Category: Jim Camp Photography

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Four Minute Mile | Jim Camp | synaesthesia press

A picture of the photozine Four Minute Mile by Jim Camp and published in 2024 by the synaesthesia press.

Four Minute Mile 1

Published Summer 2025 by the synaesthesia press.

Photozine. Full-color pictorial wrappers. 5½ x 8¼ inches (approximately 14 x 21 cm). Issued in numbered and lettered editions.

Edition of 125 copies (99 numbered; 26 lettered). Each lettered copy includes an original signed giclée print laid into the publication.

Four Minute Mile is a collection of photographic portraits by Jim Camp and the second photozine published by the synaesthesia press. The photographs were made in a variety of locations, including city streets, flea markets, thrift stores, professional wrestling events, photography studios, residential hotels, backyard gatherings, and film sets. Some subjects were longtime acquaintances; others were encountered only moments before the shutter was released.

The publication reflects Camp’s longstanding interest in Henri Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the “decisive moment” and the belief that a successful photograph captures a fleeting convergence of expression, gesture, composition, and circumstance. The work is less concerned with conventional notions of beauty than with the pursuit of images capable of holding a viewer’s attention and rewarding sustained observation.

Produced as an ongoing publication, Four Minute Mile was initially planned to continue through the summer of 2026, at which time its future would be reassessed.

No reprints were issued.

Photography, design, and production by Jim Camp.

Availability: Both the numbered and lettered editions are available from the synaesthesia press.

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Four Minute Mile: A Limited-Edition Photozine by Jim Camp

A picture of the photozine Four Minute Mile by Jim Camp and published in 2024 by the synaesthesia press.

There’s a reason most self-published work is self-published. Sometimes it’s a vanity project. Sometimes it just isn’t “very good”. I get that. But I’ve been making pictures for a while now, and enough people have taken notice that I figured it was time to put more of my work out there—on my own terms.

Four Minute Mile is my first self-published photozine. It collects some of my portraits—though I’m not a big fan of the traditional definition of portraiture. Some of my favorite subjects are strangers, other photographers at work, sex workers, oddballs, and weirdos. People who made me pause, or made me nervous. People who truly earn their living. Some I know well. Some I met literally seconds before I hit the shutter. All of them terrific subjects.

I’m a big believer in Cartier-Bresson’s idea of a “decisive moment.” I also think about Eggleston’s “democratic way of looking around.” I probably think about stuff like this way more than I should. And in our digital world where everyone’s a photographer, the real challenge is getting someone to stop and do a little more than just glance at your picture.

Four Minute Mile is full color, short run—99 numbered copies and 26 lettered copies that come with a giclée print laid in. I made the pictures in all kinds of places: on the street, in flea markets, thrift stores, porno sets, red carpet events, backyard BBQs, hotel lobbies, and professional studios.

There won’t be any reprints. But Four Minute Mile will be a quarterly series—until it runs its course. I’ve got a lot of images I’d like to show you, so who knows how long that’ll take.

In the meantime, here we go.

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Gonerfest 9: Lettered, Boxed, and Now Released.

Gonerfest Nine picture included in the synaesthesia press publication Music Box

If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down,
we should give thanks that the end had magnitude.
We must admit there will be music despite everything.

—Jack Gilbert, “A Brief for the Defense” from Refusing Heaven (2005)

After Gonerfest I came home from Memphis with a camera full of music and a head full of ideas. What came out was Music Box — my attempt to make something in the spirit of what Johnny Brewton had pulled off at his X-Ray Press — especially X-Ray 8. Johnny’s work has always stuck with me: loose but professional, real and raw, letterpress personal and full of all these wonderful bits and pieces. I wanted mine to feel the same without stepping into that trap Harold Bloom calls “The Anxiety of Influence”.

So I printed 30 giclée photos — bands, moments, the crowd, all of it — and housed them in a found cardboard box. Held together with a wrap-around band. A found, vintage library card pocket repurposed as a place where you’ll find my colophon. The hidden couple dancing. And Jack Gilbert…because Gilbert was the greatest living American poet — until he wasn’t.

Monsieur Jeffrey Evans (’68 Comeback, The Gibson Bros.);  Thursday night Emcee NOBUNNY; Memphis’s Moving Finger; the Frenchmen who made up Jack of Hearts; The Golden Boys from Austin TX; the Oblivian who calls himself Greg; all the way from Holland The Anomalys; Indiana’s The Hussy; a couple shots of Texas bad asses Bad Sports; Melbourne’s incredible Bits of Shit; a couple a fans! and a couple of River City Tanlines;  NOBUNNY and his backing band that night, Bad Sports; Dez Vibez from Ryan Wong aka Wong Reatard aka Mr. Rousseau; another Aussie band Native Cats; Chicago’s White Mystery; The Detonations; Ex-Cult / Sex Cult; a photog / fan screaming at Mad Macka; finally, a photo in there of the Hi-Tone at full capacity — the last image in the box from one of the last shows played. An experience. And I didn’t even mention the food or make pictures of what I ate.

There’s 26 lettered copies of Music Box. I archived most of them. For years. Because my doubt looms large and Imposter Syndrome is very real exempli gratia Vivian Meyer and Henry Darger and all the poets and writers scribbling away and too afraid to show a soul.

But I’m listing Music Box now. Cause fuck the doubt and everything that comes with it.

If you were there, you’ll get it. If you weren’t, maybe you’ll feel like you were…all laid in to a small, perfectly square box.

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A portrait of Al, a cobbler…and a dude who slings old sewing machines.

A Portrait of Al from Al's Attire San FranciscoI’ve got an obsession with Everything Old. And All Things Made By Hand. And an appreciation for others who have my weird hang-up. Whether it’s amateur snap shots, or obsolete machinery, or a cobbler’s tiny workspace, I’m all about it.

So I was wandering around San Francisco on a recent venture and stumbled into Al’s Attire. It’s kitty-corner from Cafe Trieste, one of my SF go-to’s. Which is right down the street from City Lights and The Condor (which is where Carol Doda worked), and a biker bar (its name I can never remember).

(If you’ve got a minute, follow the Carol Doda link and check out every single one of the 51-pic set the SF Gate published for her obit.)

Al’s is amazing. Al is amazing! I try to carry my camera around all the time, and Al was nice enough to let me make a picture or two. His shoemaker (another name I can’t remember grrr.) let me make one, too. Pick some cloth off the sample, get measured, and let Al go to work. Same with the shoes; pick soles, material, style, and don’t forget the custom “Al’s Attire Custom” label with your name.

I need a wardrobe re-do.

The Alameda flea market is another go-to. It’s one of the greats. It’s a first-Sunday flea, and I’ve never been disappointed. I made a portrait of Dave there. He cleans up old sewing machines, gets them working again, then sets up shop at Alameda. His booth was right next to a Snap Shot Guy who had a picture of a woman reading Tarot in a field in 1917. Under the picture someone wrote “Gypsy telling the future” with impeccable penmanship, beautiful cursive.

Score.

 

 

 

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Sofia Heftersmith Always Everything.

I swung by These Days to check out Always Everything, new work by Sofia Heftersmith.

Sofia’s based in SoCal, and (I think) this is her second solo show. Here’s Sophia’s Insta;  her first show was Proof of Life on Earth over at Shit Art Club; here’s an interview with Sofia Heftersmith at Uproxx; here’s another one at Powerzine; and finally, she was interviewed for the podcast What’s My Thesis.

I love Sofia’s work. It’s easy to pigeonhole her as a “young artist”. I’d say she’s wise beyond her years.

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Wendy Blades, Sword Swallower

Wendy Blades is, among other things, a sword swallower / human sword basket, an emcee, and a chairstacker; she can escape from straight jackets and eat fire; and, finally, she’s a human cutting board.

I don’t go anywhere near Pier 39 or Fisherman’s Wharf while I’m in the Bay Area. But I was with family and while we were “doing touristy things”, I was lucky enough to catch her between sets. So I made this portrait of Wendy and her doggo.

Wendy’s on Insta, has a YouTube channel, and a Facebook.

This is a picture of Wendy Blades, sword swallower, holding her dog.
Wendy Blades | October 2022 | Pier 39 | San Fransciso.
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Marianna the Nomad — Prague 08.25.2022

Nomad Marianna in Prague

I was walking back from the coffee house when I met Marianna, her dog Duna, and Amber The Pink Puppy.

Marianna wears friendship socks and makes paintings of her her Changa Trips. Changa — a mixture of DMT and edible flowers and plants. She smoked a changa  joint and began to see colors and shapes and when she squeezed her eyes shut and moved her hands in front of her eyes, well…Marianna painted what she saw.

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Music Box | Jim Camp | synaesthesia press

Music Box

Photography by Jim Camp.

Published 2012 by the synaesthesia press.

Approximately 6¼ inches square. Thirty original giclée photographic prints laid into a found cardboard box. Accompanied by a letterpress-printed wraparound band, printed cover, translucent frontispiece bearing a quotation by Jack Gilbert, and a repurposed vintage library card pocket used as a tabbed folder containing the colophon.

Edition of 26 lettered copies.

Music Box grew out of a trip to Memphis, Tennessee, for Gonerfest 9, the annual music festival hosted by Goner Records. Using a Canon PowerShot S95, Jim Camp photographed performers, audiences, and moments surrounding the festival over several days in September 2012.

Rather than presenting the photographs in a conventional book format, Camp assembled them as an found box, combining original photographic prints with found materials, letterpress ephemera, and handmade elements. The result functions simultaneously as photographic portfolio, music document, archive, and object.

The thirty photographs included in the edition document a range of performers appearing at Gonerfest 9, including The Oblivians, NOBUNNY, White Mystery, Bad Sports, Bobby Hussy, and Bits of Shit, among others. Together they form a visual record of one of independent music’s most influential annual gatherings.

The wraparound band, frontispiece, and accompanying printed materials were letterpress printed at Letterpress Central with the assistance of Cindy and Gary Iverson. Cindy Iverson also assisted in the design and production of the cover materials.

Photography, design, letterpress printing and assembly by Jim Camp.

Availability: Available from the publisher.

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Volta 2 | synaesthesia press

Volta 2, a 2009 synaesthesia press mixed-media portfolio containing poetry, fiction, photography, found imagery, artwork, and printed ephemera housed in an illustrated envelope.

Published 2009 by the synaesthesia press.

Portfolio. Approximately 6″ × 9″ (15.2 × 22.9 cm). Housed in a black envelope illustrated with a vintage men’s magazine advertisement printed using Print Gocco. Edited, designed, printed, and assembled by Jim Camp and Nathan Feller. Published by the synaesthesia press.

Edition of 100 copies printed at the synaesthesia press in Tempe, Arizona and Los Angeles, California.

In addition to the printed colophon, the contents include the artwork “Welcome! Well, Hello!” by Nathan Feller; the short story “Natural Sines & Cosigns, Tangents & Cotangents (A Love Story)” by Jim Pritchard; the photograph “Herbert Huncke Smoking a Sherm in the Back of a NYC Cab” by Laki Vaz; a found photograph digitally altered by Jim Camp; a found, color transparency selected by Jim Camp; and poems by Henry Tokarski (“Black Spring”), Marie Kazalia (“No Elvis Sightings”), Charles Bukowski (“Untitled”), Richard Brautigan (Widow’s Lament”), and Henry Denander (“Workth”). Most letterpress printed.

The second issue of Volta marked a transitional moment in the history of the press, produced in the middle of its move from its second Arizona period to its Los Angeles period. Conceived as a mixed-media portfolio rather than a traditional literary magazine, the publication brought together contemporary writing, found imagery, photography, visual art, and ephemera in a format heavily indebted to Wallace Berman’s Semina, as well as mail art, and other experimental assemblage publications.

Unlike the later issues of Volta, the first two function as an open container for disparate voices and forms, emphasizing juxtaposition, surprise, and the relationship between text and image.

“Art is Love is God.”

Availability: Out of print.