The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
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 →
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 →
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 →
Review by Henry Kallerud · In 1988, Anders Goldfarb started selecting photographs from his oeuvre that spoke to him about his own life, life in general, the surreal, and the visceral. In 1999, Goldfarb finalized the edit and sequence of what would become Ash Avenue. The project was tucked away, indefinitely, unseen for over a decade. Until,... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Casey Reas has the relatively unique position of being both an artist and a scientist. He has contributed greatly to the development of generating images with the help of artificial intelligence systems. This photobook, which I only discovered this summer, presents both a technical description of a major process, as... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega · Ensnaring the Moment brings together two art forms—poetry and photography—that don’t always share the same space but feel like natural partners once they do. Edited by art critic and writer Leah Ollman, this anthology gathers over a hundred poems that speak to, from, or through the photographic image. These aren’t just... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega · Lefteris Paraskevaidis’ Around the Line is an evocative photobook documenting the evolving landscapes along the Athens - Thessaloniki national highway and its surrounding areas. Spanning a decade of travel and observation, this body of work functions as both an aesthetic meditation and a sociopolitical inquiry into the transformation of Greece’s... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · When are photographs not really about what is depicted but about something else? It happens often in photobooks when editorial direction establishes intentionality and context that frame the viewing experience, and Hannah Modigh’s Searching for Sivagami is a great example. The book is simple and focused. The photos are of... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Yasuyuki Takagi photographs urban neglect and decay but also renewal in Brooklyn Lot Recordings. The book is a catalog of what he saw in empty lots in Brooklyn, New York between 1995 and 2005, and his photographs present the detritus of modern life accumulating in vacant spaces behind and between... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · There are many ways to make a photobook. One is to use photographs to construct meaning through carefully curated repetition and association. You introduce photographs to establish a theme or mood, you develop, and you introduce other themes and variations and build a narrative or story. Photographer Elise Corten’s Warmer... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 