Review by Lee Halvorsen • The images, the book as an object, the story, the people, and the artist weave, then blend together to create the soul of this incredible work of art. Shahria Sharmin spent a dozen years listening to and coming to know people in Bangladesh’s Hijra community. In the Afterword, Sharmin walks... Continue Reading →
Amani Willett — Invisible Sun
Review by Lee Halvorsen • The Japanese have a word that perfectly describes how I imagine Willett approached making this book…”Komorebi” (木漏れ日) often translated as sunlight filtering through leaves, creating patterns of dancing light and shadow, and, importantly, a feeling of discovering light in the darkness. In an Afterword, which is a large sticky on... Continue Reading →
Brian O’Neill – A Desert Transect
Review by Sebastian Boute and Matt Schneider · Thus, whether riding or walking, the process becomes about forms of reflection. Importantly, it is about the obstruction/mediation. Perhaps it is this kind of limitation that makes knowledge possible – that enacts a kind of deep inscription, if not a mapping, in the artist/writer/photographer/documentarian. And so, what... Continue Reading →
Blake Andrews – asa nisi masa
Review by Hans Hickerson · Some readers of this review might know what “asa nisi masa” means, but most of you presumably do not. I definitely did not, and so I Googled it, and here is what I found: "Asa nisi masa" is a phrase from Federico Fellini's film 8½ (1963) that is a code... Continue Reading →
Clayton Steward — ‘Do what you have to do’ care + commitment in rural Kansas
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This is small book with a very large heart, capturing generations living strong, but challenged, in rural Kansas…far from the bustling crowds but also distanced from metropolitan healthcare. Steward’s Master of Arts, Journalism project found him spending a great deal of time with Larry Engstrom and his family after Larry... Continue Reading →
Bruce Haley – Winter
Review by Hans Hickerson · Where photographer Bruce Haley lives, BLM does not stand for “Black Lives Matter.” It stands for “Bureau of Land Management,” the federal agency that manages some 245 million acres of public land, or about ten percent of the United States, an area bigger than France and Italy combined. Most of... Continue Reading →
Alan Wieder — We Will Not Be Removed: The People of King School Park
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Wieder’s intimate images and skilled story telling brings persistence, permanence, place, and people to life in Portland’s King School Park. Wieder spent several years photographing folks in the Park, people who return almost daily despite the tsunamis of neighborhood change over the years. Mitchell Jackson grew up in the community;... Continue Reading →
Ed Kashi – A Period in Time. Looking Back While Moving Forward
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Ed Kashi’s new photobook, A Period in Time, feels like both a personal diary and a sweeping portrait of our shared world. It gathers images from his more than 45 years as a photojournalist into one powerful collection that is as emotional as it is informative. This compendium is more... Continue Reading →
Matthew Genitempo Interview
Interview by Brian Arnold · I can’t tell a lie – the first time I read Jasper by Matthew Genitempo, I didn’t get it. This isn’t a bad thing, rest assured, because I can say that about many of my favorite books. I think this is largely a result of complexity – in an initial... Continue Reading →
Martin Stupich — ORE and EMPIRE
Review by Lee Halvorsen • History, art, colonialism, exploitation, humanity…all swirling about in Stupich’s monumental collection of visual and textual art in this book. He brings North America’s Camino Real alive from the time of the Spanish Conquistadores to twentieth century’s Guggenheim’s vice like grip on silver and copper mining that are on the same trails ridden... Continue Reading →