter are so interesting.

It felt absurd using this film as it was never intended, with their colorful Tropic Frames paired against these snowy images full of unique imperfections. Those said imperfections presented themselves via light streaks and color shifts due to how the purchased film was stored before it reached me, how well I caught the film with the cardboard light shield before putting it into the cold clip, and just the random chaos of whatever the Polaroid film’s chemistry presented that day. The image quality seemed to complement the poor amount of snow we received each year. The colors created a sort of dreamlike surreal world. All of this only reinforced the Wabi-Sabi nature already found in my artistic workflow. Since this EP of a book was released, our current 2025-2026 winter has been one of the worst here in Virginia thanks to an unexpecte

Any thoughts on publishing you own work?

I struggle to complete my own projects on any firm timeline due to my workload and other health issues. I am playing the long game in a sense. Deadlines are an artificial construct anyhow. About every 5 or 6 of ZP’s books, I feel I can quietly publish one of my own projects. From day one ZP was never intended to be a platform to focus on myself, and it was always meant to promote other artists first.

What is coming up for Zatara Press?

Oh, wherever the wind takes us I guess. Given the state of the world both economically and politically, who knows what will be next. It isn’t 2012 anymore. I still prefer to work in the photobook as a format, but other mediums I dabble in like sculpture and short film continue to interest me as well. ZP may become more sporadic in its releases, but I think it will always be a part of my own artistic workflow. Every time we show a photobook to the world, we hope that its story and message reaches even just one new person. For that reason I am still driven to create photobooks.

About the book:

All of the photographs in this book were made between
2019-2025 on expired Polaroid Originals Color 600 Film
Tropics Edition.

6 x 8 Inches
66 Color Photographs
144 Pages + Cover
PUR Bound
Zatara Press
ISBN: 978-1-7338406-6-8
Trade Edition: 200 Copies

About Zatara Press:

A Press For Uniquely Designed and Collaboratively Crafted “Artist’s Styled Photobooks

Zatara Press is an independent, small press, photography book publishing company created in 2014 by Andrew Fedynak, to give a voice to a variety of projects through the medium of unique “Artist’s Styled Photobooks.”

All of our books are produced in Richmond, Virginia.

Tags: Andrew Fedynak, Environment