The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Brian F. O’Neill • There are some books that just grab you. They demand your attention. There are others that seem to scream for attention, but their images and production might let you down. Often, we call the pictures in such books cliché. We don’t need to name the books. Just quietly think... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The most extraordinary photobooks are those that have a grip on you and become very personal as you spend more time with them. Henry Schulz’s book is precisely that kind of a project. In 61 images he presents assemblages of human elements that cut through time and space. Even though... Continue Reading →
Guest Review by Lee Halvorsen • Its unique slipcase hints at the book’s story, a glimpse of the author’s relationship with his father and his father’s journey with mental illness. The compelling images are a skilled progression of family snapshot photography and the author’s abstract images brought to life with powerful text and exquisite sequencing.... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • Ganbatte, a self-published photobook by Maurice Hicks, stands out as an innovative blend of a photo album, travelogue, and personal art project. Spanning from 2019 to 2022, Hicks's book captures his travels to Japan through a collection of over 100 images, utilizing a diverse array of formats such as Polaroid... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In this increasingly divided world of ours the pressure to conform can at times be overwhelming. We have all been subject to attempts by others to define our behavior, attempts to delineate strict definitions for us to follow that match the preferences of members of another group. Women in some... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In this day and age of easy digital switching between the black and white and color renderings of any particular image, it is hard to imagine how an early advocate of color photographs had to carry two distinct cameras for the purpose of creating both types of images. Yet that... Continue Reading →
Review by Paul Anderson • A first look through Magdalena Wysocka’s photobook Studies of Falls can be a very mysterious experience. There is nothing here to help point the way. The images are vague, there is no introductory text, there are no image captions, and no artist statement. There is, however, an important hint printed... Continue Reading →
Review by Unmai M. Arokiasamy and Matt Schneider • Outsiders have long struggled to make sense of a Lumbee Indigeneity that does not conform to colonial imaginations of Nativeness. It is against this backdrop that You Don’t Look Native to Me, by Maria Sturm, explores Lumbee culture and their long struggle for tribal recognition –... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman · At a certain age in life, admitting what you want to be when you grow up may feel like standing on the shore watching all boats, large and small, setting off to sea. You find yourself waving as the vessels grow more distant on the horizon and ever closer to adventures... Continue Reading →
Review by Bill Edwards • Dominic Turner’s premier monograph False Friends opens the viewer to a world of subtle exploration into the dark and not quite so recognizable places. This engaging work explores the shadows and other ghostly details we form in the imagination. This collection of photographs contains both the familiar and the ethereal... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 