The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Gerhard Clausing • How to portray a city through its residents? The city of Berlin is certainly one of the most diverse places in the world. Combining the former West and East sections, it is now an even more expanded center of culture and cultures. The citizens’ well-known directness and swagger, sometimes referred... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • What initially struck me in reading Kevin Bubriski’s latest photobook, Mustang in Black and White, was the pictorial framing and sequential interweaving of the landscape and portraits photographs of Nepal. In a turn-about, this colorful region is illustrated using higher contrast black and white photographs that border on abstraction. As... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • “Were it not for.” What a perfect phrase for our Trumpian times. With these four words you can claim responsibility and assess blame. Deflect accountability, cast aspersions, or simply cover your ass. To “control the narrative” is the goal. In Michael Ashkin’s hands, the four words turn deadpan images into ominous... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • The loss of a parent is always emotionally difficult regardless of one’s age, perhaps especially if this event occurs early in one’s life. The ways an individual can come to terms with the tragic impact varies. For Sarah Hadley an emotional convergence occurred well after her father’s passing at a... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • How do you effectively illustrate the follies of WAR? No matter how many times some of us advocate brain over brawn, war seems to be an ever-present specter, and this past week was certainly a glaring example. Perhaps such aggressive behavior is a remnant of the ancient male warrior who... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • What defines a city? Civic boosters point to all manner of urban amenities, but highways and freeways are seldom among them. Functional at best, highways are more likely known as noisy, divisive, and unsightly rips in the urban fabric. Yet in the post-World War II era, their impact on American cities... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our Ninth Issue! • We hope you had a wonderful holiday season, which for some of you, may still not be over just yet. We think that the holidays are a great time to find new photobooks or spend time with recent book purchases. As we do each year, we share our annual... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • When I look at this photobook, the old Phil Ochs song as rendered by Joan Baez goes through my head: “There but for fortune go you or I …” (check it out on YouTube). At the end of another fairly difficult year, looking at one’s reflection, at what might have... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • “Say It Loud, I’m Bronx, I’m Proud!” Recently, I was in touch with a college friend who grew up in the Bronx in the 1970s and asked him for five words to describe the place. He chose “Dark, rotten, cheated, drugged out, death.” This is not, however, the Bronx that... Continue Reading →
