Welcome to our Fourth Issue •
Ah, the summer months are really here and time for holidays and vacations. The temperature has finally become a little hotter here in Southern California, getting past our May-Gray and June-Gloom, the endless days of overcast grayness with the accompanying cooler temperatures, and this year even some rain showers in July.
We have been very busy here at PhotoBook Journal this month launching a new layout make-over and look to our magazine. What was missing for our initial launch was the inclusion of some introductory (teaser?) text from our book reviews to introduce the featured book. As a result of the design change to the top page, we had to modify the layout of the earlier book reviews to integrate with the new appearance. At the moment we are only updating the book reviews published this year (we have over 500 book reviews to update over the past 10 years).
As a consequence of managing these design changes there are less photobook reviews this month due somewhat to the summer holidays and part is on me (book reviews versus snazzy new look). Nevertheless, I did have a chance this month to have a delightful interview with Elizabeth Avedon, the really well-known book and exhibition designer. Elizabeth and I will be portfolio reviewers for the next Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) EXPOSURE Weekend this September. Avedon will be providing a one-day book design workshop; seemed like the right time to find out more about her and her upcoming workshop.
Last month in our NEWS we highlighted a new left coast photobook event: the first Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) photobook competition in conjunction with their 5th annual EXPOSURE Weekend (Portfolio Reviews, Seminars & Workshops). As an update to this book competition, since the PhotoBook Journalis one of the competition sponsors, we will also provide a book review of the winner of each of the two book categories (Self-published and Publisher released). The deadline for your book submissions is August 8th, which is coming up quick and since the selected books will be exhibited in early September at EXPOSURE Weekend, this submission deadline will not be changed.
We are also on the lookout for a very part-time (volunteer) Intern who can help us further develop our Resources pages. If you would like to have more information, please contact either me or Debe (debe@photobookjournal.com), our Resource Manager, for the Intern job description.
We already have on-deck some interesting and intriguing photobook reviews for August to delight you with some summertime reading.
Cheers & Enjoy!
Douglas Stockdale
Editor & Publisher
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Book reviews, interviews and NEWS in July includes:
Alex Llovet – Beware of the Dog
In these tumultuous times there is much to ‘beware of’ – many anxieties that have followed us since childhood and from centuries past are now… (more)
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Brenda Ann Kenneally – UPSTATE GIRLS
“A magnum opus project spanning 14 years, UPSTATE GIRLS documents’ the troubles and triumphs of a group of friends and their extended families in… (more)
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Nathan Lyons – In Pursuit of Magic
Are you fluent in photography? Not f-stops and apertures. Not representational or abstract, fine art or documentary. Not Ansel or Robert Adams. Rather, do you understand the visual language… (more)
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Cristiano Volk – Sinking Stone
This photobook by Cristiano Volk is all about the mysterious and historic Venice, Italy. It is a novel view of a place that has been incessantly photographed, resulting in zillions of predictable… (more)
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Albarran Cabrera – Remembering the Future
In their introduction the Albarran Cabrera partnership expand on the premise of mankind’s thinking about our inability to accurately recall past memory as a potential way to consider future… (more)
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Naomi Harris – EUSA
In a 1953 episode of the very dated and otherwise questionable American TV series Amos and Andy, the character Kingfish is shown pretending to be a French teacher, incongruously using a poster of the old German-American… (more)
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Interview: Elizabeth Avedon
Elizabeth Avedon, independent curator/photo book and exhibition designer, including the retrospective exhibition and books: “Avedon: 1949–1979” for the Metropolitan Museum of Art; “Avedon: In the American West” for the Amon Carter Museum, the Corcoran Gallery, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others…. (more)
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Continuation of last month’s NEWS about the new left coast photobook event: Los Angeles Center of Photography (LACP) first photobook competition in conjunction with their 5th annual EXPOSURE Weekend (Portfolio Reviews, Seminars & Workshops). The juried books will be exhibited both during the EXPOSURE Weekend as well as for the following month in the LACP gallery. We are absolutely delighted that the PhotoBook Journal is a Sponsor of this new book competition and the jury includes both Gerhard Clausing, the Associate Editor of PhotoBook Journal, and myself.
As an update; this month we have agreed that the two winning category books (self-published and publisher book) will be reviewed here on PhotoBook Journal.
Time is running out, book submission deadline is August 8th!
PhotoBook Journal 
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