The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Wayne Swanson • What defines a city? Civic boosters point to all manner of urban amenities, but highways and freeways are seldom among them. Functional at best, highways are more likely known as noisy, divisive, and unsightly rips in the urban fabric. Yet in the post-World War II era, their impact on American cities... Continue Reading →
Welcome to our Ninth Issue! • We hope you had a wonderful holiday season, which for some of you, may still not be over just yet. We think that the holidays are a great time to find new photobooks or spend time with recent book purchases. As we do each year, we share our annual... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • When I look at this photobook, the old Phil Ochs song as rendered by Joan Baez goes through my head: “There but for fortune go you or I …” (check it out on YouTube). At the end of another fairly difficult year, looking at one’s reflection, at what might have... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • “Say It Loud, I’m Bronx, I’m Proud!” Recently, I was in touch with a college friend who grew up in the Bronx in the 1970s and asked him for five words to describe the place. He chose “Dark, rotten, cheated, drugged out, death.” This is not, however, the Bronx that... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Now playing at a bookstore near you is a behind-the-scenes look at the spectacle of moviemaking, filmed in epic widescreen black and white. Jeff Bridges: Pictures, Volume Two, by an accomplished photographer who also happens to be an actor of some acclaim, is a welcome sequel to Bridges’ 2003 book about... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Getting over a relationship that didn’t work out is never easy, especially if all your hopes and dreams were invested in it. You had your emotions tied up in another person with the hope of a long-term bond, with love the strong glue that was to hold it together. Depicting... Continue Reading →
Guest review by Brian Rose • Coming out of the 103rd Street subway station the other day, I was struck by how much this neighborhood, once commonly referred to as Spanish Harlem, has changed since I came to New York in the late ‘70s. It’s not that the Latin nature of the place has been... Continue Reading →
It’s time to look back at 2019, a very productive year for photobook publishing and for the PhotoBook Journal as well. By the end of the year, having enhanced our format to a full-scale magazine, we will have published some eighty photobook reviews, along with numerous articles, interviews, show reports, and announcements. As is our... Continue Reading →
Review by Madhu John • The Ballad of Omatandangole: Aapo Huhta’s song begins with an astonishing image: a cascading mountain in the foreground, a hazy sky and not one, but two suns. Like a chorus, this image is repeated intermittently in this book. Granted, this could be the artist’s attempt to obtain a Man Rayesque... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Here’s an idea that would seem destined for the “What were you thinking?” trash bin: Take the trusty 8 x 10-inch view camera that has earned you international acclaim for the richness and depth of your imagery, and set it so everything is out of focus — way out of focus.... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 