Article and photographs by Hans Hickerson · The regional photobook and zine scene is alive and well in the Pacific Northwest. Some fifty vendors offered their works to an enthusiastic public at the Photographic Center Northwest’s annual Photo Zine and Book Fair this year in Seattle on August 17. The PCNW was established in the... Continue Reading →
Arles Books 2025
Text and photos by Hans Hickerson · Photobooks were visible everywhere this year in Arles at the 2025 photo festival. The official program included a book market as well as prizes for photobooks in several categories. The book market took place in two separate venues, but there were also a number of unofficial events, including... Continue Reading →
Arles Photo Festival 2025
Text and photos by Hans Hickerson · The Arles Photo Festival has a unique flavor. Instead of a single venue, it has some 30 official exhibition and event sites scattered throughout the city and surrounding area. Fortunately however, Arles is small and pedestrian-friendly. As you walk around town your fair experience includes a generous serving... Continue Reading →
Jason Gray — Does a parasite know that it’s a parasite?
Review by Lee Halvorsen • You’re in the eye of the storm…you’ve seen the chaos and change that just occurred and in the not-too-far distance, you see more coming. Through Gray’s images, this is the storm’s eye view of mankind’s interaction with the planet and the mostly uncertain nature of that contact. You're standing on the... Continue Reading →
Hendrik Paul — DARK LIGHT
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This book is more experience than observation, more emotion than entertainment, more subtle and captivating than literal and descriptive. The volume is finely made, medium weight…two hundred twenty-seven fascinating pages filled with meditative styled images not typically brought together in such an immersive volume. And, immersive it is…slowly wrapping itself around... Continue Reading →
Hans Hickerson – A Year in Avignon
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This charming book is a time capsule, Hickerson’s pictorial coming-of-age story. Hickerson hit the trifecta of a learning experience…he loved studying the culture and language of the French, he was studying & living in France, and he was forward looking enough to be taking images of that year. Most of us... Continue Reading →
Elliott Erwitt – Last Laughs
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This book is a treasure chest of smiles for the reader, all the fun types of smiles…broad, subtle, ironic, wistful, melancholy, and more! The images embrace the reader’s psyche with comfort and humor, warmth and song, humanity and the sense of being human. The images are stunning and well composed... Continue Reading →
L. A. Art Book Fair 2025
Text and photo essay by Hans Hickerson · Along with other art book publishers, the Printed Matter Art Book Fair at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena hosted some four dozen photobook publishers this year, plenty to keep a photobook pilgrim busy for a couple of days. Looking at photobooks can be an... Continue Reading →
Sophia Cutino – Diaries of a Wet Bird
Review by Lee Halvorsen · Cutino’s opening poem provides a deep philosophical foundation for experiencing her book and images. She looks at her images as artifacts of her life, describing the making, collecting, viewing. and presenting them as existential taxidermy, preserving each memory as an object, a moment preserved beyond its “expiration date.” She invites... Continue Reading →
Helga Härenstam & Anna Strand – The Exposed Eye
Review by Gerhard Clausing • When two gifted photographers bounce ideas for personal assignments off of each other in a free-floating way, the results can sizzle. This is the situation we have in the present project. Anna Strand and Helga Härenstam gave each other nine different assignments each, to the tune of “Do something about... Continue Reading →