Jessie Dinan is an analog photographer and music lover, as well as the main force behind a new zine full of kick-ass women that celebrates sub cultures and the sense of belonging they foster. Lucy Lumen has a chinwag with Jessie about this project and its important message below.

Hey Jessie! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your photography? I’m a photographic artist based in Melbourne and the creator of the Girls to the Front zine. My love for photography is centred on analog processes and printing in the darkroom, predominately in black and white. The work I do is focused and inspired by the people I meet and observe in everyday life. I love travelling and photographing people that live differently to me, or view the world through a different lens than my own.

In your photographic work you seem to be drawn to sub cultures and groups on the fringe of society. What is it about this that interests you so much? I guess I've always felt a little on the outskirts myself, so I’m naturally drawn to people who feel the same. I love art and I’m a big music lover, especially live punk, rock or metal shows, and they tend to draw people on the fringes. I love that subcultures provide a space to be yourself and to feel comfortable. They give you a sense of belonging, and it’s really beautiful when you feel on the outside how you feel on the inside and finally meeting your people. I’m currently witnessing this with my child and their love for cosplay, their community is so welcoming. What was the inspiration for Girls to the Front? The zine is Inspired by Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and the iconic message she and the band spread during their live gigs. ‘Girls to the front' became a rallying cry and a way for women to feel safe at male-dominated shows. I tend to carry my camera with me and started gathering images from live music performances. I started to build up a body of work and became really excited and driven to create a project showcasing women in the alternative music scene. I began to play around with some ideas for my own work and thought to myself, this would be so bad-ass if I invited other women to collaborate. I reached out to photographers I really admired who thought would fit the like Ilana Rose, Katelyn Slyer and, of course, yourself Lucy!

What made you choose to opt for print as the medium to bring this work together? Everything I do is always created by hand from shooting the film, developing the negatives to the printing in the darkroom, which is by far my favourite part of the process. Having prints you’ve handcrafted is pretty awesome and very rewarding, so I wanted to translate a collection of these prints into a zine that was affordable and accessible. With all of us consuming so much online content these days it's always nice to have a tangible object to look over and come back to time after time. Most of us view our work digitally these days and don’t spend the time printing or piecing together projects, even though we would like to. You get this sense of community when collaborating on printed zines like this. It’s quite special knowing others really love what you’ve created and show their support by purchasing a copy, or even just giving some really nice feedback.Photo: Ilana Rose
Half of all the proceeds from the sale of the zine are being donated to Rize Up and Beyond Blue, why those charities specifically? Most of us have experienced or know somebody who has been affected with depression or anxiety. Before and during the making of the zine I was really struggling with stress and mental health. Building the zine really helped shift my focus, even if it was only for a few hours at a time. Unlike mental health, however, domestic and family violence is not really spoken about and it feels like a dirty subject that people are too uncomfortable to talk about. I chose Rize Up as the other charity because they bring awareness and provide support to those desperately in need. On average, one woman a week is murdered by a current or former partner, and domestic violence is the leading cause of homelessness for women in Australia. It’s confronting and it’s heartbreaking, but to drive any sort of change we all need to talk about this loudly and call out unacceptable behaviour when you see it.

Yourself and the artists showcase their work in black and white, is this purely an aesthetic choice or is there a deeper meaning behind it? This was purely an aesthetic choice, keeping within the style of the Bikini Kill and Riot Grrrl zines from the 90s. For Girls to the Front I wanted to stick to the traditional black and white theme while elevating the print quality of those original zines. This is mostly a photography-based zine so I really wanted to highlight and show off the photographers and their incredible work.Photo: Katelyn Slyer 
You grew up in the 90’s, how far would you say society has come in terms of female representation and women feeling safe to express themselves in the current day? Within the punk, metal and alternative communities there has always been freedom to be yourself, especially growing up in the 90s, and I believe this to still be the same today. We are seeing so many more women in the alternative music scene which was once very male-dominated. I love that women like Amy Taylor are carrying the torch, especially in Australian music, but with the explosion of social media there is even more pressure than ever for younger women to look, act or become a certain way to gain acceptance in mainstream society. In general, women have more of a presence and a louder voice. We can express ourselves more freely, have the confidence to assert ourselves and stand up for our rights but at the same time not everyone is listening. We still face the same set of challenges as the generations of women before us did. The rights over our own bodies, gender pay gap and domestic violence.

Any dreams or plans for the future of Girls to the Front? I plan on continuing to make more issues of “Girls to the Front,” I want to invite more kick-ass women to collaborate including writers, photographers and illustrators. Despite the original Riot Grrrl zines containing mostly feminist content, “Girls to the Front” is more about the celebration of women and the people who love them. I'm more interested in creating a community of people that uplift and applaud women for being themselves. I definitely see an exhibition in the future and would love to create a paste up show with all the collaborators and feature live music, there would have to be a cover of Bikini Kill's Rebel Girl in there somewhere!Left: Photo by Jessie Dinan. Right: Photo by Katelyn Slyer