The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Wayne Swanson • Phony patriotism. Vilifying the opposition. Demonizing outsiders. Sound familiar? The days of Making America Great Again may be over, at least for now, but the problem is international. Perhaps nowhere is the rise of nationalism, populism, and authoritarianism more of an issue than in Hungary under the regime of Viktor Orbán.... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In some respects, Germans believe in equal opportunity – they give credit to their parents for country and language: Vaterland is ‘fatherland’ and Muttersprache means ‘mother tongue.’ As history has shown, however, the term Vaterland carries a heavy burden, as it is associated with the sins and atrocities of the... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our 24th Issue •Wow. It has been two years since we changed our book review format and had not anticipated all of the pending social, economic and health changes we would need to weather. Fortunately the COVID vaccines are here and are quickly being implemented in the United States as many become fully vaccinated (like me).... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Thana Faroq is not only a successful exiled woman from Yemen who found a new home in the Netherlands, she is also an excellent storyteller who uses her considerable photojournalistic talents to present us with a captivating account of the travails of age-old sojourns, once again taking place in our... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Depending on your point of view, the fine art and fashion photography of Juergen Teller is either “iconic” and “idiosyncratic” on the one hand, or “amateurish” and “ugly” on the other. So it should be no surprise that his approach to photographing architecture would be a bit out of the... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • The cover of Mark Gill’s photobook The Airborne Toxic Event shows a solitary figure crossing an intersection dressed in a red, full-length hooded jacket wearing a mask, carrying a couple of tote bags and, oddly, wearing open-toed sandals. The man in red, as it turns out, is also the only... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Who was Bill Brandt? The simple answer is that he was one of the foremost 20thCentury British photographers. Yet he preferred to stay somewhere in the dark shadows of his work, and he remains a bit of a mystery today, almost 40 years after his death. During a career spanning... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Is ‘normal’ boring, is ‘unorthodox’ exciting? And what are YOUR definitions and expectations? In a way we are all performance artists. We present ourselves to the rest of the world in many forms and guises. To represent our style, to express particular personal meanings or beliefs and rituals – to... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • While reading one of John Steinbeck’s many novels did you at one time attempt to visualize his Salinas Valley landscape that was seriously impacted by the pervasive drought conditions of the 1930’s? Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother may have come quickly to mind or perhaps the Dust Bowl photographs of Arthur Rothstein... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Ah, street art and graffiti — the color, the raw energy, the in-your-face graphics. They are such inviting targets for photographers. But how do you make them your own? Photographer Bill Wishner succeeds by going beyond mere documentation to turn them into collaborations. Wishner spent seven years traveling to cities... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 