copyright Olaf Otto Becker, 2009 courtesy Hatje Cantz Verlag Olaf Otto Becker’s Above Zero is a beautiful documentary style narrative about the melt water of Greenland’s ice cap. Becker investigates the annual melt water that occurs each summer. It might seem that finding the presence of running water on top of snow and ice to... Continue Reading →
Alamo & Costello – The Globe
Copyright Alamo & Costello 2010, courtesy Dark Lark Press The 2010 World Cup has just started in South Africa and there will be many pubs, sports bars, taverns, and assorted watering holes where fans will be hoisting a few brews and cheering their favorite team and players on to victory. The fan support at The... Continue Reading →
Michael Light – Bringham Mine / Garfield Stack
Copyright Michael Light, 2009 courtesy Radius Books and photo-eye The aerial perspective and tight framing of Michael Light’s Bingham Mine / Garfield Stack introduces a vertigo similar to what I feel when riding the ski lifts in the Rockies. As I am carried over a ridge and momentarily suspended mid-air crossing a deep canyon to... Continue Reading →
Guy Tillim – Roma, Citta di Mezzo
Copyright Guy Tillim 2009 courtesy of Punctum Editions When Guy Tillim, a South African photographer, had an opportunity to investigate the inner city of Rome over a series of winter days, he seems to have found a somber and melancholic period of time in this hustle and bustle city. For me his book Roma, Citta... Continue Reading →
Andrew Bush – Drive
Copyright Andrew Bush 2008 courtesy Yale University Press The concept of photographing those who co-exist with us on the crowded and packed Freeways, Highways and Expressways in the urban centers of the United States is intriguing and the subject of Andrew Bush’s photobook Drive. In particular, Bush is photographing his own locale area of Southern California,... Continue Reading →
Andrew Phelps – Not Niigata
Copyright Andrew Phelps, 2009 courtesy Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg For my liking, Andrew Phelps’s introduction, printed on the inside book cover, places this entire photobook into an insightful context, “ But what does it mean to photograph with the pretense of documentation? I find it is easy to get caught up in chasing an illusion of... Continue Reading →
Stan Gaz – Sites of Impact
Copyright Stan Gaz 2009, courtesy Princeton Architectural Press Meteorites and their impact on Earth are probably not something we ponder much about, but it is the subject of Stan Gaz’s photobook, Sites of Impact; Meteorite Craters Around the World. Meteorite craters are sites that provide physical evidence that immense celestial bodies have hurled into our... Continue Reading →
Seth Fluker – Before Things Change
Copyright Seth Fluker, 2010 self-published/ Schnauzer Publications The actual subject for Seth Fluker’s photobook, Before Things Change, his inaugural book with his new publication house, Schnauzer Books, is a very close look at the cleanup process following commercial food preparation. He benefited by this interesting perspective as a result of his position as a kitchen... Continue Reading →
The Aftermath Project – Volume 2: War is Only Half the Story
Copyright the artists, 2009, courtesy The Aftermath Project Volume two (II) of the Aftermath Project: War is Only Half the Story is a compilation of five photographic projects that deal with the consequences of violence and war. The five photographers are Kathryn Cook, Natela Grigalashvili, Tinka Dietz, Pep Bonet and Christine Fenzl. These five are... Continue Reading →
Marco Delogu – Noir et Blanc
Copyright Marco Delogu 2008, Contrasto Books, courtesy Marco Delogu A photobook is usually considered as a whole and greater than any of its individual parts, so it is unusually for me to find a pivotal photography in the middle of a book and decide that this is where I want to start my review. But first to establish... Continue Reading →