Eduardo Pavez Goya‘s several hours ahead is a sort of travel zine, featuring selections from the 27 rolls of film he shot over a two week period in Tokyo back in October 2017. If you’re familiar with Ed, it’s almost a print version of one of his fun Shoot Film episodes, and the zine itself is beautifully made.
Overall, several hours ahead focuses on street photography, mostly, with some urban landscapes thrown in. Goya’s style is, to my eye, tends toward capturing mundane moments, commuting, periods of waiting or reverie, loads of people staring at their phones.* There are few decisive moments here, and none of the jokes we often find in other street photography, say of Matt Stuart, and taken together, the 43 photographs in Goya’s zine give a glimpse of what a visitor might encounter, walking around, vacationing in Tokyo for a couple of weeks, rather than waiting on a street corner or in front of some funny poster for some strange interaction or interesting conjunction of elements to occur.
I ordered a few prints to go along with the zine: 3 prints from his 30 rolls in 30 days project of October 2016. They show the same perambulatory sensibility towards the mundane, the vast majority of moments in everyone’s that are indecisive. And looking through it all again, a third time, I got it, and I appreciate the work more, now, than at first viewing.
The photographs in several hours ahead are in a variety of formats and aspect ratios—square, medium format from a Mamiya C330, Mamiya Six, or Roleliflex 3.5f; 1:3 panoramic color from an X-Pan; 2:3 from an LC-A or LC-Wide—and shot with expired Ektachrome 64, Vision3 500T, and HP5+. I think the mix of black & white and color works ok: the photographs are mostly in color, with a couple of pages at the beginning and few pages in the middle in black & white, and they more or less flow together, largely owing to the unified style and content. The printing quality is excellent, and the paper is lovely, but I really like the binding: it’s a fancied-up variant of an A4 size folio. But the stiff cover has been scored and folded in such a way that it has a squared-off spine. It’s a very elegant solution that I hope to keep in mind as I work on my next zine.**
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Overall, I’d give it 3.8 stars.
Goya’s YouTube is really great, and he seems like quite a friendly and helpful guy. He made a video about making several hours ahead, for example that’s worth a look.
He has a Patreon and if you find his videos and all useful or enjoyable, it’s a good way to kick back a monthly coffee or something to him. And his Etsy shop is closed at time of writing, but keep an eye out. There may still be copies of several hours ahead and/or his prints available there. And do keep an eye on his YouTube. His Shoot Film episodes, camera and film reviews, tips and encouragement and all are really excellent.
*This is one of the poverties of urban life now… everyone looking down, their faces glued to these little glowing things in their palms. I think it will pass, eventually, but when future people look back on the street photography of this era, I hope they don’t think too poorly of us.
**In the last days of 2017, I completed my first zine. I should really write up a post about it sometime, maybe make a video too…
