Sienna Bentley
It’s official, our first ever printed zine is out in the world.
On Saturday 15 March 2025, we celebrated the creation of POWER Vol 1. It was many months in the making; submissions started rolling in at the end of August, and Ray and I both spent many a post-day-job hour on perfecting the production process. This included editing chapters, creating imagery and illustrations, coming up with a design and then implementing it in the layout. Tweaking things, and then tweaking them again.
For me, at the risk of sounding incredibly cheesy, what I’m holding now is more than just a small magazine. The zine represents the notion that you can literally do whatever you want if you want it enough. I simply decided one day that this was something I was going to do, and I did it. I was determined not to let any negative thoughts or complicated processes stop me – any problems could be fixed.
Indeed, there were challenges, things I hadn’t anticipated, key elements that I’d initially overlooked. But that hasn’t stopped the zine from existing, and these are all lessons for next time. I fully intend on there being a next time.
But what’s inside?
To read the amazing work from our contributors, visit the ‘zine shop’ tab. But because I’m feeling nice today, let me give you a little taster.
The zine is split into three parts: creativity, women and media. Following my little foreword, the first part includes an introspective from Alekia Gill, photography from yours truly, and the prologue from an original novel written by Maya Engledow.
The next part is one big celebration of women. Incredible. We’ve got sports in there, courtesy of Mark Docherty, women in electronic music written by Millie Ward. Our very own Ray Leach reviews a short film – a still from which is our gorgeous front cover! – directed by Caroline Hajny.
Last but not least, we’ve got interpretations of power in media. Karan Garg writes a detailed music review and we go back in time to ancient Greece with Alex Martin. Lucas Osborn discusses how power shows up in architecture, while Oscar Lund unpacks the connection between celebrity and politics.
Illustrations and imagery from Imi Connell, myself and Ray are sprinkled throughout.
Postcards from the launch party
We had a little celebration on Saturday, bringing the zine into the world in style. Thank you to everyone who contributed amazing work to the project, and to all those who have supported us on the journey! Means more than you know.
Here are some more pics of our kid’s first official day on earth.
