The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Copyright John Bartelstone 2009 courtesy powerHouse Books The area known as The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a massive 300 acres located on the waterfront adjacent to New York City. The U.S. Navy acquired the first property in 1801, constructing the first dry dock in 1851 and eventually decommissioning the site in 1966. This property was... Continue Reading →
Catherine Ledner – Glamour Dogs 2009 courtesy Chronicle Books I had been anticipating Catherine Ledner’s latest photobook Glamour Dogs after having a glimpse of her earlier exhibition photographs of wild animals. For this photobook, Glamour Dogs, her subject is a large group of dog breeds using a similar stylistic portrait formula as her earlier wild animal... Continue Reading →
Copyright Dayanita Singh 2010 courtesy Steidl Reading Dayanita Singh’s recent photobook Dream Villa is a wonderful exclamation point on why I enjoy my own night photography; the process can evoke from an otherwise seemingly ordinary landscape a very mysterious narrative. Similar to when the extended durations of photographic exposures can alter the plastic reality of time, the... Continue Reading →
Copyright Gina LeVay 2009 courtesy powerHouse Books You could say that Gina LeVay had to “get down and dirty” to photograph the miners who create the underground tunnels for New York City. This is a mash-up of those who are involved in the tunneling, affectionately called Sandhogs, and the environmental context of where their efforts... Continue Reading →
copyright Olaf Otto Becker, 2009 courtesy Hatje Cantz Verlag Olaf Otto Becker’s Above Zero is a beautiful documentary style narrative about the melt water of Greenland’s ice cap. Becker investigates the annual melt water that occurs each summer. It might seem that finding the presence of running water on top of snow and ice to... Continue Reading →
Copyright Alamo & Costello 2010, courtesy Dark Lark Press The 2010 World Cup has just started in South Africa and there will be many pubs, sports bars, taverns, and assorted watering holes where fans will be hoisting a few brews and cheering their favorite team and players on to victory. The fan support at The... Continue Reading →
Copyright Michael Light, 2009 courtesy Radius Books and photo-eye The aerial perspective and tight framing of Michael Light’s Bingham Mine / Garfield Stack introduces a vertigo similar to what I feel when riding the ski lifts in the Rockies. As I am carried over a ridge and momentarily suspended mid-air crossing a deep canyon to... Continue Reading →
Copyright Guy Tillim 2009 courtesy of Punctum Editions When Guy Tillim, a South African photographer, had an opportunity to investigate the inner city of Rome over a series of winter days, he seems to have found a somber and melancholic period of time in this hustle and bustle city. For me his book Roma, Citta... Continue Reading →
Copyright Aperture, 1973 From time to time, I will be digging deep in my photobook library to retrieve photobooks that I think may be relevant. The caveat to this statement is that the photobook is relevant for what ever reasons I choose. In this case, I am reading and preparing a review of the J.... Continue Reading →
Copyright Stan Gaz 2009, courtesy Princeton Architectural Press Meteorites and their impact on Earth are probably not something we ponder much about, but it is the subject of Stan Gaz’s photobook, Sites of Impact; Meteorite Craters Around the World. Meteorite craters are sites that provide physical evidence that immense celestial bodies have hurled into our... Continue Reading →
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