Due to the immense number of new photobook publications, we felt the need to change how we accept book submissions. We are now asking you (Artist, Author, Photographer, Publisher, Publicist) to submit your photobook submission request directly to a book reviewer who is most aligned with your publication. Please submit to only one reviewer, otherwise... Continue Reading →
Adam Thorman – Creatures Found
Review by Hans Hickerson • Photography is a surprising medium. You think that everything has been done already, that you have seen it all, and – surprise – along comes something original. Who knew? Maybe it has been done before, but Adam Thorman’s photobook Creatures Found was a new one for me. What Thorman has... Continue Reading →
Sergey Bykov – After Us
Review by Hans Hickerson • Part of the fun of reviewing photobooks is getting under the hood and taking a book apart to see what makes it work. Sergey Bykov’s photobook After Us is a good candidate for a closer look, as it resists easy analysis. Or rather there is an obvious reading but then... Continue Reading →
Interviews with Polycopies Organizers Sebastian Hau, Sara Giuliattini, and Laurent Chardon
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 →
Polycopies 2024 (Paris)
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 →
Pryor Dodge – YLLA: The Birth of Modern Animal Photography
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 →
Holly Roussell, Editor – Mo Yi: Selected Photographs 1988-2003
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 →
Lynn Alleva Lilley – The Nest
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 →
Michael Rababy – Casinoland: Tired of Winning
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 →
Todd Hido – The End Sends Advance Warning
Review by Paul Anderson • Memories came flooding back to me as I paged through Todd Hido’s 2023 photobook The End Sends Advance Warning. When I was growing up in the upper Midwest, there were moments of a winter’s evening when the combination of cold, clouds, a blurry sun and the stillness of open spaces produced a... Continue Reading →