The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Hans Hickerson · Bear with me as I begin with a digression. Have you lain awake at night pondering the mysteries of Roland Barthes’ “punctum?” I haven’t, and I usually find analytics unhelpful to my practice of photography. But I thought about the term again recently and wondered what AI would do with... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · OK, another senior photographer has just published a book of their early work. So let’s check it out. Is it like similar books? Is it murky, derivative student work that hasn’t yet found its voice? Would it see the light of day if not for the photographer’s name recognition and... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Jerusalem is a city like no other…traditions, faiths, races, separation, strife, love, hate, all living, loving and lasting together for 5,000 years. Gabay describes these city attributes as “layers” where places and people share the same space, sometimes the same frame and in that "captured in the camera" moment lives... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • I was gifted this book by the author and PBJ editor, Hans Hickerson who expressly did NOT want a review, only for me to enjoy his journey down this tortured and touching trip down memory lane. The vibrant colors of the small book’s cover capturing a computer screen were familiar and... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This fascinating book blends striking photography with human sociology, using the metaphor of a two-way mirror to reflect a Europe beyond postcards—and the people at its margins looking back. It is puzzling, yes, but undeniably compelling. In Yesilyurt’s opening manifesto, he makes clear that his aim is not to present... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · When is less more and when is it less? When do fewer images in a photobook result in a better viewing experience, and when are more images better? It is a tricky question. Everyone’s experience of a book is personal. One person’s overstuffed album is another person’s fascinating collection. One... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • A gripping tale of friendship and a hidden land is preserved in this story with stunning images from Cuba some thirty years ago. DeStefano traveled to Cuba in 1993, 1996 and again in 1998, during Cuba’s “Special Period” where everything for Cuba’s common person was hard to get…food, gasoline, currency,... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This book is a collection of magical, imaginative moments in what must have been a difficult, almost grieving time for the artist and her father. Her father, mostly “invisible” in the book, was leaving his Amsterdam apartment of thirty years because the building had been sold. He was downsizing and... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · A photographer working outside the mainstream has advantages and challenges. The challenges include not being networked as an insider and sustaining belief in yourself when you are unknown. Among the advantages is the enormous benefit of seeing with fresh eyes, along with the ability to follow your own path without... Continue Reading →
Review by Olga Bubich · Regardless of their genre, language or author, there is always something common for all the expectations we have of books – whether those are conventional ones or photobooks. It is a story. Indeed, any book ever written or assembled of images has a certain unfolding narrative, a structure suggesting the... Continue Reading →
