The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Steve Harp • Gary Green’s monograph The River is Moving/The Blackbird Must be Flying (L’Artiere, 2020) is a beautiful and delicate object. Measuring 6 ½” by 9 ½”, enclosed between plain white softcovers, the book features a perfect binding with visible spine. In this exposed Smythe style of binding, the spine remains uncovered, leaving open the folded... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • I am frequently asked by participants in my creative book workshops about how to resolve a complex project in which they cannot determine how to choose and focus on just one aspect. I now have a brilliant solution in the recently self-published Gstettn by Regina Anzenberger; create a multitude of books in which... Continue Reading →
Review by Paul Anderson • Natalie Christensen arrived in New Mexico six years ago, and immediately found inspiration in this alluring and enchanted place. She has been producing a series of sparse and minimalist images of her new home, and a selection of these are featured in this book. Her enigmatic images focus on the buildings,... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • The title of Massimo Nolletti and HX’s artist book, Sea Change, sets the stage for the black and white seascapes of Nolletti, but this does not leave one prepared for the juxtaposition of HX’s series of black and white portraits. That her portraits are all printed on gatefolds allows these photographs when... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • A friend used to say “I don’t know if I miss New York, or if I just miss my twenties…” After looking through NEW YORKERS, the recent photobook by Sally Davies, the most likely response will be a resounding “YES!” to both. No matter your age or era, if you’ve... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In these pandemic times we are certainly being reminded that things we cannot see, such as viruses, can hurt us badly, and that our human tendency to ignore dangers we cannot visually ascertain can lead us astray. So it is with atomic energy and its flip-side, nuclear waste, some of... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • Catherine Opie epitomizes what it means to be a prolific artist as Phaidon’s recent release, Catherine Opie aptly showcases. It is a handsome hardcover book of 338 pages of which 300 are of images, including 6 gatefolds. Additionally, there is an introductory essay, and three additional essays serving as lead-ins to the chapters,... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • No doubt street photography can benefit from some creative new approaches. Gone are the days of garnering attention by showing the ubiquitous downtrodden and certain other predictable scenarios that we have seen many times before. Vasco Trancoso, a retired physician, whose career involved keeping things going in his patients’ bodies,... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Earlier this year, we lost a photographic artist with a truly unique vision when Paula Riff succumbed to cancer. Yet this diminutive Los Angeles artist with an outsized personality left us with a beautiful gift, finished just months before her death. Paula Riff: works on paper, like the artist herself, is... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Abstract art can certainly fuel one’s imagination. When the main attention of a photograph is more diffuse, that is, not so concrete, we can let our thoughts wander, and we can project our own experiences, wishes, and hopes into what is shown or not shown. When individuals and places are... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 