The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Hans Hickerson · A zine before there were zines, Lewis Baltz’ Nevada is also a print portfolio of the book’s 15 photographs. It was published in 1978 by Baltz’ gallery, Castelli Graphics, and was presumably intended as a marketing tool for the 600 8” X 10” prints that Baltz produced for the project... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The work of Anastasia Samoylova, as shown in this first photobook retrospective and also in an exhibition at the NYC Metropolitan Museum of Art (through May 11, 2025) was a delightful discovery for me. Not only does she create landscapes and other scapes that have meaning and a certain timelessness,... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson ∙ No, A Visit With Magritte has not been re-released. It was last published in 2010 by Steidl and my copy is the Matrix edition from 1981. I wanted to review it because I wondered if other photobook fans are aware of it and because it was such a revelation to... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson ∙ Sap in Their Veins offers portraits of loggers as well as their personal narratives. Photographer David Paul Bayles was able to document loggers as an insider, as he himself spent four seasons working in the woods with logging crews. Looking at and reading the book we develop a better understanding... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · The photographs in Dana Stirling’s Why Am I Sad were taken in ten different states across the U.S., but they are not about the places they were taken. They are about the feelings of the photographer and her reaction to what she saw and her photographs document and catalogue moments... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • The individual street images in Perfect Strangers are delightful and bursting with the emotion and environmental texture of the moment. Teri Vershel connected with people and places so candidly I felt as if I were looking through the camera’s viewfinder with her. In his foreword for the book, Sam Abell called her images... Continue Reading →
We are very pleased that six reviews dealing with photography and resistance are featured as a part of Ann Mitchell’s Winter Showcase, THINKING ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY, just published: https://www.thinkingaboutphotography.com/photobook-resistance Mitchell writes, "the photographers in this showcase are giving voice to those who have been silenced. They celebrate lives and cultures that persist despite outside forces to... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Looking at photobooks from well-established publishers can be disappointing. You often see safe editorial choices – large formats, cloth covers, premium printing, bankable names, portfolios laid out one picture to a spread and surrounded by expanses of white paper, and not much in the way of innovative form or content.... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega · Andrew Ward’s Sofas, Los Angeles is more than just a photobook—it’s a witty, poignant, and visually rich love letter to Los Angeles, told through the discarded sofas that populate its streets. This cloth-bound volume spans 280 pages, of which 260 are devoted to lush, color photographs, and with each plate... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen · On February 24, 2022, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its neighbor and former ally. Byron Smith was there and for the rest of that year he immersed himself and his camera into the lives and the deaths and the hopes of the Ukrainian community. His mostly black and white... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 