Dave Rothschild‘s ‘Solitude‘ zine is still, quiet, contemplative, a pleasant walk in the country on a weekday afternoon, when everyone else is working and the only sound is your footsteps, the birds, the leaves on the trees.
I have a feeling, but am not sure, the ‘Solitude’ zine relates to Rothschild’s Solitude series, photographs paired with some short, improvised guitar pieces, which are worth a look and listen. The recording quality is a little bit poor and not well edited (but is probably better than what I could do), but has an intriguing idea behind it.
To start out, Rothschild shot a roll of Natura 1600 attempting to capture “spontaneous moments of ‘solitude.” Of the process, Rothschild writes
Most of the images were made as soon my visual field and mind perceived a sense of “solitude” by what was “seen” and “felt”. After the images were made into prints I used the best ones to then create short sound clips using acoustic guitar and ambient field recordings. The goal was to amplify the feeling of solitude by involving another sensation, in this case ears. Furthermore, each image and sound clip were the result of improvisation both in the original capture of the image and my musical reaction to it. Therefore, one could say the the work has a strong sense of “reciprocal determination” or “free play” not unlike jazz.
I feel that in both the short pieces in the Solitude series on his website, and in this nice little zine. I know, out on photowalks, there are these moments of ecstasy, where the walking, looking, listening, leads to feeling the landscape in an intimate sort of way, where you’re alone and at one with the universe, and I think ‘Solitude’ the zine comes close to capturing that.
The perfect bound zine is well printed on demand by the good folks at Blurb, and the photographs are straight ahead ‘out-for-a-walk’ landscapes, well executed, with a sparseness and brevity that captures the concept perfectly, I think.
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Overall, I’d give it a solid 4 stars.
Copies are available on demand for the measly sum of $10, so go pick up a copy and support Dave’s work. Stop by his website and check out some of his other projects. It’s all good stuff.
