The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Hans Hickerson · When are photographs not really about what is depicted but about something else? It happens often in photobooks when editorial direction establishes intentionality and context that frame the viewing experience, and Hannah Modigh’s Searching for Sivagami is a great example. The book is simple and focused. The photos are of... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Yasuyuki Takagi photographs urban neglect and decay but also renewal in Brooklyn Lot Recordings. The book is a catalog of what he saw in empty lots in Brooklyn, New York between 1995 and 2005, and his photographs present the detritus of modern life accumulating in vacant spaces behind and between... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · There are many ways to make a photobook. One is to use photographs to construct meaning through carefully curated repetition and association. You introduce photographs to establish a theme or mood, you develop, and you introduce other themes and variations and build a narrative or story. Photographer Elise Corten’s Warmer... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp · Oyvind Hjelmen’s 2024 monograph Being Here begins with a poem by the Norwegian Nobel laureate Jon Fosse. The poem, A Human Being is Here, begins: A human being is hereand then disappearsin a windthat vanishesinward There is a sense of disappearing, of vanishing also in Hjelman’s elegant photographs contained within... Continue Reading →
Review by Paul Anderson • Photographers and painters have long grappled with the representation of time. Photographer Ulf Lundin, in his photo book Best of Sweden, cleverly incorporates time in his composited landscape images. He does so by capturing multiple events and changes in light across a single Swedish landscape over one day, working these... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Photobooks are a great medium for telling stories, but also for re-creating emotional landscapes. Alex Blanco’s Meat, Fish, and Aubergine Caviar does both and also mixes in memories, cookbook recipes, and idealized fantasy. If this sounds like a lot it is because the book operates simultaneously on several levels, like... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp · Geir Jordahl’s 2025 monograph The Endless Sphere of Time is an imposing volume, ten inches square and an inch and a half thick in its hard, cloth-covered slipcase. Even before looking inside, the book reminds me of nothing so much as an atlas, a bound collection of maps. In particular,... Continue Reading →
Review by Brian Arnold · Imagine, if you will, a couple stripped down to their underwear, together leaning against a tree along a lakeside beach in Cheryomushki, Siberia. It’s hard to determine the variety of tree but it bends like it was designed to cradle the woman. The couple looks a little intoxicated, giving the... Continue Reading →
Text and photos by Hans Hickerson · Photobooks were visible everywhere this year in Arles at the 2025 photo festival. The official program included a book market as well as prizes for photobooks in several categories. The book market took place in two separate venues, but there were also a number of unofficial events, including... Continue Reading →
Text and photos by Hans Hickerson · The Arles Photo Festival has a unique flavor. Instead of a single venue, it has some 30 official exhibition and event sites scattered throughout the city and surrounding area. Fortunately however, Arles is small and pedestrian-friendly. As you walk around town your fair experience includes a generous serving... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 