The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Wayne Swanson • America the beautiful. The American Dream. America First! From a vantage point here in the United States of America, these phrases carry specific geographic, social, and political meanings. But from the broader perspective of The Americas, they merely represent one of many parochial views. The Edge of Knowing confronts these narrow... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • The daily surrealism of war is a subject that has inspired some fine literary and artistic works. Ben Brody’s photobook deserves a place among them. Attention Servicemember is a wry look at the war machine, the way images are used to shape and undermine perception, and the lasting personal impact war has... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • Sometimes words fail, and in the case of reviewing Michael Crouser’s photobook Mountain Ranch, this is a good thing. A handsome collection of over 100 black and white photographs documenting the daily lives of cattle ranchers in Northwestern Colorado, Mountain Ranch is a contemporary book with a classical feel, of an... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Is it a blessing or a curse? The double edged sword of the vast Oil Sands of Alberta Canada is a major economic boon to the region in conjunction with an ecological disaster that appears to be related to chronic health issues for those who live and work in the... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • What initially struck me in reading Kevin Bubriski’s latest photobook, Mustang in Black and White, was the pictorial framing and sequential interweaving of the landscape and portraits photographs of Nepal. In a turn-about, this colorful region is illustrated using higher contrast black and white photographs that border on abstraction. As... 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 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 →
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 →
by Brian Rose • For several years I have been teaching a course at the International Center of Photography (ICP) that combines making pictures and bookmaking. The class is called Photographing New York: The Lower East Side. Each student chooses a subject or theme focused on that famous immigrant neighborhood now undergoing rapid change, and... Continue Reading →
