The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Brian F. O’Neill North North South is Iranian American photographer Ayda Gragossian’s first major monograph, published in July of 2025 by London based GOST books. In it, Gragossian takes the viewer on a walk through the back alleys and side streets on a kind of tour of Los Angeles. While the 52 images... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Julia Mejnertsen’s HUN explores nature, hunting, and the mother / daughter relationship. They are interconnected in the book because Mejnertsen’s mother is an avid hunter. Interestingly, Mejnertsen’s mother appears blind to the moral dilemma of killing animals, including a threatened species such as the African elephant. For her mother, discovering... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Time travel is possible via photos, at least time travel of the mental sort. Photographs from a specific time and place are still there, frozen where and when they were made. With a little imagination you can enter their world, especially when they are packaged as thoughtfully as those in... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · What happens when art tries to avoid becoming Art? That’s what I asked when thinking about Kevin Klipfel’s Sha La La, Man. I have my own ideas by way of an answer, but it is ultimately up to viewers to decide for themselves. The book views like a personal photo... Continue Reading →
Review by Brian F. O’Neill · There has been a surge of image-text photobooks in the market in recent years. In some, the texts and images operate rather independently, while perhaps still holding onto some underlying issue. In others, the text is treated as an opportunity for a more traditional analytical “lens” on the subject... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · What is the difference between a photobook and a zine? When you consider it, there does not seem to be a clear line separating the two. For zines you think of something cheaply produced, sometimes handmade, in limited quantities, and with less focused and more informal content than books. Books... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • As always, one has to take a very deep dive into people’s psyche, including one’s own, to understand the art of Roger Ballen. His latest publication, Spirits and Spaces, continues his exploration of the human psyche and the ambiguous terrain in which dreams, nightmares, and realities intersect. Ballen has always... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Amy Horowitz takes us for A Walk in the Park and magically transports the reader into the stories of those she’s photographing. Washington Square Park and the West Village in New York City are rich with diversity and young people discovering themselves and adulthood in today’s world. Horowitz brings us... 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 →
PhotoBook Journal 