Hans Hickerson, current Co-Editor of the PhotoBook Journal, will take over the helm of the magazine from retiring Editor Gerhard (Gerry) Clausing, who will stay on in a less-active role. Hickerson says that he looks forward to continuing the current mission of the PhotoBook Journal as established by founder and Editor Emeritus, Douglas Stockdale. Hans Hickerson has contributed some twenty-two well-received PBJ reviews and articles since joining last September, including his most recent, a review of Tod Lippy’s Private.
Hickerson has been a photographer since the 1970s and over the years has explored different ways of working, including collage, cut-outs, framing in non-traditional ways, and contextualizing photographs in books. He studied languages and literature and has a degree in French from Portland State University and a Maîtrise de Lettres Modernes from the University of Avignon. He has had a decades-long career as a language teacher in some dozen schools and universities, public and private, in France, Germany, and the U.S.
In terms of his background in photography, he was involved with Blue Sky photography Gallery in Portland in the early 1980s and in 1984 and 1985 served as an interpreter at the R.I.P. in Arles, France, where he assisted photographers Bruce Davidson, Mary Ellen Mark, Christopher James, and Lewis Baltz. He self-published his first photobook, A Second Year in France, in 1982 and has published seven more since then. He was a long-time member of Gallery 114, an artists’ co-op in Portland, where he had numerous shows until the realities of parenting temporarily sidelined his artistic pursuits.
Hickerson’s books Transgressions and Photobook / Journal have been reviewed by this magazine.
Hickerson has two teenage children and has lived in Portland, Oregon since well before it became gentrified and hip – back before craft beer, espresso coffee drinks, bike lanes, and outdoor eating spaces at restaurants.
Besides photography, Hickerson’s interests include fly fishing, home repair and construction (he designed his current house), art, language, and literature, including losing himself in long science fiction and fantasy series. His big regret in life is that he has already read everything by favorite authors Balzac, Jean Giono, and Ursula K. Le Guin, plus he is worried that George R. R. Martin may not finish his Song of Ice and Fire series and we may never find out what happens to Jon Snow.
Website: https://hanshickerson.com
Email: hhickerson@hotmail.com
Photobooks by Hans Hickerson:
PhotoBook Journal 
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