The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
By Hans Hickerson • [Editor’s Note: These interviews are an interesting look at the history and wherewithal of this event, and accompany the report and visual essay we published a few days ago.] Paris, November 10, 2024 Sebastian Hau Hans Hickerson: So, can you tell a little bit about the history of Polycopies and how... Continue Reading →
Report and Visual Essay by Hans Hickerson • Polycopies started as a small popup photobook sales event with a few vendors in 2014. It has grown and today includes prizes, speakers, workshops, and focused programs. It was on a refreshingly more human scale than Paris Photo, but at peak hours it too could become a mosh... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Review by Steve Harp · Frank Rodick’s monograph, The Moons of Saturn, has been sitting before me on my desk for quite some time (I will not embarrass myself by revealing just how long) – a testament to its unsettling yet spellbinding mystery. In looking through it, I am reminded of W.G. Sebald’s novel, The Emigrants, the sense of disintegration in these images... Continue Reading →
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 →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Lynn Alleva Lilley’s photobook The Nest rewards careful as well as casual looking. A finely observed and lovingly chronicled portrait of the woods near her home in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 98 photographs it builds up overlapping layers of detail, form, relationship, and metaphorical resonance. Like the photographs of other artists who... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Review by Brian Rose · During the 2020 pandemic, Bethany Jacobson escaped the confines of her apartment and took to the winding paths of Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. For those of us in New York, the whoops and wails of sirens seemed never to cease, a constant reminder of the presence of disease and death in... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 