The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The process of depicting simulated people in fake ‘portraits’ has reached new levels of perfection. The software programming known as GAN (Generative Adversarial Network) combines features from known human portraits to create endless new simulated ‘portraits’ depicting nonexisting pseudo-people, looking quite real. When I first came across this process in... Continue Reading →
The Lafayette Hotel, San Diego copyright 2022 Douglas Stockdale Review by Douglas Stockdale, Wayne Swanson, Debe Arlook • In a welcome sign that we are finally beginning to emerge from isolation, Medium Photo held an in-person event in May, their 2022 Festival, the first since the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020. The festival was... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • When Scot Sothern was a young man, he became, by his own description, an ‘itinerant photographer’ who, having escaped from the formal studio work edicts of his father’s practice, decided to mix with and get to know the folks on the street in the 1970s, especially since at that time... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • When a photographer’s viewpoint and methodology are totally in tune with the subject matter and with the tenor of the times, we have a degree of synchronicity that makes the viewer’s experience unforgettable. Such is the case with Simon Vansteenwinckel’s Wuhan Radiography. The first thing we notice when we receive... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Connecting with the past is a challenge, particularly when the present is such a mess – viruses, warfare, economic worries, etc., etc. As I am writing this, a major new assault on yet another group of people is in progress: this time the victims are the Ukrainians. How many more... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • A friendship that can be traced back to our youth and has lasted into the present is something to be treasured and celebrated, if we are lucky enough to have such close ties to another person. Solarski and Liboska can share recollections that go back 30 years, to their early... Continue Reading →
Review by Kristin Dittrich • The greatest challenge for parents-to-be in starting their own family is to switch back and forth between a wide variety of roles and to combine them harmoniously. For the man, this means that on the one hand he is expected to be a reliable partner, the responsible “head of the... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • As we face the end of yet another difficult year, contemplation might be a very good thing. Do we feel comfortable and welcome where we are? How separated do we feel from those around us? Do things feel familiar or strange? Here we have a photobook with a cover that... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • American Geography, the new Thames and Hudson book by photographer Matt Black, is like the artist himself, both handsome and intimidating. Even the cover, imageless with stark lettering on a surface that is indeed matte black, does not invite the viewer in. Nor does it reassure one that this is a... Continue Reading →
Although we are already half-way through this Holiday, it is still not too late to be wishing you all the very best and Season's Greetings from our book-reviewing family to yours! Cheers & Enjoy good tidings! Paul, Alaina, Debe, Melanie, Gerry, Deborah, Kristin, Madhu, Steve, Rudy, Jonas, Wayne and Doug
PhotoBook Journal 