The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
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 →
By Hans Hickerson • [Editor’s Note: These interviews are an interesting look at the history and wherewithal of this event, and accompany the report and visual essay we published a few days ago.] Paris, November 10, 2024 Sebastian Hau Hans Hickerson: So, can you tell a little bit about the history of Polycopies and how... Continue Reading →
Report and Visual Essay by Hans Hickerson • Polycopies started as a small popup photobook sales event with a few vendors in 2014. It has grown and today includes prizes, speakers, workshops, and focused programs. It was on a refreshingly more human scale than Paris Photo, but at peak hours it too could become a mosh... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Mo Yi is an interesting Chinese photographer of Tibetan origin. He has had only a few major exhibitions in the West; this photobook and the related exhibitions (UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and Arles Photography Festival) are a welcome change. His work encompasses several decades of experimenting with images of... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • The exhibition catalog that was developed for a traveling group show, Memory is a Verb, Exploring Time and Transience, which unlike many group exhibitions, is remarkable in its diversity by the eleven women who participated in this project. As stated in the foreword, “…brings together eleven women photographic artists exploring the liminal space between... Continue Reading →
LA Art Book Fair, entrance, copyright 2023 Jonas Yip Review by Douglas Stockdale and Gerry Clausing • This August we saw the return of the LA Art Book Fair 2023, which like many art and book fairs had been impacted by COVID 19 in early 2020. This book fair, sponsored by Printed Matter, looked and felt... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 