The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Hans Hickerson · When he made the photographs published in his book The Waning Season, Oliver Gerhartz probably did not imagine that they would become an elegy for a brief period of relative calm between the fall of a dictatorship and a brutal civil war. Gerhartz was in Khartoum, Sudan, working as an... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp · How to begin thinking about Johannes Groht’s 2025 monograph Insight Grindel? Two words which immediately come to mind are beautiful and enticing. I hope to be more substantive in my following comments, but there is no question that this is a captivating volume. Its size (app 7” x 9 ¼”)... Continue Reading →
Review by Brian Arnold · Canyon del Diablo – Devil’s Canyon. Not a unique name, I know, but to me it’s iconic. In the spring of 1995, not long after I submitted my undergraduate thesis on the anthropological writings of Zora Neale Hurston, I traveled to the desert lands along the Colorado/Utah border with my... Continue Reading →
Review by Henry Kallerud · In 1988, Anders Goldfarb started selecting photographs from his oeuvre that spoke to him about his own life, life in general, the surreal, and the visceral. In 1999, Goldfarb finalized the edit and sequence of what would become Ash Avenue. The project was tucked away, indefinitely, unseen for over a decade. Until,... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega · Ensnaring the Moment brings together two art forms—poetry and photography—that don’t always share the same space but feel like natural partners once they do. Edited by art critic and writer Leah Ollman, this anthology gathers over a hundred poems that speak to, from, or through the photographic image. These aren’t just... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega · Lefteris Paraskevaidis’ Around the Line is an evocative photobook documenting the evolving landscapes along the Athens - Thessaloniki national highway and its surrounding areas. Spanning a decade of travel and observation, this body of work functions as both an aesthetic meditation and a sociopolitical inquiry into the transformation of Greece’s... Continue Reading →
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 · 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 Hans Hickerson · If you haven’t visited Fairfield, Illinois, you might be excused for thinking it looks like Nathan Pearce’s photographs. I hadn’t, so I googled Fairfield and traveled down Main Street via Street View. I did not spot any vegan restaurants, food carts, indie record stores, e-bike shops, or comedy clubs. But... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • You’re in the eye of the storm…you’ve seen the chaos and change that just occurred and in the not-too-far distance, you see more coming. Through Gray’s images, this is the storm’s eye view of mankind’s interaction with the planet and the mostly uncertain nature of that contact. You're standing on the... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 