The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Antarctica, the South Pole, a forlorn, and icy desolated location that is not on very many individual’s list as an idea of place to vacation with the family. Julia Borissova takes on the subject of this hostile and unfamiliar environment, called the White Blonde by polar explorers, in a dreamy and... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • How do you decipher the unfamiliar and the unknown? What cues from your past can be applied to new, unfamiliar shapes and textures, seemingly incomprehensible, yet eerily demanding your attention? Do you need to design your own new personal visual system or “language” to deal with such new information that... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a Saul Leiter photograph? The soothing atmosphere, the soft, light and, most of all, the gentle painterly color palette of a pioneer in color street photography. As Yumiko Izu discovered, Leiter not only shot such images, he did indeed live in them. The... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • There are many stories related to the pervasive adaptions in response to the COIVID-19 pandemic, which has changed and impacted so many lives. Everyone has had to make numerous changes, whether travel plans, conferences, exhibitions, or art fairs due to this pandemic. It has impacted livelihoods and relationships, and sometimes... Continue Reading →
Review by Debe Arlook • The gently layered experience of Tanpa Izin begins with the cover: an untitled forest green and black abstract photograph speckled with the Ben Day dot technique, mirrored on the back cover. Bound by a four-sided kelly green rubber band; I make note of the color green. In her first photobook, Ohemaa Dixon offers... Continue Reading →
Guest Review by Bill Edwards • Rebecca Senf’s Making a Photographer: The Early Work of Ansel Adams provides an engaging historical account of one of our most renowned photographic icons. Senf’s biographical anecdotes allow us to see how his early work allowed Adams to refine his technical skills, perspective of the natural world as well... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our 22nd Issue •Wow! And we thought 2020 had been a traumatic year. Then 2021 began in the U.S. with the attempted coup at our Capitol. Thus our book review schedule was a bit disrupted by this and related events, but we're getting back on track again with a new administration that is focused on keeping our American democracy intact.Looking ahead:... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Stones, rocks, and mountains come in endless sizes and shapes and are composed of a variety of materials. They are the building blocks of the earth, its very foundation. Leave it to Claudia den Boer, an innovative photographer with a sense of place, to photograph these “stonescapes” and to work... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • Have you ever enjoyed a novel, or fallen in love with a painting or film, only to later learn something uncomfortable about the creator or the situation in which the work was produced? Did you find yourself rethinking your reaction based on that new information, or were you able to... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Mardi Gras in New Orleans is an old tradition. Just as is the case in Europe and elsewhere, there are religious and tribal underpinnings to these liberating rituals that have been around for many centuries. Of special importance is the fact that participants can assume alternate identities; they can feel... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 