The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
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 →
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 →
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 →
Review by Steve Harp • …pictures have an uncanny ability of suggesting that there is another world…They represent a sense of otherness. The figures in photographs have been muted, and they stare out at you as if they are asking for a chance to say something. - W.G. Sebald The concept of the “uncanny,” which Sigmund Freud... Continue Reading →
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 →
PhotoBook Journal 