The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Working in a very technical area for my day-job I have become very familiar with on-the-job training, educational manuals, and health & safety bulletins that stress environmental awareness. I will admit that it was not until reading Louie Palu’s A Field Guide to Asbestos did the immense danger of asbestos really... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Let us now praise Maria Thereza Alves. Over the past four decades, this Brazilian-born artist, social activist, and documentarian has established an international reputation as a champion for social justice. In 1983, however, she was just a 21-year-old junior studying photography at Cooper Union in New York City who decided... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Big Sur is one of the iconic places of the California Dream. This rugged stretch of coastline between Carmel and San Simeon along equally iconic Highway 1 is known for many things. It’s an idyllic showcase of natural beauty . . . Muse to the likes of Henry Miller and... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • “A magnum opus project spanning 14 years, UPSTATE GIRLS documents’ the troubles and triumphs of a group of friends and their extended families in upstate New York.” For many years now, I have indulged in two great passions. One is photography, the other is what I jokingly refer to as... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • It’s not easy to find Doug’s cabin. Or Doug himself, for that matter. Doug lives deep in the rainforest at the remote northwestern tip of Vancouver Island. He’s the proprietor of the San Josef Heritage Park and Campground, a grand name for a struggling collection of primitive campsites. He’s a... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • “Let’s go for a walk.” That might sound like a pleasant invitation, but in the Spain of dictator Francisco Franco, it was often a chilling euphemism for a death sentence. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and its aftermath, armed bands would round up people, take them to a remote... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • “. . . we went up to Mangapapapa to establish a place of wānanga for the river and it's many connections through whakapapa.” That neatly sums up Te Ahi Kā: The Fires of Occupation by photographer Martin Toft. But it takes quite a journey up the Whanganui River on the north... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • As a college student in the early 1980s, I had my first opportunity to visit the beachfront area of Atlantic City, the coastal town in New Jersey that inspired the board game MONOPOLY. Being from California, I was familiar with West Coast beach scenes that included palm trees and attractive... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • The foil embossed book cover with undulating lines of the type font appears as though it is shimmering in the humid heat provides a hint as to what lies within. The third image in Arturo Soto’s photobook, In the Heat, is a wonderful sublime urban landscape photograph of Panama that... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • TJ Norris has recently released his first monograph, Shooting Blanks, that investigates the potential abstract and graphic patterns created by commercial signage that is in a state of disuse or disrepair, aspects of the modern urban landscape. That these signs are now “blank” is a small aspect of this body... Continue Reading →
