Zines for Sale

Announcing a photo zine documenting a neighborhood gone silent, with proceeds to benefit Allston-Brighton Mutual Aid.

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I’ve written a lot here in the past couple months about what life without live music looks and feels like for me, and hinted a little bit at this project in the process, but I’m thrilled to announce that it’s finally, actually done.

From the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown that shuttered my beloved Allston’s bars, venues and shops in March through the start of the “”reopening”” period around June, I did a lot of walking and a lot of shooting on my trusty Kodak Pony 135. The pervasive weirdness and the paused nature of everything around me made film feel like the right approach to documentation, and this quirky old camera the right tool. I didn’t take my digital gear out of the house for months, and through numerous rolls of Fuji Superia 400, processing both literal and figurative took place. The dust of shock settled slowly, replaced by the realization that the neighborhood I really knew was gone, for now and maybe forever. These photos, some of them warm and nostalgic, others eerie and unsettled, capture a visual record of me dealing with that, for lack of a better explanation. 

To present them, I decided to do something I’d never done before, which was lay them out into a zine and print a bunch. The end result is 16 pages, 5.5″ x 8.5,” full-color and contains around 100 photos, (somewhat) thoughtfully arranged. I’m really happy with how they came out, and moreover with the sensation of having these images exist as a physical object that I can hold onto and share with others. I made 50 of them, and if you’d like one, they’re available for purchase from my website for $10, plus shipping. All proceeds raised beyond the printing costs will be donated to Allston-Brighton Mutual Aid, which, among other things, helps out with groceries and rent for those in need in the community during the ongoing nightmare of COVID.