The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Photography is at its best when it arouses the viewer’s imagination. What, when, where, why – are the questions that can be of foremost concern when we, the viewers, are rattled into participatory looking and are projecting ourselves into images that are presented to us by someone else. Particularly during... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Nick Brandt’s latest photobook, The Day May Break, is another evolutionary step in his process of investigating the environmental and ecological issues facing the African continent that represent the greater issues facing mankind worldwide. He utilizes his extensive cinematic experience to create emotionally charged photographic portraits that juxtapose people and animals to... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • I once wrote an essay comparing learning a new language being similar to moving to a new town, a journey to get to know some new paths to achieving reasonable goals. As an outsider coming to a new place, there is always much to learn and take in, and to... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. Percy Bysse Shelley, Ozymandias The first word that comes to mind to describe Adel... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • New Bern, North Carolina, is certainly an interesting town of some 30,000 people. Named after Bern, Switzerland, it was founded in 1710 by an ancestor of the photographer. Both cities share the same bear figure as a coat of arms, with the American version lacking one anatomical detail. The internet... Continue Reading →
Every year the Fall release of photobooks by publishers is a big event. They want to have their books ready for the holidays and itching to get on somebody's Top Ten book list for the year. With the COVID-19 pandemic this Fall's release is already a bit irregular. Boxes of books are on ships sitting in a port waiting... Continue Reading →
Review by Darin Boville • Redmond O'Hanlon's basic writing strategy is to put himself in some remote and dangerous place and to write about how he overcame obstacle after obstacle to his very survival and found his way back. This is a strategy that will be familiar to many artists. Bill Bryson thinks the world of... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In these pandemic times, when some consider cruises and cruise ships risky leisure activities because of the sequestered environment participants are subject to (which, by the way, can also be an asset if viruses are absent because nothing new is introduced during the trip), it is heartening to see a... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • War, conflict and then its aftermath can create terrible consequences for man-kind. But what if what occurs afterward is benign and seemingly without any drama? Could this justify the conflict or afford one the opportunity to ignore or look away? This appears to be the indirect question raised by Emanuel Cederqvist’s... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • Timing is everything, as is perspective. This is true in photography as well as in life. Recently, the imposingly large statue of Robert E. Lee, the Civil War general who represented the racist past of the American south, was finally dismantled in just over an hour, after having dominated a residential... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 