Review by Hans Hickerson · Michael E. Northrup’s photobook Over the Electric Grapevine lives up to the Pynchonesque promise of its title: weird, wild, and wonderful. The book is an album of photographs made from 1972 to 2004. Northrup employed an evolving repertoire of techniques – too many to list, but including straight photography –... Continue Reading →
Alex Llovet – Summer’s Almost Gone
Review by Hans Hickerson · Alex Llovet’s photobook Summer’s Almost Gone is a family album of sorts. The monochrome photos were taken on family vacations from 2016 to 2021. We see the natural world and children in nature, as well as a few photos of adults, presumably Llovet and his wife. I say “of sorts”... Continue Reading →
Lali Khalid – Letters to Azan
Review by Hans Hickerson · Letters to Azan is about photographer Lali Khalid’s relationship with her son. Khalid is from Pakistan. She grew up and studied there before moving to the US to study photography. Her son Azan was born in the U.S. in 2012. We do not hear anything about Azan’s father, but we... Continue Reading →
John Gossage – An Abridged Dictionary of Sculpture
Review by Max Cavitch · American photographer John Gossage’s new book, An Abridged Dictionary of Sculpture, is dedicated “to the memory of my friend Anne Truitt, who taught me to love sculpture.” In her Daybook, Truitt describes a day in January 1980 when Gossage came to her studio to photograph the “forest” of sculptures she’d... Continue Reading →
San Francisco Photobook Fair 2026
Photo essay by Hans Hickerson · The second edition of the San Francisco Photobook Fair was held this past weekend on October 17 and 18 at the Harvey Milk Photo Center. Forty publishers, artists, and independent presses offered their books to an enthusiastic public. A list of the exhibitors is available here. Articles and photographs... Continue Reading →
Interview with Kult Books’ Janne Riikonen
Interview by Hans Hickerson · HH: When did you start Kult and why? JR: It was 2016. I was finishing my master’s. I had moved from Finland to Sweden to do my master of art in photojournalism. At the time, when starting the master’s, I was really passionate about daily photojournalism and the daily press,... Continue Reading →
Paul Nicklen — Reverence
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Breathtaking! Stunning! Immersive! And that’s just the cover. This art object, the book itself, the printed pages, the images, the text…their fusion; this book is one for the generations. The volume is large, 12.5” x 15” but the size isn’t awkward or intimidating…rather, it’s striking and compelling, a wonder in... Continue Reading →
Neil Selkirk – Why Photographs?
Review by Hans Hickerson · I was curious when I saw that photographer Neil Selkirk had published a book of writing, Why Photographs?. I was not familiar with Selkirk’s work. I knew only that he had printed Diane Arbus’ posthumous photographs. What did he, an elder statesman of the medium, have to say about the... Continue Reading →
Claire Thomas — Altai, Hunters and Herders of Mongolia
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Captivating! Exotic! Breathtaking! Yes, this book is all of that, but those words understate the exquisite view into nature’s beauty Thomas has wrapped into these pages. The reader experiences relationships among people, horses, eagles, and the land. This isn’t a book about an exciting apex predator or a beautiful but... Continue Reading →
Marcin Piekałkiewicz – Built on Sand – On Malta’s Construction Boom
Review by Matt Schneider · What does limestone have to do with the history, development, and politics of Malta? Apparently quite a lot, as this is the undergirding (and extremely) compelling question at the center of Marcin Piekałkiewicz photobook, Built on Sand. Perhaps as you would expect, Built on Sand opens with images of crystal... Continue Reading →