Finally after month of hard work the first issue of the roaming renegades magazine has been printed and is on sale online in both paperback and e-book versions. Publications have become a massive part of my practice over the past couple of years on my MA and this Roaming Renegades Magazine sets out a marker in my career and development of that.
If you would like to purchase a copy of my Roaming Renegades magazine then it is available as a printed magazine and also an E-Zine on LULU:
And if you would like to know more about the Roaming Renegades travel blog then head on over there here:
The road to making this zine began really with the first few zine experiments on the MA and from that point I began to become more and more fascinated with zine and publication making. I tried my hand out at a few and realised my main focus for these was to report on my travels and experiences in a different way, to show another perspective and to present how we remember and experience a place in a new and more honest way. I started really developing this with my Tokyo Zine which came after my Contexts Presentation where I decided to really take another look at how I view travel and what it really means in the context of my work.
I feel that I have produced something here which has brought together that research, development and learning process and I have created something which has a diverse feel to it and gives informative and probing reports/articles as well as features and discussion topics and in doing so not only creates something with a different angle but links in really well with those themes and experiments I have played with over my MA.
This has become something now which I feel is what I want to push my work into in the future more and more and make this publication a success. I am proud of the developments I have taken from producing tentative and experimental zines to what I have here which feels very much more refined and professional and is something I feel is very sell able.
I used a scrapbook style for many sections of this magazine as I felt it reflected the ideas of both memories and also travel journals. I used both ephemera, photography and sketching to show the idea of fragments of memory and recollection as well as the idea of authenticity of experience and really getting to know a city or place by immersing yourself in all that information and embracing the local way of life. I feel it shows you that you must experience a place for yourself to truly know it in this way and that a guidebook or report can never replicate that, but this is a taster and a personal interpretation of a place in a way which goes deeper than just a tourist guide.
I also wanted to create some much more simple layouts to play with my ideas of composition and really express my layout sensibilities. To create more simple statement and develop my skills in this area. To be much more daring with the use of large and limited photographs and express my confidence in my photography and layout skills. These sections give a different feel to the publication than some of the others but it all combines to re-enforce the idea of really seeing a place, seeing the details and getting beneath the surface, getting lost on purpose and having a really personal relationship with that location when you leave.
Moving on from here I have made some little changes and edits to the publication since my first version was printed and it will be handed in as part of my MA assessment and I look forward to hearing some feedback from as many sources as I can so I can continue to improve. After my MA I would like to continue with my publication and really focus on it as a career path by both using it as a portfolio piece to gain experience and employment in publishing but also to develop it as a piece in itself and make into a successful travel publication.
