Report and Visual Essay by Hans Hickerson • Never having attended Paris Photo, I did not know what to expect. I was unprepared for its overwhelming scale, its high-octane mix of image and ego. And the crowds: how at times you had to wait to squeeze in to look at a book, or to queue... Continue Reading →
Pryor Dodge – YLLA: The Birth of Modern Animal Photography
Review by Gerhard Clausing • All you have to do is watch “Gorilla Videos” on Facebook to recognize that some animals are very similar to us. And that is not really a case of anthropomorphism, which can be defined as attributing human characteristics to other creatures. But assigning animals to a lower class and denying... Continue Reading →
Holly Roussell, Editor – Mo Yi: Selected Photographs 1988-2003
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Mo Yi is an interesting Chinese photographer of Tibetan origin. He has had only a few major exhibitions in the West; this photobook and the related exhibitions (UCCA Center for Contemporary Art and Arles Photography Festival) are a welcome change. His work encompasses several decades of experimenting with images of... Continue Reading →
Michael Rababy – Casinoland: Tired of Winning
Review by Melanie Chapman • If Toulouse-Lautrec and Martin Parr had a baby, its name would be Casinoland: Tired of Winning. A dynamic collection of new color photographs by Michael Rababy, this publication from Kehrer Verlag focuses our gaze on the denizens of casinos in Las Vegas, Reno, and other illustrious locales, and offers such... Continue Reading →
Natalie Herschdorfer – Man Ray: Liberating Photography
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook provides us with a refreshing new look at the photographic creations and experiments of Man Ray, especially those from the 1920s and 1930s. It presents interestingly juxtaposed examples of the artist’s work that allow us to compare his style, his excellence in combining light and shadow, as well... Continue Reading →
Evgenia Arbugaeva – Hyperborea: Stories from the Arctic
Review by Rudy Vega • Hyperborea: Stories from the Russian Arctic, the latest book by Evgenia Arbugaeva, offers a profound exploration of life in the Siberian Arctic. Published by Thames and Hudson, the book is described as a journey to the most inaccessible Arctic regions of Siberia, showcasing dreamlike encounters with its people, landscapes, and... Continue Reading →
Seymour Licht – Halloween Underground: New York Subway Portraits
Review by Paul Anderson • What better place to look for spooks and monsters than in the dark underground tunnels of the New York subway system? If you are a ghostly inhabitant of that world, what better time to reveal yourself than on Halloween night? Indeed, if you are a photographer seeking glimpses of the... Continue Reading →
Scot Sothern – LOOK AT ME
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Scot Sothern is a very innovative photographer. For this project he decided to mingle with the Hollywood Boulevard people, assuming the guise and behavior of a street person. As people passed by, he yelled “Hey, look at me!” and snapped their pictures with a disposable film camera with flash. A... Continue Reading →
Helga Härenstam – Three Years of Childhood during the Era of Extinction
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This small artist book presents a large challenge. Swedish photographer Helga Härenstam has created a hand-assembled photobook of 34 images just about 4 1/2 inches square in overall size; there is no text inside, so you are dependent on your reactions to the images and on your intuitions. The title... Continue Reading →
Peter van Agtmael – Look at the U.S.A.: A Diary of War and Home
Review by Gerhard Clausing • There are a number of reviews of photobooks about warfare that I have reviewed over the years. You can enter war in the search box and look at as many of them as you like. But none of them are as comprehensive, as complex, and as personal as this one,... Continue Reading →