The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Brian F. O’Neill • The origin of the term mise-en-scène, while it is now most commonly used within media and cinema studies, is attributed to the French writer Alexandre Dumas. Dumas financed and helped design his Château de Monte-Cristo in Port-Marly, France on the outer suburban fringe of Paris, and in so doing named it... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The process of depicting simulated people in fake ‘portraits’ has reached new levels of perfection. The software programming known as GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) combines features from known human portraits to create endless new simulated ‘portraits’ depicting nonexisting pseudo-people, looking quite real. When I first came across this process in... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • Japan is a country of four distinct seasons. Hot, humid and rainy summers followed by mild pleasant autumn complete with fall colors. Then winter sets in for four months of frigid cold snowy weather. But with the arrival of spring comes renewal as symbolized by the cherry blossoms or Sakura as... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • While we at PhotoBook Journal tend to defer from broad thematic photobooks with a multitude of contributors, and in general the illustrated catalogs for exhibitions usually have little design and layout merit. I take exception with the recent exhibition publication in conjunction with Harvard Art Museums being very worth investigating. The exhibition and... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • Photobooks come in all different shapes and sizes. Generally speaking, they adhere to more or less standard configurations. A foreword and an introduction, followed by photographs in support of a concept. A typical photobook might be organized around a central theme or it may consist of series of images investigating typologies... Continue Reading →
Review by Brian F. O’Neill • Fish Story, the last major project/publication by Southern California based photographer, filmmaker, critic, teacher, and theorist Allan Sekula was originally released coincident with a touring exhibition that began in Rotterdam, Netherlands in 1995 and concluded in Kassel, Germany in 2002. In June of 2018, it was re-released by London headquartered... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • If you have had enough of the same old style of portraits, then get ready for something completely different. These meticulously produced portraits by the artist duo known as Koschies demand some new definitions, since they challenge our customary way of visualizing each other. We are used to seeing portraits... Continue Reading →
PBJ Issue Number 38 • With the transition into summer, we are providing some interesting reading opportunities for the poolside or on the beach. We also feature two recent in-person events that were inclusive of books to put on your radar for next year: the CODEX Book fair focused on artists books and the Medium Photo Festival 2022 included... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • While on a holiday it can be entertaining to purchase and send postcards depicting the local points of interest. To jot down a quick personal observation that can help the person receiving it to know a little about your experience. While working in Europe this is a way I tried to... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Brian Rose is a commercial architectural photographer who on occasion is intrigued by the self-inflictions that seem to dog an ex-American president. In Rose’s previously monograph, Atlantic City, as Melanie Chapman writes in her book review, Rose documents the ex-president’s bankrupt New Jersey casino as a “failed attempt to dress up a... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 