The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Front Cover, Blue Bar Rear cover, Blue Bar Review by Douglas Stockdale • The humidity and occasional fog derived by the proximity of a river can create beautifully dreamlike conditions or provide a mysterious backdrop for a creepy event. Between these these two polar opposites is a low-contrast environment that elicits a kind of gloominess,... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • With its familiar yellow-and-black color scheme and blocky cover design, A Small Guide to Homeownership appears to be just another addition to the shelves of “For-Dummies” how-to books. And with a table of contents featuring chapters that progress from “Home Sweet Home: Still the Best Investment You Will Ever Make” to “Protecting Yourself... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman · One of the rare gifts of the year 2020, perhaps the only silver lining to a deeply challenging period for so many people throughout the world, has been the opportunity/necessity to look within for a sense of mystery and adventure. We’ve all been required to slow down our frenetic modern pace... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Regretfully 2020 is going to be known as the year of the pandemic and that this is a beast of a year for many reasons. The pandemic affected us all in a myriad of ways, some tragically with a loss in the family, for others a short bout of induced isolation,... Continue Reading →
Review by Anne Murray · “understanding” is not linear and has an emotional aspect — Captions— Musings, Philip Perkis a vocabulary of images emerged that was new to me, yet oddly familiar — Notes on Process, Cyrilla Mozenter These lines are excerpts from the final pages of Octave, which brings together the works of Cyrilla Mozenter... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our 26th Issue • We are midway through Spring while Summer is fast approaching. Here in Southern California that means we transition from 'May Gray' to 'June Gloom'; lots of overcast and cooler days, with the really sunny beach weather usually appearing in July. Now is a really good time to select some interesting photobooks to read by... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Ahh, typologies. So often prosaic as individual images, yet so powerful when presented as a group. French architects Caroline and Cyril Desroche take the idea to an extreme in Los Angeles Standards, with 1300 photos broken down into 15 typologies to classify the elements that visually define the city. Although a sprawling... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • This photobook is a retrospective of the collective published projects of Mona Kuhn, thus aptly titled Works. It is a compilation of her published creative endeavors that she has been laboring on for the past twenty-five years in conjunction with her principal publishing collaborator Steidl. In addition, there are also included some... Continue Reading →
Review by Paul Anderson • Imagine approaching the rim of the Grand Canyon on a bright sunny day, and watching the stunning natural scenery unfold in front of you. In Thomas Kellner’s new photo book, The Big Picture, you can expect a similar experience as you unfold his massive panorama of the Grand Canyon, made up... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our 25th Issue •We are now well into Spring and patiently waiting for Summer to enjoy the holidays as investigated by Ken Rosenthal's Days On the Mountains. Fingers crossed that this summer might be similar to our distant memories, unlike this past pandemic-haunted summer. We hope that one of the books we reviewed this past month will provide a tease... Continue Reading →
