The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
From Flying Pictures by Daniel Gordon, 2009 published by powerHouse Books Daedalus with his son Icarus had to flee Crete and the solution to their problem was the wings that Daedalus fashioned to allow them to safely fly to freedom. Nevertheless, Daedalus had to admonish his son Icarus to not fly too close to the sun,... Continue Reading →
Copyright Lewis Koch 2009 courtesy Lewis Koch & Borderland Books The subtitle to Lewis Koch’s Touchless Automatic Wonder is “Found text photographs from the real world”. There is no doubt that Koch is attuned to the abundant text that we swim through on a daily basis, to notice those juxtapositions that naturally occur, or with... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Inside the window is a beautiful wedding dress, but this simple window is framed by a neutral toned cinderblock and wood wall with an exposed adjacent electrical box. The surrounding ground is a patchwork of grass and dirt, with a barren tree lurking on the edges of the fame. This... Continue Reading →
Copyright of Per Englund, 2009 courtesy of Per Englund and Dokument Press Per Englund spent a couple of summers photographing Cape Town, South Africa and his photobook Life Geos On provides an investigation of the urban cultural landscape paired with a gritty introspection of the social scene. The book’s subtitle Snapshots from Cape Town, infers... Continue Reading →
Copyright Hiroshi Watanabe 2010, courtesy Hiroshi Watanabe and Toesi-sha Publishing On first viewing of Hiroshi Watanabe’s Love Point I find his studio portraits beautiful and aesthetically wonderful with a mysterious charm. Watanabe’s photographic studio portraits appear somehow familiar. The black & white photographs are formal and stylistically similar to his previously published work; Kabuki Players (actors in costume), Noh... Continue Reading →
Copyright Graciela Iturbide 2008, courtesy Edizioni Punctum It is always interesting for me to compare how two photobook publishers manage the design and layout of the same photographer’s body of work. In this case, it is the publication of Garciela Iturbide’s bathroom of Frida Kahlo by ROSEGALLERY titled El Bano de Frida Kahlo and Edizioni... Continue Reading →
Copyright Noriko Takazawa 2009 courtesy Farewell Books Noriko Takazawa’s recent book (booklet), Sensation, published by Farwell, provides only the one word title to create a context to understand this body of photographs. Thinking that I knew the meaning of the word and what it might signify, I did a quick sanity check; Sensation, meaning “a... Continue Reading →
Copyright Rob Hornstra 2008 courtesy of Rob Hornstra In 2008 Rob Hornstra successfully self published his photobook 101 Billionaires, which was well received and the first edition was sold out in early 2009. Economic fate dealt Hornstra a very nice lead-in for his slightly revised second edition. The world’s economic crisis in 2009 substantially reduced... Continue Reading →
Copyright John Duncan 2008 courtesy John Duncan and Photoworks/Belfast Exposed Photography/ Steidl In John Duncan’s latest book, Bonfires, we see that he is continuing to investigate the urban environment being built around his native region of Belfast in Northern Ireland. It is a region that is in flux, with acute memories of adversity, turmoil and... Continue Reading →
By Douglas Stockdale - At one point in her life, Amanda was living in two different cultural landscapes, San Francisco, California (telephone area code 415) while she was working on her MFA at San Francisco Art Institute and her home in Quebec, Canada (telephone area code 514). These are two very different geographical locations on... Continue Reading →
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