Vanessa's world
in more than 100 zines |
|
After reading a couple of Vanessa's zines and a recommendation of Michelle de Cean, editor of A Show of Hands, to interview Vanessa I wrote her and asked for an interview. Read here what the creator of over 100 zines has to say about zine making! | |
Can
you tell me first of all a little bit about yourself? How old are you,
where are you originally from and where do you reside now?
I haven't moved very far from home, I live in the city I was born in (Sydney), though over the other side of the harbour now, and have spent twenty four years investigating my surroundings closely. I still have more to see. What
do you do besides your zine? |
|
|
Adjective Stories |
For how long have you been running your zine now? How many issues did you put out until now? Are you the only editor or is there a team? I have written many zines over the last seven years, on last count more than a hundred. This is mainly because I have written a zine a month ('Laughter and the Sound of Teacups') for more than five years. It is about what I do on the 23rd of the month. As far as 'I am a Camera' goes, I started it about three years ago, and am now working on my seventh issue. I've collaberated a couple of times, but mostly I like to do all the work myself. |
|
What
made you decide to start this project? How did you come up with the idea
and the name? I was handed a cut out headline from a newspaper which read "I am a Camera", and decided to put together the writing I had been doing recently under this name. I had started to write more fiction, as my zines before this had been personal observations and fairly lighthearted. I thought "I am a Camera" was a good name because of my penchant for in depth, photograph-like descriptions. What topics are most often discussed in your zine? The fascinating topic of myself and my surroundings. I hope to think this is a charming, idiosyncratic topic, it is after all the one I am best qualified to write about. |
|
What do you hope to accomplish by establishing your zine? Communication with others, mostly. I enjoy the process of making zines, putting it all together and coming up with a finished product, I feel very proud of myself every time I finish one. It gives me something to be proud of. |
|
What
does zine making (and reading) mean to you? What do you love about zine
making? What's the most challenging aspect of making zines? I spend a lot of time on my zines, thinking about them, writing, distributing them. They are a very important part of my life, they have given me a lot of confidence which I didn't have before. Having people reading and responding to things I have written is a rewarding feeling. |
|
What
was your first exposure to zines? How did you find out about them? What
have they come to mean to you? I found out about zines through music zines I found in record stores, I liked the idea of people making their own magazines. I have always been fond of writing letters, and zines seemed a bit like long letters to a general audience. When I started making zines I did not expect them to have such a profound effect on my life - I spent a lot of my life feeling very lonely and very wrapped up inside myself. I believed I was doomed to a life surrounding by people who did not understand. Some of the people I have met through zines quite unexpectedly changed this rather bleak outlook. I never really expected to make friends from it, but I have met people who have had major influence on my life. Breaking into abandoned buildings, dressed up in a rabbit suit for 48 hours, visiting a margarine factory, purchasing giant boards of pinned butterflies - it could be said zines are responsible for all this. |
|
Do
you consider grrrl zines as an important part of a movement of sorts?
Do you think zines can effect meaningful social and political change? I think zines can effect meaningful personal change. They are individual by nature, and whilst they can bring people together, and distribute information about social and political issues, I don't think they are widespread enough to have much of a broad effect in these spheres. |
I am a Camera |
What
does the zine community mean to you? |
|
What
advice would you give others who want to start a zine? What
are some of the zines you admire? |
|
Could you please describe a little bit the grrrl zine community in your country? The zine community is Australia is fairly small, and although there are grrrl zines out there, I wouldn't say there was a definitive grrrl zine scene. Grrrl zines tend to operate as part of other active grrrl networks, I suppose, activism, music and so on. |
|
Which
role plays the Internet for you? Does it change your ideas of making zines
and doing/reading zines? The internet has been wonderful in terms of distributing zines, and finding information about zines, but the attraction of the photocopied zine will never pale for me. I find I can't read long slabs of text on screens without becoming bored and skimming, so I've never got into e-zines. |
Laughter and the Sound of Teacups |
|
Vanessa Berry PO Box 1879 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012 Australia email: howodd@tig.com.au Distributed by Moon Rocket Distribution (New Zealand) |