The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
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 · Ismail Ferdous’ Sea Beach echoes Martin Parr’s seaside photographs. Both photographers have an alert eye for human forms and foibles, zeroing in and isolating telling details, with Ferdous favoring more straight-on views and Parr wittier, busier compositions. But you will never imagine you are looking at a Martin Parr book... 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 →
Review by Rudy Vega • Between June 1972 and July 1973, Japanese street photographer Daido Moriyama produced the first five issues of his own magazine Kiroku (Record). In 2008, Moriyama resumed publication of Record with issue 6, and in 2017, Japanese cultural specialist Mark Holborn edited the first thirty issues of the photographer’s personal publication... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson • Photography is a surprising medium. You think that everything has been done already, that you have seen it all, and – surprise – along comes something original. Who knew? Maybe it has been done before, but Adam Thorman’s photobook Creatures Found was a new one for me. What Thorman has... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson • Some photobooks document social, political, and cultural projects photographers undertake in their desire to do something beneficial and worthwhile, and the process and structure involved in such projects can in turn organize and shape the work of the photographer. French photographer Céline Levain was involved with female prisoners in two... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson • In Maria Elisa Ferraris’ Aqua we witness the wild, terrible, awesome, raw, relentless power of water. In 34 spectacular photographs it rises, falls, lifts, pushes, pounds, churns, heaves, hammers, roils, boils, breaks, surges, slams, crashes, smashes, thunders, roars, and rages. It comes at you and doesn’t stop. The images in... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 