In our thesis, we wanted to raise awareness about the often-forgotten part of the LGBTQ+ community living in rural areas of Slovenia through a series of portraits in the form of a zine. We photographed individuals who label themselves as part of the LGBTQ+ community and whose life in the Slovenian countryside is part of their identity, with which they identify or once identified. Through a combination of analog photography and carefully planned shooting locations, we have successfully presented the nature and personality of our subjects and obtained a series of raw and realistic portraits that highlight the lack of visibility of the LGBTQ+ community in the Slovenian countryside.
The theoretical part of the thesis started with a general description of analog photography and how analog cameras and film work. We continued with an analysis of the exposure triangle and a description of its elements, followed by an explanation of portrait photography, a brief overview of its types, and finally, an outline of the popularity of analog photography in the 21st century. We concluded the theoretical part with an overview of the beginnings of LGBTQ+ activism in Slovenia, a brief definition of zines, and a description of LGBTQ+ zines in Slovenia.
In the experimental part, we first had to capture photographs of selected subjects with two different cameras, which were later shaped into the final printed material — the zine. When designing the zine, we used exclusively Adobe InDesign 2024, as we wanted to keep the photos as authentic as possible, without any computer editing. The zine was printed and bound with saddle stitch binding.
We realised analog photography often has various exposure problems due to human error, equipment faults, or difficult weather conditions. There will always be factors beyond our control, so we need to adapt and find answers to unpredictable issues.
|
