The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Photographs copyright Yaniv Waissa 2012, self published Yaniv Waissa has chosen to investigate a difficult memory that still seems to haunt the people of Israel; the Holocaust. He does not find it necessary to evoke large dramatic and dark vestiges of the places where past horrors occurred. His photographs are a glimpse here and a slight glance over... Continue Reading →
Copyright Wintergarten LTD 2012 Chinese Bondage in Peru is a trilogy of artists' books featuring a mashed-up collection of found photographs, printed matter and accompanying text organized around the vague fictitious narrative of a North American journalist's travels between the continents of Latin America andAsia. While the title of the series is taken from an academic publication... Continue Reading →
photographs copyright Rafal Milach 2011 courtesy of Kehrer Books The seven short stories attempt to provide a collective insight into his subject's existence in this region of the Soviet Union, with a heavy dose of reality clashing with hope. Accompanying each narrative are quotes by his subject to broaden the visual context. I found the pathos to be unrelenting and that it darkly... Continue Reading →
Copyright the Estate of Larry Sultan 2010 courtesy Steidl This book draws from the major photographic themes that preoccupied Larry Sultan over his life span. By many accounts he was a photographer whose teaching and personal project has directly influenced a generation of photographers. His last project, a fictional narrative about migrant workers in Northern California, is infused with a wonderful mix of an air... Continue Reading →
Copyright 2010 the photographers courtesy Pogo Books Sometimes with minimalist photobooks, it may be best that they speak for themselves. Here is a small sampler of photobooks published by Pogo Books (Berlin, Germany) with Jeff Luker, Hasis Park, Ting Cheng and Mark Peckmezian. The books all share a similar diminutive size, stiff covers with saddle stick binding, and minimalistic in... Continue Reading →
Photographs copyright 2012 Roberto Schena courtesy Edizioni Punctum Road Trip is what immediately comes to mind when reading Roberto Schena’s recent photobook SP 67. In the U.S., the words Road Trip creates a vision of traveling on the famous US roadway Route 66 that stretches across the United States, starting in Chicago, Illinois and ending at the... Continue Reading →
Copyright Ron Jude 2008 published by The Ice Plant Ron Jude’s ubiquitous title “Other Nature” for his photobook published by Ice Plant leaves plenty of space to create a wide range of contexts for his photographs. The book’s title and a quote from Frank Kafka’s On Parables provide the only text (and descriptive context), as Jude... Continue Reading →
Copyright Tod Papageorge 2010 courtesy Edizioni Punctum Tod Papageorge received the annual commission from the FotoGrafia Festival Internazionale di Roma in 2010 to interpret the city of Rome. Papageorge is a photographer-flanuer, better known for his early black and white urban photographs and now the director of Yale’s photography program. As in the previous Rome commissions, he explores the city... Continue Reading →
Copyright James Clancy 2011 Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg Berlin My first impression is that Clancy’s narrative is a darker version of John Gossage’s early photobook The Pond. Similar to Gossage, Clancy is taking us on an imaginary journey, although somewhat grounded in the (non) reality of the photographs, using found landscapes rendered in black and white... Continue Reading →
Mitch Epstein 2009 copyright courtesy Steidl I think one of the better photographed and designed photobooks to shed light on the complexities and the enormity of the environmental, economic, political and social issues of the production and consumption of energy is Mitch Epstein’s American Power, published in 2009 by Steidl. In reading Edward Burtynsky’s Oil,... Continue Reading →
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