The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Gerhard Clausing • I once wrote an essay comparing learning a new language being similar to moving to a new town, a journey to get to know some new paths to achieving reasonable goals. As an outsider coming to a new place, there is always much to learn and take in, and to... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. Percy Bysse Shelley, Ozymandias The first word that comes to mind to describe Adel... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • New Bern, North Carolina, is certainly an interesting town of some 30,000 people. Named after Bern, Switzerland, it was founded in 1710 by an ancestor of the photographer. Both cities share the same bear figure as a coat of arms, with the American version lacking one anatomical detail. The internet... Continue Reading →
Every year the Fall release of photobooks by publishers is a big event. They want to have their books ready for the holidays and itching to get on somebody's Top Ten book list for the year. With the COVID-19 pandemic this Fall's release is already a bit irregular. Boxes of books are on ships sitting in a port waiting... Continue Reading →
Review by Darin Boville • Redmond O'Hanlon's basic writing strategy is to put himself in some remote and dangerous place and to write about how he overcame obstacle after obstacle to his very survival and found his way back. This is a strategy that will be familiar to many artists. Bill Bryson thinks the world of... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In these pandemic times, when some consider cruises and cruise ships risky leisure activities because of the sequestered environment participants are subject to (which, by the way, can also be an asset if viruses are absent because nothing new is introduced during the trip), it is heartening to see a... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • An actor who challenges various norms in his performances can be expected to do the same when using photography as another outlet for his creative abundance. That’s a perfect description of Lars Eidinger – he is not afraid to devote his skills to creating characters who show us the darker... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In these pandemic times we are certainly being reminded that things we cannot see, such as viruses, can hurt us badly, and that our human tendency to ignore dangers we cannot visually ascertain can lead us astray. So it is with atomic energy and its flip-side, nuclear waste, some of... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • Catherine Opie epitomizes what it means to be a prolific artist as Phaidon’s recent release, Catherine Opie aptly showcases. It is a handsome hardcover book of 338 pages of which 300 are of images, including 6 gatefolds. Additionally, there is an introductory essay, and three additional essays serving as lead-ins to the chapters,... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • No doubt street photography can benefit from some creative new approaches. Gone are the days of garnering attention by showing the ubiquitous downtrodden and certain other predictable scenarios that we have seen many times before. Vasco Trancoso, a retired physician, whose career involved keeping things going in his patients’ bodies,... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 