The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Today is 2025 World Cyanotype Day and I am very honored to share this biographical book review of Anna Atkins (Anna Children, 1799 – 1871) now known as the first person to publish a photographically illustrated book in 1843. She is also a historical enigma. It is purported that if it was... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Mostra is a fascinating photographic journey, a challenge to notice and appreciate the subliminal, the almost invisible object that once seen, can’t be un-seen. In his introduction Pacini tells us about the word “Mostra” or “to show” in English…to show without gesture to bring the viewer closer to the edge of... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Photobooks today explore themes that photographers of previous generations never would have imagined. You name it, and some intrepid photographer is turning it into a photobook. There are books, for example, that deal with family relationships, memories of past times, emotional landscapes, and problematic real-life situations. Sunniva Hestenes’ A Tear... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Kevin Bubriski has long been recognized for his special ability to document various groups and communities with sensitivity and respect, from Nepal to the American heartland. In The New Mexicans, his attentive look is focused on the people and landscapes of New Mexico, capturing the early 1980s in a photographic... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · When he made the photographs published in his book The Waning Season, Oliver Gerhartz probably did not imagine that they would become an elegy for a brief period of relative calm between the fall of a dictatorship and a brutal civil war. Gerhartz was in Khartoum, Sudan, working as an... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • New York City, Manhattan, September 11, 2001. In just a few hours Manhattan went from the daily norm to horrendous, tragic chaos and terror with a rising spirit of unity and support. A writing journalist at the time, Holger Biermann was in the City, walking the streets with thousands of... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp · How to begin thinking about Johannes Groht’s 2025 monograph Insight Grindel? Two words which immediately come to mind are beautiful and enticing. I hope to be more substantive in my following comments, but there is no question that this is a captivating volume. Its size (app 7” x 9 ¼”)... Continue Reading →
Editorial by Hans Hickerson · Have you ever noticed how many photobooks there are? Most you can’t find in bookstores, even some that specialize in photography. But go to any book fair and you can see hundreds of photobooks, many of which you haven’t heard of. One reason you might not have heard of them... Continue Reading →
Review by Brian Arnold · Canyon del Diablo – Devil’s Canyon. Not a unique name, I know, but to me it’s iconic. In the spring of 1995, not long after I submitted my undergraduate thesis on the anthropological writings of Zora Neale Hurston, I traveled to the desert lands along the Colorado/Utah border with my... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Robin Mudge offers a great definition on his website: “a photobook is an exhibition in your hands.” In this photobook he has compiled an exhibition of his images that reflect everyday observations, and he has paired those photographs with ChatGPT descriptions. The ‘machine’ system can thus be considered a collaborator... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 