The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Gerhard Clausing • What we find missing in our childhood can sometimes be filled in a bit later in our lives in various ways. So it was with Sonia Lenzi, whose father had not been as accessible in her earlier years as she had wished; in recent years she gained personal access to... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Sublimation of grief is a partial remedy that artists can use to make life more bearable. Julia Vandenoever, having lost her mother to cancer and her brother to addiction, was able to see connections between her own childhood and that of her own children growing up, with parallel events and... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In these very dangerous times, democracy as well as the human race seem to be on the chopping block – two things at the core of our continuing existence. We find that the principles which we once thought were ironclad and generally permanently accepted suddenly are considered pliable and bendable,... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Connecting with the past is a challenge, particularly when the present is such a mess – viruses, warfare, economic worries, etc., etc. As I am writing this, a major new assault on yet another group of people is in progress: this time the victims are the Ukrainians. How many more... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Peter Hujar was a photographer who chronicled the cultural scene of New York City in the 1970s and 1980s. He was also known for his magical ways in photographing animals, as well as for his focus on what was then called ‘figure studies.’ He seemed unwilling or unable to play... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Not too long ago, the term “abandoned moments” meant images that we would toss aside: subject not significant enough, not sharp enough, some blurring or out-of-focus areas, camera movement, and more. Well, nowadays that is the stuff that the finest photographic art is made of; they are the central techniques... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook presents quite a challenge, and I found it also deeply touching in many ways, having spent several weeks with it ... and I am not done yet, by far. So many discoveries ... Helga Härenstam came upon a nearly 300-year-old poem, James Thomson’s The Seasons. That work, popular... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our 34th Issue • This is our first Issue for 2022 that includes a review of Ken Light's Course of the Empire and Peter Puklus's The Hero Mother. How to Build a House, both of which are featured in our Interesting Artist and Photobooks for 2021. Please enjoy Douglas StockdaleSenior Editor ____ Books featured in January 2022: Ken Light - Course of the Empire Perhaps... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Throughout the 20th Century there were some artists that overcame the traditional rules of “straight” photography and dared to take liberties with their interpretation of reality by means of special effects. Those working in the style of pictorialism come to mind, as well as the forerunner of digital manipulation, William... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Winning a competition is surely the goal of the participants. If the outcome is not what one expected, disappointment is often the result. When one is very young and has raised a special animal for a competition at a county fair, this emotional roller coaster can be most intense. Pride... Continue Reading →
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