Interview by Julian Lucas

Huda Azzis is a Singapore based freelance video editor, but she doesn’t stop there. Huda is also the founder of the independent publishing group, Your Local Newsstand. Huda has many goals, but one goal that stands out to me was to create a platform that was inclusive to many photographers across the globe.

So you are a freelance video editor living in Singapore. Are you from Singapore? How did you get into freelance video editing?

Yes I am! I was born in Singapore and have been living here all my life. I studied film in school and right after graduation got my first job as a junior video editor at a small production company specialising in television dramas. After a few years, I took a gap year and eventually began freelancing. That was when I was first introduced to other formats of filmmaking such as documentaries, short films, tvs and corporate projects. I have been freelancing for the past 6 years or so. 

 Have you made any short films? What Genre do you focus on?

My job requires me to work on many different genres and formats. I mostly work on longform documentaries for broadcast networks and channels such as Channel NewsAsia, National Geographic, Bloomberg, Al-Jazeera etc. But since a lot of content has been moving online, a lot of the projects I’ve had the opportunity to work on also have moved to various digital platforms in various formats. 
I would say the only content that I’ve ever directed/produced was solely for Your Local Newsstand. Last year, I decided to launch NEWS Presents which is a series of mini docmentaries featuring various photographers. It’s kind of a vignette - very short form documentary. That was something that was very exciting. I’ve always wanted to make something of my own and having this great opportunity to talk about photographic works by photographers I admire and respect is a very exciting process!

I also read you were also a photographer. Do you have a concentration on subject matter? How long have you been making pictures?

Honestly, I wouldn’t consider myself a photographer. I’m still a hobbyist at heart! I still enjoy portrait photography but I don’t really limit myself to anything really.

“Zines are important to our society because it’s not being pushed by any bigger agenda”.

Did your photographic experience lead you into making zines and owning and operating your publishing company, “Your Local Newsstand” ? By the way It’s such a great name, actually catches the attention. Why publishing?

Haha, thanks! The name was actually derived from a Frank Ocean article I read once and thought that it really explained what I wanted to do with zines and publishing really well. YLN really started from my love of zines and zine making. I’ve been collecting zines for almost a decade now and I really like the idea of what zines meant. Zines can mean many things to different authors and anyone can make zines. That’s the allure of publishing zines for me. Photography on the other hand was something that came later on. I guess it was just something that gradually happened you know - publishing photography zines. 

 
What do you look for as a publisher, meaning how do you choose who you want to publish? Is it both you and the artist collaborating or do you have total creative control?

I think for me, story is king. When I look at a photography project, I will never read the descriptions or statements first. I would look at the images and if the images are compelling enough to make me want to know more about the project, that’s when I would read up on it. Because every photography project is different and takes on different forms, I don’t have any pre-requisite on what we should/should not publish under YLN. 

With zine publishing on the other hand - I give pretty much full creative control to the photographer however they want to tell the story within a zine format. I do this because I believe that this is their story and so they should at least have some sort of freedom to do what they feel is best for this story that they’ve been working on for months/years.  I’ll come in halfway to collaborate on image sequencing etc but at the end of the day I would say my involvement is more collaborative rather than coming in with an “Editor/Publisher” mentality. One of the main reasons I was attracted to zines was because it was so unconventional.

When I was younger, I was amazed that zines was something that anyone could make. I didn’t know anything like that. I was into magazines a lot so coming across zines was like “Woah” yknow. You don’t need fancy equipments or materials or anyone to vet your work or anything like that. It was just something that you could do with a photocopy machine and some photoshop. So with YLN, I try to adopt that same mentality where the photographer gets pretty much complete freedom in the way they want to tell their story. 

 Before the pandemic have you published any zines on occasion of an exhibition?

No, I haven’t yet. It’s something on my mind but it’s financially restraining. Organizing an exhibition is not cheap and as a independent publishing group where everything is out of my own pocket - it’s difficult to justify producing a photo exhibition. But it’s something that’s definitely on my mind. Hopefully, it’s something that is slightly more feasible in the future. 

 
What do you find interesting about publishing?

I think the format itself is very interesting. Photography itself is a visual medium. Books/zines are also visual medium but they create a more tactile experience for its audiences. So the meld of these two very very visual mediums together is something that I find interesting. It’s very casual (because we touch things everyday) but also very intimate and dynamic. If you were to view a photography exhibition virtually vs being on the ground and walking through the spaces - it’s very different. Same thing about publishing.

The joy of photography books/zines to me is always my very first experience with it - opening the pages of each book.

 
Why do you find zines important to our society?

Zines are important to our society because it’s not being pushed by any bigger agenda. It’s completely independent. And because it’s much more accessible to produce, anyone with a desire to tell a story can make one. Especially things that are not talked about/taboo to speak about on mainstream media. It’s like how New Media has paved the way for so many unconventional topics to be talked about - something that you previously cannot speak about on traditional media. But I do believe on the other hand zines is a great tool for self expression and experimentation. If you are interested in creating something but don’t know what works for you, making a zine is always a good learning experience! 

 
Are you a collector as well? What was the last zine you purchased? What was the last photobook you purchased?

Yes definitely. I have a ton of zines that I’ve been collecting since I was 14 years old. And I would keep my zines in plastic and put them in alphabetical folders haha! But space is a constraint at the moment so I try to limit myself to not compulsively purchase crazy amounts of zines haha. Recently I’ve been purchasing quite a number of photobooks though. The last photobook I purchased was by Chinese photographer RongRong’s ‘Bejing East Village’ I think that’s my favourite book at the moment. It’s just so good!

 What are your plans for the new year any new projects in the works?

I definitely have my eyes to producing more minidocumentaries. A group zine is something I’ve wanted to do for a while. But it’s hush-hush for now. Nothing is in the works at the moment, but I think with a group zine - there’s more room to experiment and on my part much more collaborative and curatorial works - which is something I’m looking forward to trying my hands on.

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@yourlocalnewsstand

Website
yourlocalnewsstand.com
hudaazzis.com