Posted on: August 24, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Stainless Steel Lens #1 / $1 / 7 by 14 (about) / 24 Pages / Love Bunni Press, 2641 Euclid Heights #3, Cleveland Heights, OH 44106

This is probably the third photo zine I have ever gotten in my hands for review in NF/IS. The first was by an Albertan, and I believe it was named Dystopia (Dysphoria). It was a tiny zine that I managed to lose, like Pomegranate #3, in a matter of days. Stainless Steel Lens would be hard to lose, even if I wanted to. I have personally never seen this size of zine in the few hundreds of different zines that have crossed my desk, and the paper that Jen Dolan (the editor) uses is of a much higher quality than about 90% of the zines currently out on the market. So good, in fast, that the black ink still smudges a few months after it was first published. Four pages of text balance out 20 pages of pictures,, and the preface done by Jen details eir’s style to a t. So much so, in fact, that the mystique I might have had flipping the pages and seeing new photos was almost ruined. Still, these pictures are sharp, and I am not even talking about the relatively clear quality of the pictures (there are only slight amounts of picture degradation in this zine), either being about closed-down Pabst Blue Ribbon facilities, boarded- up storefronts, or holiday imagery. The middle piece, “Dust Bunny Jihad” (by R. John Xerxes Piche’), is verbose just to be verbose – words taken to absurd lengths, and I’m not even sure if the piece is serious or some sort of social commentary. Still, this is a strong start to a zine that should be picked up, whether it be at Love Bunni Press or Tomatoes = Love Distro.

Rating : 6.3/10

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