Apnoea, the zine release.

Apnoea zine - cover.

Apnoea is a series that evolved over a number of years but especially over the last two summers. I’ve been taking my camera under water for many years but only since I quit my job and spent two long summers by the sea, swimming every day, was I able to see why I was making these images. 

The more I reviewed each photo shoot over this time the more I was drawn to those images that weren’t necessarily technically the best, or which recorded my family swimming happily, or close up pictures of googly eyed sea creatures. Rather, what drew me were those images which seemed to reflect the otherworldliness of the world beyond the shore. The sense of calm and tranquility, and also, occasionally, danger and the unknown that lurks in the depths. Going for a swim can be a meditative and calming experience, while at other times can be frightening or exhausting. It’s these feelings that I’m trying to capture with this series. 

While I never really feel that a series is complete, with the end of summer this year it felt like an appropriate time to draw a temporary line and craft the images into the sequence I’ve created for this zine. My intention with the sequencing is to follow the journey of several swims, from start to finish, but ones that get progressively more ethereal as you progress through the sequence.

This is the second zine I’ve created using open source desktop publishing software Scribus with a custom merchandise printing company. It’s a manual labour of love, one which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone thinking of making money. It really is labour and time intensive, with little financial return. But, it is one of the more rewarding feelings as a photographer to see the images in sequence, as I intend them to be seen. And for me this is the reason I needed to create the zine.

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