The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Hans Hickerson · Looking at Zach Callahan’s photobook Exhaust, the three words that occurred to me were simple, focused, and convincing. Let me explain the simple part first. There are 36 color photographs, one to a page spread. Ten or so are portraits where the subject is engaging the photographer directly, and in... Continue Reading →
Review by Brian Arnold · “Know yourself not your role, it’s hellishly hard.” Shere Hite When Shere Hite applied for a doctoral program at Columbia University, she wanted to study with acclaimed scholar Jacques Barzun. She was inspired by the elder scholar’s approach to history and was eager to learn from him. Unfortunately,... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Photobooks never cease to surprise me. The book is a versatile medium that can become so many things. Belgian photographer Wouter Vanhees’ Against the Tide goes down its own path, and the best way I can describe it is to say that it reads like a film-noir-inspired storyboard for a... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • The physical form of the book is art and brings a tactile dimension to Michele’s visual story. The cover is dark green, heavy paper die cut with five circles of different sizes. The circles in the cover create a pinhole effect on the gray print of the next page’s introduction,... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Photography is mostly about visual editing. What does the photographer notice and photograph? What do they include in the photograph? What do they leave out? It is a mental art and it involves cultivation of the mind’s eye. Anyone can learn it. Did you notice something that no one else... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · It is amazing how fast we have put COVID behind us. It seems like light-years ago today, but we were still emerging from it only three years ago in July of 2022, the date of the last entry in Beth Galton’s photobook COVID Diary. COVID changed everything, but you can... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp · I was a bit apprehensive about writing a review of Prospect Cottage: Derek Jarman’s House. While I’ve only seen one of Jarman’s films (Wittgenstein, 1993), I’ve become increasing interested in Jarman’s output as an artist. Not only a feature film director (11 released between 1976 – 1993), Jarman was also... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · One way to decide if a photobook is successful is if it gives you the experience of a different time and place, if it immerses you in its world – just like with a novel or film. Michael Rababy’s american bachelor works like that. Open it and go on a... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen · Cutino’s opening poem provides a deep philosophical foundation for experiencing her book and images. She looks at her images as artifacts of her life, describing the making, collecting, viewing. and presenting them as existential taxidermy, preserving each memory as an object, a moment preserved beyond its “expiration date.” She invites... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · As a rule of thumb, photobooks are interesting in inverse proportion to the amount of white space surrounding the photographs. The more white space – the more the photos adhere to a fine print aesthetic – the more the book typically functions as a themed album and the less it... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 