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 →
Peter van Agtmael – Look at the U.S.A.: A Diary of War and Home
Review by Gerhard Clausing • There are a number of reviews of photobooks about warfare that I have reviewed over the years. You can enter war in the search box and look at as many of them as you like. But none of them are as comprehensive, as complex, and as personal as this one,... Continue Reading →
Robert Gumpert – Division Street
Review by Melanie Chapman • As the old saying goes, “Home is where your heart is.” Epic poems and countless songs have been written on the topic; missing home, coming home, longing for home... “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, “Home on the Range”, “There’s No Place like Home”... but what if you have no home? What if... Continue Reading →
Lisa McCord – Rotan Switch
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Lisa McCord’s “Rotan Switch” is a superb synthesis of content, design, and emotion…more than a story, more than photos, more than a book, it’s an experience. The design is unique and subtly compelling. At first look, the white space, the seemingly random text blocks, and the image arrangement didn’t click... Continue Reading →
Huw Lewis-Jones – Why We Photograph Animals
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The documentation of animal life all around us has long been a favorite area of photography. This very important volume illuminates animal photography of all sorts from a vast number of angles, featuring a number of photographers who concentrate on documenting animal life, as well as essays dealing with animal... Continue Reading →
Katherine Longly and Cécile Hupin – Just My Luck
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Katherine Longly and Cécile Hupin have created a conceptual photojournalistic project; a series of interviews, quotes, screen grabs and reuse of photographs, repurposed to create a narrative that asks the question: If money cannot buy happiness, what drives people to participate in a lottery? The book is design and sequenced in... Continue Reading →
Harry Gruyaert – Morocco
Review by Melanie Chapman • Let us all give thanks to Harry Gruyaert for his cones and rods. He shares his sight so that we may see his good works, and thus help us appreciate our planet as a vast and ceaselessly magical place. How fortunate are we as lovers of photographic images that octogenarian Harry... Continue Reading →
Lana Z Caplan – Oceano
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Whose land is it? This is probably the underlying question for Lana Z Caplan’s photodocumentary project of an expansive region of coastal California, which also represents a broader question for all of North America and the world beyond. Her specific subject is an area generally identified as Oceano, located on the... Continue Reading →
MAGNUM MAGNUM
Review by Melanie Chapman · At a certain age in life, admitting what you want to be when you grow up may feel like standing on the shore watching all boats, large and small, setting off to sea. You find yourself waving as the vessels grow more distant on the horizon and ever closer to adventures... Continue Reading →