Review by Gerhard Clausing • To me, the fact that human beliefs can result in the intentional deaths of others has always been an unfathomable tragedy. Whether it is local warfare against minorities or worldwide imperialist campaigns against some groups, the goal in all these instances seems to be the enforcement of the preferences of... 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 →
Sonia Lenzi – Take Me to Live with You
Review by Gerhard Clausing • What we find missing in our childhood can sometimes be filled in a bit later in our lives in various ways. So it was with Sonia Lenzi, whose father had not been as accessible in her earlier years as she had wished; in recent years she gained personal access to... Continue Reading →
Anders Goldfarb – Passed Remains
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Connecting with the past is a challenge, particularly when the present is such a mess – viruses, warfare, economic worries, etc., etc. As I am writing this, a major new assault on yet another group of people is in progress: this time the victims are the Ukrainians. How many more... Continue Reading →
Thana Faroq – I Don’t Recognize Me in the Shadows
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Thana Faroq is not only a successful exiled woman from Yemen who found a new home in the Netherlands, she is also an excellent storyteller who uses her considerable photojournalistic talents to present us with a captivating account of the travails of age-old sojourns, once again taking place in our... Continue Reading →
Jacenty Dędek – Portrait of the Provinces
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Small towns, villages, rural areas – the ‘provinces’ – are the backbone of any country, and they always cover large areas. So it is in Poland, and the Dędeks, Jacenty and Kasia, spent more than six years capturing life as it was found there. Naturally, the result is a weighty... Continue Reading →
Dyba Lach and Adam Lach – How to Rejuvenate an Eagle
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Poland is a country that has been subjected to tumultuous ups and downs for many hundreds of years, with particular trauma inflicted in the 20th century by occupying forces, and most especially the horrors of genocide, as well as ever-changing borders. In the 21st century, with more open arrangements within... Continue Reading →
George Katzenberger – 605 East Chestnut
Review by Gerhard Clausing • An old ‘craftsman-style’ house and recollections of times spent there – these are the ingredients of this photobook. Photographer George Katzenberger weaves a very appealing narrative around a place he documented a long time ago, which still has meaning for him even now. The old house that once stood at... Continue Reading →
Dieter Keller – The Eye of War / Das Auge des Krieges
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Why do some still consider war a useful method of dealing with conflicts? Armed encounters between groups of people, whether within a country or between countries, do not seem like a very sophisticated way of solving problems, or of improving the human condition. Where are the boundaries between “necessities” and... Continue Reading →
Kathleen Y. Clark – The White House China
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Overcoming the past is a prerequisite for a better future. While we cannot change any of the things our predecessors have done, our obligation is to open ourselves to an honest assessment of the past and to bring about improvements. An honest acknowledgment of historical events and of cultural shifts... Continue Reading →