Review by Gerhard Clausing • I know from my experience with students acting out various drama roles on the stage, in a foreign language even, that the most effective performances take place when the role is totally internalized and performed not just from the mind but also from the heart. It is at that moment... Continue Reading →
Andreas Herzau & Holger Noltze – Bamberg Diary #1, #2, #3
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Bamberg is a Franconian town in Bavaria with a substantial history going back at least 1,000 years. I was able to visit Bamberg this past summer; the juxtaposition of ancient traditions and contemporary approaches are a delight to experience. Part of that culture is a distinguished Symphony Orchestra that is... Continue Reading →
Gerry Badger – Another Country: British Documentary Photography Since 1945
Review by Gerhard Clausing • To cover more than 70 years of history and the accompanying photographic styles and to make an interesting photobook out of it requires quite a bit of talent. Gerry Badger, with all his editorial and curatorial background, is the one that can accomplish such a gargantuan task; he presents all... Continue Reading →
Miro Kuzmanovic – Signs by the Roadside
Review by Steve Harp • In considering Miro Kuzmanovic’s Signs by the Roadside, one would do well to keep in mind the title while moving through the book. For what does a road sign do but orient the traveler to where one is and where one may be headed? The traveler depends on signs for... Continue Reading →
Antoine Seiter & Marc Faysse – J & A
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook presents the coming-of-age process of two people, a young woman and a young man, each in a different world. The former is presented as a series of photographs, while the latter is a short story in French, bound into the middle of the book. The photographer Antoine Seiter... Continue Reading →
Arthur Grace – Communism(s): A Cold War Album
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This impressive photobook starts with the well-known quote by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And sure enough, the publication of this book is very timely, since we again find ourselves experiencing various similar expansive acts of aggression and a variety of autocratic... Continue Reading →
Scot Sothern – Family Tree
Review by Gerhard Clausing • When Scot Sothern was a young man, he became, by his own description, an ‘itinerant photographer’ who, having escaped from the formal studio work edicts of his father’s practice, decided to mix with and get to know the folks on the street in the 1970s, especially since at that time... Continue Reading →
Marc Schroeder – ORDER 7161
Review by Gerhard Clausing • I think we would all agree that war is an ugly matter, driven by megalomaniacs – men who have a vast taste for power and control. The cost exacted on individuals and groups on all sides of warfare is always horrendous. Unfortunately, such is currently the case in Ukraine, and... Continue Reading →
Caroline Irby – Someone Else’s Mother
Review by Melanie Chapman • What is it that constitutes family? Is it a matter of love, or bloodline alone? Is family determined by time spent together, common interests, shared experience? Is family a matter of choosing whom among billions of people on the planet we trust and look out for and want to be with?... Continue Reading →
Ed Kashi – Abandoned Moments. A Love Letter to Photography
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Not too long ago, the term “abandoned moments” meant images that we would toss aside: subject not significant enough, not sharp enough, some blurring or out-of-focus areas, camera movement, and more. Well, nowadays that is the stuff that the finest photographic art is made of; they are the central techniques... Continue Reading →