🗺 A Zine Is an Artist’s Field Report

Big news. Ted Forbes from the YouTube channel The Art of Photography reviewed my zine “404 CONTACT SHEETS - NUTS.TOKYO” in one of his latest videos. (His channel has 882K subscribers, so yeah—this is huge!)

I’ve never spoken to Ted before. But while watching his video, I felt like we’d already had so many conversations—like we truly connected through the zine.
If you’re interested in making photo books or photography zines, his channel is packed with insightful content. Highly recommended.

🧠 Let Go of “What It Should Be”

Inspired by Ted’s feedback, I took some time to reflect on “404 CONTACT SHEETS” again.

This zine incorporates many of my personal zine-making philosophies—ideas I’ve shared in past newsletters.
First, a zine doesn’t need to be perfect. In fact, its raw, unfinished nature—like a demo tape—is exactly what gives it power.

And second, a zine doesn’t need to follow the rules of traditional publishing. You don’t even need to bind it like a book. It can be a letter in an envelope. Zines are all about breaking away from the idea of what a “book” should be and expressing yourself however you want.

🗺 A Zine Is an Artist’s Field Report

And “don’t aim for perfection”—that idea doesn’t just apply to zines. I think it’s true for all kinds of creative work today.
Think about Instagram: people only post their best shots. But when you scroll through a feed of flawless images, it doesn’t really move you.

Every great movie has a main character who struggles—someone who faces inner conflict, makes mistakes, and pushes through, even when it gets messy.
That’s what makes the story powerful. A film where the hero is perfect from beginning to end, never changing, never facing challenges… would be the most boring two hours ever.

Sure, zines are a way to showcase your work. But zines are also a record of where you are right now in your creative journey.
A zine is like a travel log—a personal logbook of your artistic adventures. It doesn’t have to be the final masterpiece. Sometimes, it’s more about showing the process: what you’re exploring, what you’re trying out, and where you’re headed.

That’s what I tried to do with my zine this time. Instead of presenting just the perfect final images, I used contact sheets to share the process. The good shots, the throwaways, the flow of how I saw and shot—every bit of it is part of the adventure.

This latest contact sheet zine is the third issue in my annual project, 404 NOT FOUND. And for everyone who’s been following this journey since Issue 01—thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Through this series, I’ve been able to share pieces of my creative voyage with you.

📖 The “Why” Matters

In “404 CONTACT SHEETS,” some of the photos are horizontal. To see them properly, you have to turn the zine. That’s a small bit of friction I intentionally added.

In his video, Ted says he usually dislikes books that force you to rotate them—but in this case, he thought it worked. (Watch the video for his full thoughts.)

And as Ted pointed out, what matters isn’t doing something “unusual” or “unexpected” just for the sake of it—it’s whether there’s a reason behind it. I couldn’t agree more.

I’ve said that zines are a space for breaking away from conventional formats and expressing yourself freely. But if you’re just doing something weird on a whim, with no clear intent, it might be interesting to you as the creator—but most people won’t get it.

That’s why I believe zines should be a space for creative experiments, a testing ground where you can say, “This isn’t perfect, but here’s what I was trying to do.”

For me, that’s exactly why I designed this zine so you have to physically rotate the book to view the horizontal photos properly.
It’s my way of pushing back against how passively we consume images today—especially on platforms like Instagram, where we just scroll past everything. I wanted to force a more active viewing experience.

This zine ended up being 116 pages. Someone from France recently told me, “This isn’t a zine anymore—it’s basically a book.” haha
If you haven’t seen this latest piece of my adventure yet, you can grab a copy at the link below.

Thanks for reading until the end. See you next week!

My Instagram: @_nuts.tokyo_
My YouTube: @fareastdarkroom