EXORCISM 04

I’ve heard there are people in the world who actually enjoy sales and marketing. Yeah, I know — I can’t wrap my head around it either! Though I will admit possessing such a personality disorder could prove quite useful, now that I’m self-publishing ULTRAsomething Magazine. Alas, I basically consider my job “done” the second I ship the master file off to the printer. Once I’ve created a product, my attention immediately shifts to developing the next one; not to selling the one that’s finished. I’m starting to think maybe, just maybe, this could be partially responsible for my negative cash flow.

Speaking of negative cash flow, Exorcism 04 is now available, and arrives accompanied by three flavours of news: one bad; one good; one great. The bad news is that I can no longer offer free shipping within North America. The good news is that, even with steadily increasing production costs, the magazine itself will remain the same price. The great news is that, to help offset any hard feelings that might come from the shipping charges, I’ve decided to increase the magazine’s page count from 60 to 72. Fortunately, I’ve been conjuring more than enough photographic demons to easily accommodate the 20% increase in volume.

And speaking of demons and increasing volume, no less than 22 cameras were used to produce this issue. That’s three more than were used to photograph Exorcism 03, eight more than Exorcism 02; and 10 more than Exorcism 01. One of these days I’m going to try something radical — like producing a single issue with a single camera. But for now, I’ll set my sights on a goal I might possibly reach — like using fewer cameras for Exorcism 05, rather than more. We’ll see how that goes.

Employed in Exorcism 04 were the following: Canon AE-1; Contax IIa; Contax G1; Fuji Natura Black 1.9; Konica Autoreflex TC; Konica C35; Konica Hexar AF; Konica Recorder; Leica M3; Leica M6 TTL; Leica M10 Monochrom; Leitz Minolta CL; Lomography Spinner 360; Lomography Sprocket Rocket; Minolta TC-1; Nikon 28Ti; Olympus OM-2n; Olympus Pen FT; Olympus XA; OM Systems OM-1; Pentax MX; Pentax MZ-S.

As always, click on the site’s STORE link to purchase a copy of ULTRAsomething | Exorcism 04. And if you haven’t yet done so, feel free to complete your collection by purchasing any missing back issues — it’s not like the photos are, in any way, time sensitive.

The following text is the Apologia, as it appears in ULTRASOMETHNG | EXORCISM 04:

Between November 1968 and August 1969, an assemblage of photographers and writers — comprising Koji Taki, Takuma Nakahira, Yutaka Takanashi, Takahiko Okada and (later) Daido Moriyama — self-published a photography magazine called Provoke.

In my eyes, it was the single most important photography periodical ever published — a feat it achieved in a run of only three issues. Provoke encapsulated and articulated a uniquely Japanese aesthetic, and was a direct predecessor to three of my all time favourite photography books: Nakahira’s Kitarubeki kotoba no tame ni (For a Language to Come) in 1970; Moriyama’s Shashin yo sayonara (Bye Bye Photography) in 1972; and Takanashi’s Toshi-e (Toward the City) in 1974. Its impact is still felt in Japanese photography to this day.

Between October 2022 and May 2023, an assemblage of me and me alone self-published three issues of ULTRAsomething magazine. Having utterly failed to achieve even one-millionth the impact of Provoke, I’ve opted to best it in the only way I know how — with quantity. By publishing this, the magazine’s fourth exorcism, I have now exceeded Provoke’s run by a whopping 33%. In a long career void of victories, fabricating wins is a necessity. Exorcism 04 was shot mostly on film, mostly in the summer of 2023, and mostly in or around Vancouver, Canada.

© 2023 grEGORy simpson

ULTRASOMETHING | EXORCISM 04 is now available for purchase at the ULTRAsomething STORE.

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