The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Steve Harp • Where to begin with Jason Francisco’s Alive and Destroyed? Where does one begin considering, weighing, wrestling with a volume as unsettling and provocative as Francisco’s images of “small and forgotten” sites of the Holocaust across Eastern Europe, made between 2010 – 2019? One place to begin might be with the... Continue Reading →
Review by Kristin Dittrich • As a contributing Editor for Photobook Journal, I usually focus on reviewing contemporary photobooks published in Europe. In May 2022 I had the opportunity to be in New York City (this event was held May 21st and 22nd) concurrent with the first "Photobook Fest“, which is sponsored by the International Center for... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our 40th and mid-summer Issue •We have an extensive list of photobook reviews that we published in July to help you with your summer reading. This will help us coast through the month of August while we will be on holidays for much of this month as well. All in preparation for the Fall... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The categories of genders and gender-related behaviors and preferences are not as binary as some would have us believe. According to Western psychology, we all have both male and female sides; either side can predominate or be more pronounced at times in individuals. The same is true of a variety... Continue Reading →
Book review by Rudy Vega • The recent publication, Time Traveler by Gianluca Galtrucco is a love letter to the daydreamer in all of us. Making clever use of props, settings, archival footage and captions–Galtrucco has produced a book that guides us back to engage in youthful wonderment. Gazing up to the night skies, who has not pondered... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • obelisk: a tapering four-sided shaft of stone, usually monolithic and having a pyramidal apex; SYN: column, daggar, mark, monolith, monument, needle, pillar, pylon, shaft, tower. Gary Green’s 2021 monograph, Obelisk is a lovely book. Softcover, measuring 4 ½” x 9”, it fits comfortably in one hand, reminding me of nothing so much as a... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Composting is a process for recycling stuff no longer useful in its current form to let the mix develop into something more fertile for the future. “Make hay while the sun shines” is an old saying that implies that one should take advantage of moments that are still somewhat tolerable... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Arab Spring. The Mexican-U.S. border crises. Ongoing strife in Africa. And now the exodus from Ukraine to escape the Russian assault. What to do with all these refugees? Germany, in the wake of the wave of emigration caused by Arab Spring uprisings in 2015, emerged as a beacon of hope by... Continue Reading →
Book review by Rudy Vega • As art mediums go, photography situates itself nicely as a means to aid in recollecting. Photography assists one in filling gaps left by the leaky apparatus known as our memories. Photographic images are still open to interpretation, but placed within the appropriate context can be powerful triggers, enabling one to... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This impressive photobook starts with the well-known quote by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And sure enough, the publication of this book is very timely, since we again find ourselves experiencing various similar expansive acts of aggression and a variety of autocratic... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 