On disrupting despair + photo zines as witness.
One of the many reasons I love photographers? We are seers. We are documentarians. We are lenses on the world.
Today, some thoughts on guerilla art and the big power of tiny things.
Generative humanity
What art has to do with it
Photo zines as celebration & witness
1. Generative humanity
As an American living abroad, the thing I miss the most about the U.S. is talking to strangers, its ease and normalcy — most of all, I miss the casual compliment. Hey, nice hat. Great t-shirt. That’s an awesome book. I love your tote bag. What a cute dog! I made a point of doing it daily, whether at work or a bus stop. It’s such a simple, free way to make someone’s day and enjoy a spark of human connection.
I came across this resonant quote today:
Positive people are not ignoring the darkness of this world. They have dragged themselves, painfully, into the light, and are choosing to share it with you.
As I sit in Zürich, watching my homeland turn darkly toward authoritarianism and conflict and violence elsewhere, I ask myself every day: What is my role? What can I do?
For those of us who are not under direct threat: Everyone can’t do everything, and I don’t believe that doomscrolling and raging in online echo chambers do anyone any good. I have spent too many years in soul-draining anger and fear over politics and events outside my control. I’ve marched and given money and time, but they feel like generic drops in the bucket. Time is the rarest and most precious resource, and I am only interested in using mine as richly and effectively as possible.
So, what can I do? I’ve decided that I want to add to the positive fuel of the world (among other things) — as spiritual ballast, as uplift, as a generative force. Despair, fear, and distrust are debilitating, and every aspiring dictator knows it.
2. What art has to do with it
During COVID lockdowns, I started a project called Tiny Free Art in my town of Bainbridge Island, Washington just outside Seattle. I left small paintings, bookmarks, and even handmade crossword puzzle zines around town in common areas, and encouraged others to do so. I love guerilla art and I did this as a way to create some physical person-to-person community joy in a time of enforced isolation.
Here is the manifesto for Tiny Free Art that I made at the time:
Tiny Free Art inspires and energizes humans to make art, share art, and connect through art as a million tiny points of light. Tiny Free Art is poems, drawings, paintings, origami, sketches — or any tiny art that can fit in the palm of your hand and be responsibly left for someone in your community to find in a shared public space. Tiny Free Art creates joy and serendipity. Tiny Free Art sets tiny art free to find a new home in the world. Tiny Free Art brings unexpected joy to strangers’ lives. Tiny Free Art is easy and fun. Tiny Free Art is an act of hope and humanity. Tiny Free Art inspires you to make more art!
I am still in love with this idea. It is simple and powerful, creating individual joy and community trust. It is very much in the spirit of Little Free Libraries, mini street galleries, free book exchanges, and the like which exist around the world. It was so delightful to hear about people finding my “gifts” and how it put a smile on their face.
3. Photo zines as celebration and witness
Here’s a lovely example of photography zines as a force for good in the Melbourne area in Australia.
In one of the great chats I’ve had here on Substack in the past week, I was inspired and heartened by commenter Michael’s purpose for making a photo zine:
“I’ve been visiting the local markets to document them as they are, just in case the developers win their battle against the community’s grassroots campaign. And I feel like leaving little Easter eggs — a handful of my favorite photos from my previous outing — could be a fun way to remind those who happen upon them what the community is fighting for.”
Check out his post to see how beautifully they turned out.
In a time where digital stories, images, and histories are being buried, muted, and erased, zines — especially photo zines — are a powerful and democratizing vehicle to share and amplify them.
Keep seeing and taking those beautiful photos.
⎡JILL⎦
JILL.DESIGN 
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