∴Serial Music: Vol. 02 is Out!∴

Over the course of 2024 I put together 12 photo booklets featuring pairs of images made here in Korea. I’m releasing one a month from the start of 2025. This project is called Serial Music.

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The second issue of my monthly zine project Serial Music is done! For the last two weeks I’ve been tucked away in the studio as Seoul got buried in snow, putting the final touches on Vol. 02.

It’s good to be at the second release - it truly feels like the wheels are moving with this project now. Still, between orders, admin and all the work required for the upcoming issues, I’ve been feeling a little addled. I looked for peace in 11 minutes of meditation this week, and for the first time in my life, a run.

I’ve also been spending Korea’s coldest month working on my next YouTube video. It’ll be number 2 of 12 this year, and it’s all about inspiration and photo projects. Check out the first vid if you haven’t yet - it spells out just how I’m trying to share what I’ve learned making these zines in a way that, hopefully, is helpful to you.

I’ve also got two more turntable slipmats out, to coincide with the release of Vol. 02. Plus, you can see (and more importantly hear) what these slipmats are good for over here!

I’m really chuffed to have had a few sales of the full 12 zine set after the release of Vol. 01. I’m only making 30 of each zine, so I think the full set will become unavailable in a few months as the early issues (hopefully) sell out. Serial Music has been a space for me to not only experiment with how to share imagery, but how to package and sell it too. It’s all been very encouraging as I try to figure out how, little by little, to focus my attention on my own work without financially sinking the boat.

Let me end off this letter by sharing one of my favorite pairs from SM02. This was one of the earliest pairs I made.

Both of these photos were taken on roadtrips around Korea. The image on the left is of the path that crumbled away beneath me as I searched for the most remote place I could find. It’s the path that ultimately lead to the distant little tree-lined stream where I proposed to Kelly. The image on the right is a bit older, from the first trip I spent sleeping in my van. It was so cold at night I could see my breath in the car and lost my voice for a few days. Passing by a copse of broken buildings, I found a discarded trophy, a frozen waterfall and this gagged and bound stump. I feel something for the pair because of their visual similarity, and their symbolic difference. I sometimes feel the risk I run of being like the image on the right. The best decision I ever made, and keep making, is to take the path on the left, again and again.

Serial Music: Vol. 02 is out now, and you can see it, along with all the other stuff I make, here.

Cheers,

Chris