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Jill's Journal —Week of 12.9.2025

Adventures of a material girl in Switzerland + free template for you.

Marché des Photographes last Sunday. Lausanne, Switzerland.

Happy Friday, photo friends! I have been on the move this past week — spreading photography love on foot and in hand all over Switzerland.

  1. Marché des Photographes in Lausanne

  2. Photo zines workshop in Zürich (+ Canva template for you!)

‘Cause we are living in a material worldAnd I am a material girl

1. Marché des Photographes in Lausanne

Last Sunday I worked my own table at a photography market in Lausanne — the first time I’ve ever done something like this. I had copies of my new JOURNAL magazine, M23 Myōgadani photobook, archival prints in 3 sizes, and what I call petits trèsoirs (small treasures), i.e. bookmarks, stickers, and mini bundles. It was a 5-hour event with 2.5 hours trip each way from Zürich, so I stayed the night in Lausanne. (I love going to the French side of the country as I actually speak the language, unlike my beginner German here in Züri!)

I did this for the experience and community, and made a lot of lovely connections with both visitors and the other vendors. I learned a lot about preparing products, table design/signage, pricing, what kinds of questions people ask, and the cultural nuances of direct art sales. I was so honored by strangers’ interest and purchases of my work, and my favorite part was autographing books for people standing right in front of me. I look forward to doing another one!

2. Photography zines workshop in Zürich

I taught my first group workshop in Switzerland this week: Intro to Photography Zines. I’ve had private students here and taught millions (fact!) of creative workshops in my design career, but this was the first at Swiss Photo Club. I had 8 lively, fun, engaged, motivated, and talented students and it was grand.

I hand-made a workbook for the class (vs. using a presentation deck) and brought in a mountain of my own collection of photo zines and books of all sizes, formats, and polish. People love this because then they have an example to imagine: I want mine to look like this, I want mine to feel like this.

So many people want to make a zine/book but get overwhelmed before starting by an aspect of the process – whether its conceptual, technical, or logistical. I am here to remove the obstacles.

“Our goal today is for you to be inspired and have a clear path forward to making your own photo zine or book a reality.”

We did intensive individual “deep-dives” and then finished the class with everyone making their own quick mini zines from one piece of paper — solid proof-to-go that they can make a zine easily, which sparks inspiration and confidence for whatever they want to do next.

Here’s the simple Canva drag-and-drop template I made for the mini zines.
Try it out yourself!

Have a beautiful weekend and keep shooting!

Thanks for reading.

À la prochaine,

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7 responses to “Jill's Journal —Week of 12.9.2025”

  1. Paul Votava Avatar
    Paul Votava

    Jill, what an experience, it is amazing how many lives you have touched with your photography, inspiring and instructing others. I appreciate the Canva template, I am familiar with the platform, so time to give it a try!

    Reply
    1. JILL.PHOTOS Avatar
      JILL.PHOTOS

      Thank you dear Paul as ever for the warm words. I am happy to encourage others — my mother is a teacher and that spirit is instilled in me. Please do share if you make something cool!

      Reply
  2. Uday Khambadkone Avatar
    Uday Khambadkone

    Thanks Jill for sharing the mini zine Canva template. I am in the process of using that template to make my own mini zine. However, I do have a question, currently it only shows 4 pages, if I have to add more pages to this zine. How should I go about adding these pages to the zine. Do you have a different template for additional pages?

    Reply
    1. JILL.PHOTOS Avatar
      JILL.PHOTOS

      Thanks for checking it out, Uday! It does have 8 pages — 4 top (upside down), 4 bottom. This template is just for mini zines made from one sheet of paper so they are limited to that number. Here’s my video on how to fold/cut: https://youtu.be/o20s2JNyBtI?si=ONpctcCtB5_6J4Ar

      Thanks for the idea of making more templates types. :) Feel free to DM me.

      Reply
      1. Uday Khambadkone Avatar
        Uday Khambadkone

        Thanks Jill for your prompt response. Let me go through your video and get back

      2. Uday Khambadkone Avatar
        Uday Khambadkone

        yeah it was a very helpful video. I do want to know if you have tried making mini or regular zines with more than one sheet of paper. Probably I will have to glue it or tie it with a thread to bind them together. I will also research on Youtube for what I am trying to do. Thanks Jill

      3. JILL.PHOTOS Avatar
        JILL.PHOTOS

        Oh definitely. (I have made all kinds.) With the minis, you could glue the back page of one to a front page of another and have 14-page zine and so on — it’s origami so there are some constraints there. Of course, bigger “regular” ones (folded in half) are quite straightforward and a great place to start. There are many interesting and cool ways to make zines and I am excited for your adventure. Have fun in your YouTube searches!

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