Talk: Sam Hutchinson
Self Publishing & Zine Making | Sam Hutchinson | 11/02/2026
Description from his website:
"Sam hutchinson is is an artist & photographer based in Leeds, UK, working with image-making, appropriation, sculpture, installation, and publishing. He works for VILLAGE
& is editor-in-chief for BOOT MAG
He was a co-founder/director of SCREW Gallery"
The talk consisted of an overview of his working life and a Q&A. He explained how he got to work on projects, what they consisted of, the positives and negative side of this work and advice.
Notes from the talk:
Transcription of notes:
- Village; bringing stuff North. Attend the Friday launch events. Being around the stock can make stuff boring, develops new, exciting and interesting ideas.
- Bootmag; collection of work oof different style he likes.
- Have friendships with other creatives.
- Works as a book designer after having put his zines out there. To do this, he had to put himself out there and being persistent.
- Be personable, persistent and aware and confident. Act like you know. Be forward and positive. Don't bother mentioning education.
- He works in different disciplines that flow amongst each other.
- Adapts style to commercial work. Doing work but not 'owning' it
- Making a range of work to stay inspired.
- Application of format - is it a zine, an exhibition, a book, a sculpture? This can be changed...
- "Image as object"
- "Act as a portfolio"
- DIY ethic. But ask if it is appropriate; is there a cheaper faster alternative? Can you just add handmade bits? Streamline work, focusing on keeping its essence.
- Creating abstract with tangible experience.
- Questioning how work is received; "is it being seen as natural or manmade?"
- Is print dead? No. Digital publication is popular in waves. Printed media is more specific. It smells good, it's sensory.
- Amount of content - what is effective?
- The cover can just be intriguing, is doesn't have to be representative !!!!
Sam's work
Terror of Complete Faith
17 x 25cm, softcover, stapled, 48 pages, 1st edition, 50 copies, February 2024
"Terror of Complete Faith by Sam Hutchinson is a collection of research images found online from various British police force’s publicly available social media pages: Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter). Many of the images highlight a bizarre trend in which police take lofi photographs of their vehicles next to sunsets and sunrise landscapes, these same motifs appearing more and more over unrelated constabularies.
In an age of public mistrust and suspicion for authority and the police, these images act as promotional online content, using traditional photographic and aesthetic choices to frame themselves in a way in which appeals emotively to a public audience they’re supposed to serve. With the nature of social media’s chronological format, these images appear alongside other photographs relating to police work- CCTV images of wanted ‘criminals’ or people with arrest warrants. The pages then contain unusual juxtapositions of functional and promotional photographs that appear side by side, when first visiting these online profiles."
17 x 25cm, softcover, stapled, 48 pages, 1st edition, 50 copies, February 2024
"Terror of Complete Faith by Sam Hutchinson is a collection of research images found online from various British police force’s publicly available social media pages: Instagram, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter). Many of the images highlight a bizarre trend in which police take lofi photographs of their vehicles next to sunsets and sunrise landscapes, these same motifs appearing more and more over unrelated constabularies.
In an age of public mistrust and suspicion for authority and the police, these images act as promotional online content, using traditional photographic and aesthetic choices to frame themselves in a way in which appeals emotively to a public audience they’re supposed to serve. With the nature of social media’s chronological format, these images appear alongside other photographs relating to police work- CCTV images of wanted ‘criminals’ or people with arrest warrants. The pages then contain unusual juxtapositions of functional and promotional photographs that appear side by side, when first visiting these online profiles."
Whispers in Latin
Published by SPECTRUM, Milan, 15 x 21 cm, softcover, 48 pages, edition of 100, March 2024
Amazon is Burning
October 2022, 40 Pages, 17 x 25cm, edition of 50
"Amazon is Burning features collected photographs, stills and screenshots from online media sources depicting Amazon warehouses and delivery trucks on fire and burning down, both accidental or suspected arson attacks."
Formal Mourning
289 x 380mm, softcover, newsprint, 40 pages, first edition of 100, May 2021
"Images appropriated from archival tabloid and broadsheet newspapers from the British mainstream press between 1999 and 2021. Each edition was selected for its front-page depictions of significant historical events, as well as the press representation of collective public emotion and media bias throughout these periods. In particular, events which changed elements of society and widespread public opinion indefinitely."
(Use this to) Erase Years Off Your Mind in Days
Publication released August 2018, 15 x 21 cm, softcover, 48 pages, risograph printed by PageMasters
3M reflective thread bound, sealed in biohazard disposal bag, edition of 100
"Erase Years Off Your Mind in Days is a study highlighting potential outcomes of a dystopian future, where complicity in state ownership of the body and mind is both normalised and romanticised. Give yourself over. You will leave with a smile on your face. (...)"
