What:
Aperture, a very busy not-for-profit foundation, is a multi-platform publisher connecting photographers and their audiences with the most inspiring work and the best ideas.

Aperture magazine publishes four issues each year and these are filled with the most inspiring photography and writing on photography. They also publish between twelve and fifteen new photobooks, and books about photography, each year, with a growing digital publishing program, including e-books, apps, and a daily blog, as well as online features on their website. They have thus far published over 650 books.

Aperture 208 Magazine, Fall 2012

Additionally, they have a regular program of exhibitions each year, at their gallery in New York and at partner venues, touring to museums and other photography centers nationally and internationally. In their shop, Aperture sell approximately twenty-five print editions each year, many by emerging photographers, aimed at collectors and published to support their programs, and the photographers they work with.

Why we like it:
As if all that was not enough, Aperture host an annual Portfolio Prize, recognizing and promoting the most exciting emerging photographers internationally, and Paris Photo, an annual PhotoBook Award recognizing the contribution of photographers’ books.

Aperture 208 Magazine, Fall 2012

Aperture are celebrating their sixtieth anniversary in 2012 with exhibitions, publications and a Gala. See here for more details.

Find out more:
Website | Blog | Twitter

Grotta Zine is a brand new art-zine, a 36-page bi-weekly magazine featuring exciting artists from Iceland. Grotta is edited, published and produced by Frosti Gnarr Studio, a newly formed creative design-studio at Grótta, Iceland. Grotta Zine is as said published twice a month, each time featuring only one artist and his offerings to the issue. Emphasis is put on interdisciplinary artists that we at the studio feel need to be seen. This handmade art zine is photocopied at our studio, with the cover sheet hand sprayed for a unique artist signature. Only 500 copies will be made of each issue.

Frosti Gnarr Studio Staff

The first artist featured was Sigurður Angantýsson Hólm, an introverted artist obsessed with the combination of symbolism and nature. Before the release Sigurður spent three weeks in the studio library, drawing his brains out, choosing and developing the artwork for his issue. This is something we implemented from the start, having the artist over at the studio for at least a week to work and develop some kind of ideology, style or concept. The profit of each issue is shared fairly to everyone involved.

Artist Sigurður Angantýsson Hólm

Inside Grotta Zine Issue 1

The second artist we chose to feature is Hellcat, a photographer that documents the dark sides of the Reykjavík nightlife. Extremely graphic at times, these moments tell a story, not only of the subject but also of the photographer. Famed for the sincerity of his images, Hellcat shoots with analog film cameras from the corners of nightclubs, afterparties and other generally shady circumstances. Issue #2 of Grotta Zine glimpses into Hellcats darkroom and his life right now.

Grotta Zine Issue 2

Frosti Gnarr Studio is the brainchild of Frosti Gnarr, a graphic/editorial designer that recently made his return to Iceland after a few years study in the Netherlands, where he got his MA in Editorial Design at the HKU in Utrecht. Previously he got his BA from the Iceland Academy of the Arts.

Inside Grotta Zine Issue 2

In the beginning, the studio bought a copier. That’s it. They found an excellent 15 year old Konica-Minolta, about 70 km away in the next town to Reykjavík. A few days later, Grotta Zine was born, and they were already making tests to see how they could play around with this printing technique. It really sparked a great interest in this medium.

In the next months Grotta have lined up collaborations with a lot of great artists from different fields such as photographers, painters, musicians and filmmakers to create versatile and unique issues of Grotta.

Find out more about Grotta Zine:
Website | Facebook |Twitter

Find out more about Frosti Gnarr Studio:
Website | Facebook

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Find more zines we’ve featured here.

I started Girls on Film over a year and a half ago, I had been taking photos for a while but I had always felt interested in the editorial aspect of photography. The zine features portraits taken with film cameras by emerging photographers and acts as a platform to showcase the work of these photographers and give them more exposure.

Girls on Film is edited monthly and every two months I release the boys version of the zine, Boys on Film.

Both Girls and Boys on Film are published online and during the past few issues I’ve also produced printed versions of the zines.

The zines can be bought here and also at this Korean bookshop.

If you take portraits with a film camera, you can submit to Girls on Film by following the submission guidelines here.

Find out more:
Website | Facebook |Twitter

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Find more zines we’ve featured here.

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Claudio Pfeifer lives and works in Berlin in different fields of visual arts. After studying Photography & Video at Art School, he moved to Berlin to study Cinematography at German Film School. His Photographic work is abstract, constructed and focuses on movement in still images. He has shot several experimental short films, documentaries and also worked as Director of Photography for Feature Films and Music Videos.

For the past two years, Claudio Pfeifer has been publishing art books and zines with an emphasis on photography. He founded the Publishing House PogoBooks which is the tangible representation of a very vital existing community of young artists.

PogoBooks understands itself as part of a long and rich tradition of other DIY projects and self-publishers. This includes offering publications at low costs. In this way, PogoBooks has already managed to publish 40 titles since 2010.

“This kind of publishing requires handiwork and heart. Nonetheless, the books have to be affordable. That’s what Pogo means to me,” says Pfeifer.

Find out more:
Website | Flickr | Facebook | Twitter

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‘Where I Make’ invites readers behind the scenes of artists from many disciplines to share photographs and a little insight about where they create their masterpieces. See more from the series here.