How I Started My Publisher With SMUT Press
SMUT Press is a publishing project founded by Irish artists Jack Scollard and Jordan Hearns in 2022, developed from collaborative projects across physical publications, audio/visual installations, merchandise, a club night (hosting its next installment on July 12th), a mix series featuring the likes of FAFF and Michelle Manetti and many others, garnering attention from publications like the Irish Times, Dazed and Hero.
SMUT Press has a focus on platforming and supporting queer identifying artists. Their eighth and latest launch is Michele Baron’s photobook After Life, whose spontaneous and punchy photographic style captures the underground queer communities and techno clubbing scenes of London, Paris, and Berlin. Through intimate portrayals of friends, lovers, and vibrant subcultures, After Life presents one of the largest selections of Baron’s impressive archive and offers an unflinching visual diary of these marginalized yet dynamic worlds. SMUT Press recently launched After Life at the Paris Ass Book Fair at the Palais de Tokyo, and at Reference Point in London.
On a rainy afternoon sitting outside a cafe in New Cross, I caught up with Jordan and Jack and spoke about the highs and challenges of running an independent publishing press in 2025. From their background in Dublin’s club scene, the influence of Berlin’s DIY party culture, and the adversities brought upon by bureaucratic hurdles, we talked about the organic growth of their press, going from zine-making to putting together a book, and always keeping their community at the heart of all they do.
Maeve de Bordóns Álvarez: Could you tell me about the origins of SMUT Press?
Jack Scollard: Jordan and I had been taking photos for a very long time in nightlife spaces, amassing a huge archive that we’d been posting online but never anything beyond that. We put together a very DIY zine called ‘Reverie’ due to sheer boredom during the height of COVID in 2020. Staple bound, edition of 50, A5 - it was easy and accessible. The first edition sold out in two hours, so we did a second edition of 80 with more spreads.
“The whole point of a small, independent press is that you're not following others - you're selling everything on your own terms.”
Jordan Hearns: I went to a different uni to Jack, TU Dublin, to study photography. For years, I’ve been collecting zines, books, and records. Anytime I had a project brief in uni, I was making a zine to accompany it. Before we did ‘Reverie’ we made a project called ‘Nocturnal Emissions’ in 2019. It was more-so Jack’s project, I made the soundscape and edited the piece. Jack used a basic xerox photocopier to print it in their uni. I was doing the same in my uni, using the communal printer and hand-binding them. I made some about rave etiquette, some focused on my floral works, and others of mixed works.
After ‘Reverie’, we were both graduating in 2021. Late that year, I was in Paris around the time of Paris Photo. I was brought to this fair in the outskirts somewhere in the north of Paris, with one room featuring students and independent publishers, and another with more established presses. It wasn’t officially part of the main festival but I really loved the idea behind it. One girl was selling her friend’s underwear that she vacuum sealed, alongside a zine of them photographed but they weren’t sexual or suggestive at all - very ugly on purpose.
I really liked the attitude of making something very immediate and important at that specific time, then producing and selling it. I texted Jack whilst I was there and this kind of ignited the conversation around starting our own press. I really liked the attitude behind it.
We didn’t have anything in Dublin that we felt represented us, or like a space we could really imprint on. The Library Project and Photo Museum Ireland have always been really supportive of us, but it’s a different style of work to ours. We wanted to have our own collective.
Jack: One of the catalysts for moving to London was having all of my wisdom teeth removed at the same time. I was on really, really strong opioid painkillers and bed-bound and kind of going insane. I had finished university three months before and was wondering why I was in Dublin or at least what was holding me back from leaving. In my haze I realised, or at least felt, that I needed to move to London, and two months later I moved. The cover for that first zine that launched the press, Hole In The Head, is a photo that I took on the inside of my mouth when I was trying to see if some of the wisdom teeth had healed properly. We launched it at a small boutique lifestyle store called Hen’s Teeth with our friends Bull Horris and Soria DJing.
You’re both from Ireland but now based in London. Nightlife is a key source of inspiration and connection for you and has helped shape SMUT Press, could you tell me a bit more about the nightlife moments that have inspired you?
Jordan: I didn't live in Dublin, so I would get the train up or drive up and park my car outside the city, go out and drive back home the next day. There was a lot going on in Dublin. It was a very exciting time for us to be in university as our friends were throwing parties and we were going to Jigsaw quite a lot.
Jack: I think for me I was spending a lot of summers in Berlin during my time in art school and this was an era when our friend Byron Yeates was running Radiant Love, which is now Radiant Records. I definitely keep that party in mind in terms of what an independent DIY party can be and also the potential and resourcefulness in repurposing spaces for parties.
“the main thing that attracted me to the club was that it was a space where I could explore a different kind of self-conceptualization… these are spaces for us where we can experiment with our ideas of self”
Jordan: Radiant Love was my first kind of exposure to a party with a really explicitly open queer scene and community, going to that party was really eye-opening for me. It felt really natural, like an extension of what we were going to in Dublin at Jigsaw. It also reminded me that we couldn’t do that in Ireland. There's so much bureaucracy with venues and spaces and access to facilities. That kind of freedom feels so unattainable in Ireland, at the best of times.
Jack: Our last SMUT party in London was in Distillery N17, located in an industrial estate in North London. It works perfectly for us in terms of a party. There's significantly less sound restrictions - for our next party in July we'll start at 2pm and finish at 5am. The idea is that if you keep it open for a long time, you won't have this sense of urgency or panic at the door, and people relax into it a bit more.
Jordan: I think also just having that space to breathe, I don't smoke or drink or do drugs, so when I'm out clubbing I go for the music. I want to hear music, and that's why I go. I think four hour club nights being the norm in Ireland really doesn’t allow for a thriving environment.
Jack: I actually think the main thing that attracted me to the club was that it was a space where I could explore a different kind of self-conceptualization, particularly around gender. It was the first place where I was wearing clothes that I would not have felt comfortable wearing on the street for fear of being harassed, assaulted or something like that. These are spaces for us where we can experiment with our ideas of self, where people are far less likely to question that.
What is the day-to-day like, running your own publisher and associated SMUT parties?
Jack: From the first year to the second, we didn’t really plan anything. We just saw how things went, tried things out. There was never any major structure at first but since the last six or so months, we are now pretty filled up with a schedule for the rest of the year. It feels like a full time job - I mean this less with reference to the financial pay-off but more so for how serious we take it and for the amount of admin required. A big part of publishing books and throwing parties is that there is a significant amount of hidden work.
“I think if you want to make your own books and make your own press then you have to understand that community is giving and taking”
Jordan: In terms of the parties, both of our sensibilities really distill onto the crowd that we have, which feels quite particular. There’s a fierceness to the crowd and it’s very fun but also quite tender. There’s this vulnerability and honesty from everyone that attends them.
I always joke that, because the parties are so long, the book people come until midnight, and then the club girlies come for the late shift. They tend to have a really nice flow of different people. A lot of my friends from publishing are not major party people, but they show up and make it really special. There’s room for everyone.
You have experimented with different forms: zines, postcards, photo books. How have you found cohesiveness in different mediums?
Jordan: I was in Dublin last month and I met with one of my old lecturers, and she kept mentioning the concept of the archive that we’re building. Archives and archiving as a practice was something I was very interested in during uni. What we do with SMUT is really building this vast archive of mixed media - we have badges, t-shirts, posters from the parties, books, our music-mix series, an upcoming radio residency, exhibitions of work we’ve published, etc. Every component makes up the world of SMUT, and it makes perfect sense to us because they’re all things we’ve been doing for quite a long time. It’s special to have everything work so seamlessly.
How have you experienced working with different printers, and figuring out the logistics of getting the books to distributors and book fairs?
Jordan: It’s been a mixed experience. We have had instances where we have been censored by printers. We've sent books off to print and they've said they don't print nudity. We work with a different one each time.
Jack: It depends on the project: how urgent it is, the scale of it, and the type of finishes we want. The one we got for Cruising Archeology was a UK based printer, which was great but really expensive.
We’ve worked with a great printer in Lithuania called KOPA, but because they’re outside of the UK (and in the EU) the logistics around shipping is always a struggle. For the Paris Ass Book Fair last month, we had to send 200 copies to the Palais de Tokyo and collect them there. The rest were split between London (to our distributor) and Dublin. The leftovers from Paris Ass were brought back on the Eurostar, which was…an experience.
“I really liked the attitude of making something very immediate and important at that specific time, then producing and selling it.”
To anyone who might be thinking of starting their own publisher, what’s a piece of advice you would like to share?
Jordan: The whole point of a small, independent press is that you're not following others - you're selling everything on your own terms. There is no need to follow rules around growing in a certain timeline, or having a minimum run of copies, or any external pressures. You can sort out the distribution yourself and do a small print run of twenty copies if that is something you want. There's space for everyone.
Jack: Moving to a city like London, I think it’s important to build a circle of trusted friends and collaborators who you can bounce ideas off of and work together with. I think if you want to make your own books and make your own press then you have to understand that community is giving and taking so I think it’s about existing in a bigger context and community.
But to be honest, I sometimes do think that too much advice and forethought can stifle the spontaneity and stubbornness that is required when setting up a project such as a press so, in summary, I would say to just do it babe. You can honestly learn everything as you do it - our first books are less developed than our current publications now but you learn through a process of improvement and refinement and there are so many resources online now. We really never thought that this project would get to this point and it’s been a crazy time but ultimately so fulfilling.
SMUT Press Reading List for Worms:
- The Use of Photography by Annie Ernaux and Marc Marie
- Ghost Image by Hervé Guibert
- Dear Jean Pierre by David Wojnarowicz
- Ripcord by Nate Lippens
- Raving by Mckenzie Wark
- Peter Hujar’s Day by Linda Rosenkrantz
- Imperfect Solidarities by Aruna d’Souza
- Search History by Sam Moore
- Instructional Photography: Learning How to Live Now byCarmen Winant
- The Question of Palestine by Edward W. Said
Maeve de Bordóns Álvarez is a writer based in London and of Spanish/Irish origin. She is the co-founder of independent music label and platform La Bonne Musique, and co-founder of La Sobremesa by MO: a supper club platorming diverse cultural interests . She is interested in learning new things every day.
