The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Unmai M. Arokiasamy and Matt Schneider • Outsiders have long struggled to make sense of a Lumbee Indigeneity that does not conform to colonial imaginations of Nativeness. It is against this backdrop that You Don’t Look Native to Me, by Maria Sturm, explores Lumbee culture and their long struggle for tribal recognition –... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman · At a certain age in life, admitting what you want to be when you grow up may feel like standing on the shore watching all boats, large and small, setting off to sea. You find yourself waving as the vessels grow more distant on the horizon and ever closer to adventures... Continue Reading →
Review by Bill Edwards • Dominic Turner’s premier monograph False Friends opens the viewer to a world of subtle exploration into the dark and not quite so recognizable places. This engaging work explores the shadows and other ghostly details we form in the imagination. This collection of photographs contains both the familiar and the ethereal... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp · Due Occhi, the title of Johannes Groht’s new monograph, can be translated from Italian as “two eyes.” Before considering some of the associations triggered (to use Groht’s term from the artist’s insert included in the review copy), we might first pause to consider the “newness” of the book. Published in 2020, the book (again... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • None of us can escape the process of getting older. Lucky are those who have a granddaughter like Aleksandra Żalińska who can document that process in a sensitive manner and at the same time narrate details about a special personal bond that transcends the generations. We can recall the well-known... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Seldom do we see a photobook in which the implementation is exquisitely and totally in unison with the concept. Deb Achak’s debut project presents a rare sequence in which this has been achieved. Deb Achak was given final advice by her mother to always trust her instinct, and this book... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp · Gail Rebhan’s About Time, subtitled Four Decades of Photographic Series, is a catalog of a retrospective exhibition at the American University Museum in Washington D.C., on view in early Spring, 2023. Photography is often defined (given the etymology of the word itself) as writing with light. But Rebhan’s work poses the question of whether... Continue Reading →
Guest Review by Micah McCoy • Birgit Kleber’s book, Photographers, takes a simple concept and rigidly sticks to the script, only occasionally deviating from the framework set in motion from the first photograph in the book. The book’s power, and it is a forceful book, comes from Kleber’s dogged adherence to a set goal; to... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Saul Leiter was an extraordinary individual who seems to be receiving more attention now than he did during his lifetime; he was averse to publicity and his style was ahead of his time. 2023 marked the 100th anniversary of his birth, and this substantial photobook, edited by Erb and Parillo, principals... Continue Reading →
Yet another year has gone by, and while the world peace we were hoping for is still further away than it was a year ago, it is nevertheless time for us to present you with our new list of interesting photobooks for the past year. Our selections feature intriguing photographic content, brilliant project concepts, and... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 