Mark's Demise

By Mark Peril
Publisher: marksdemise.com
Description:14 pages, 8½ x 5½ inches, xeroxed white paper, side staple binding

Mark's Demise is both a perzine and photozine. This issue has photos from several US cities so Mark must travel quite a bit while taking his documentary/street photography style photographs. He's good, with a creative eye and a straight forward style. The photos are reproduced via xerox, but the quality is high enough that I didn't feel slighted.

This zine also features a cartoon and a few pages of a rant by a much abused indy rock musician on a hellish tour schedule. While I like both of these features, I was left wanting for more of Mark's photos. Yes, wanting more can be a good thing and I understand publishing only your best work, but I feel that Mark's Demise would only be improved with the addition of a few extra pages of photography.

Calton Hill

By Craig Atkinson
Publisher: Café Royal Books
Copyright: 2010, Craig Atkinson & Café Royal Books
Description:24 pages, 5½ x 8; inches, black & white, side staple binding

This photography zine is all about high contrast black and white images. There is no text outside of the copyright notice.

The book is well made. Many of the stark images are spread across the fold. (Anyone who has ever made their own zine knows how difficult it is to get a double spread to line up.) I assume that Mr. Atkinson works with film as the images of Europe that fill this zine share a strong yet bleak aesthetic, and loads of dust on their negatives.

I do like the photography, and as a picture book, I feel Calton Hill is a success. However, a little more information about the images and artist would make it more enjoyable.

Catalog for "Pics by Derf the 1980's"

Photos by Derf Smurthwaite, Text by Mark Waters, Edited by Chris Johanson
Publisher: Circle-A Skate Shop
Description:32 pages, 8½ x 5½ inches, black & white, side staple binding

This zine is a catalog for an art exhibition of Derf Smuthwaite's photography. The one page of text explains that Derf took the photos for fun and with no great documentary ambitions. The book is nicely printed and since I suspect that not all the images were perfectly exposed in the first place, the occasional image quality problem is forgivable. The photos are artfully done and the images well curated. Some of them are double page spreads. I paid only $4 for my copy and it is well worth it for the peek into 1980s San Jose skate culture.