This project was submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of module MJM07 – Participatory media production for social change. We were asked to explore the Photovoice technique to reflect on our personal resilience during the Covid-19 pandemic, using only five photos and captions. For my submission, I created a digital zine which combined analog and digital media to sum up two years in five photos.

I wrote the captions first, intentionally removing steps from the writing process such as planning and editing because I did not want to hinder my heartfelt honesty from being shown in the words that were quickly wrote without concern for neatness or aesthetics. Although there are several spelling mistakes, I am pleased with the roughness of it as zine culture is very DIY oriented.

I then took Fujifilm Instax photos to visually represent the captions. I’m wearing a mask in the photos because, at the time, masks were a very polarized issue here in Canada. I scanned them over scrapbooking paper and imported them into Photoshop to combine another layer over each photo, mimicking a double exposed effect. I felt this was the best way to portray the amount of contrast that existed in my life during these events, as resilience and change go hand-in-hand.

Finally, I moved the layers into Procreate for iPad and combined the images with handwritten subtitles and captions. A layer of blush pink paint was applied underneath the captions in effort to make it easier to read.

The digital zine can be viewed below via Flipsnack.