The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Copyright Riitta Paivalainen, 2009 courtesy Kehrer Verlag In Imaginary Meetings, the eight year retrospective of the young Finnish photographer Riitta Paivalainen, I have found some very delightful and thoughtful conceptual photographs. This book is an accumulation of a number of projects that Paivalainen has created, building on a similar theme utilizing similar subjects, advancing her ideas... Continue Reading →
Copyright Harry Cock 2006, courtesy Stichting Fotografie Noorderlicht Omstreken (Environs) is the title for the twenty-five year retrospective of Dutch photojournalist Harry Cock. The Dutch word is used to indicate the area and localities that are surrounding you, a fitting description of the territory for Cock’s focus. Similar to Gunnar Smoliansky who photographed his local Swedish surroundings for the... Continue Reading →
Photographs copyright of Stefan Heyne 2009, courtesy of Kehrer Verlag Heidelberg The title of Stefan Heyne’s recent photobook “The Noise; The Exposure of the Uncertain” is perplexing. The three accompanying essays that have translated from the original German to English only provide a little assistance. In an attempt to understand the accompanying photographs, I am digressing... Continue Reading →
copyright Douglas Stockdale Wishing you a very Merry Christmas, a wonderful Holiday and the very best for the New Year! Douglas Stockdale
I have been thinking about my list of Best PhotoBooks for 2009, and I am in sort of a quandary. The implication is that this list would be for the books that were published in 2009, but the fact is that many interesting books published in 2008 took a while before I could acquire them. And I have... Continue Reading →
Copyright Todd Oldham, Bedrock City, 2008, courtesy AMMO books I have been thinking about Joerg Colberg's post about a lack of "cutting edge" photobooks, while I am working on my list of best photobooks in 2009. Joerg states "...there isn't much of a variety in photo books...the format itself is so conservative". I think that for... Continue Reading →
Update on the results from the Swann Galleries Photographic print and literature auction of December 8 (2009): Highlights of the Photographic Literature portion of the sale included: Early works: Francis Frith’s Egypt Nubia and Ethiopia, 100 albumen stereoviews, London, 1862, $10,200 Camera Work Number 20, featuring three images by Stieglitz, New York, 1907, $6,000 Classic... Continue Reading →
Copyright Hisashi Shimizu 2009, courtesy photo-eye & Kodansha On the surface, the subjects of Hisashi Shimizu’s book Portraits of Silence are soldiers who perished during the Iraq conflict, indirect portraits developed from the perspective of the soldier’s parents. But Portraits of Silence is also about the desire to maintain the memory of a beloved, and... Continue Reading →
Copyright Christopher Thomas 2009, courtesy of Prestel Verlag When I recently shared my thoughts about the future of photobooks when looking out another 10 years, I can not imagine at the moment an electronic version that would be capable of simulating the feel of a wonderful photobook lying in my hands. Christopher Thomas’s recent book... Continue Reading →
Andy Adams of Flak Photo contacted me a couple of days ago to participate in a discussion about the future of photobooks. Seems that this discussion is a spin off of a brief article posted by Joerg Colberg on Conscientious regarding his thoughts on cutting-edge photobooks, found here and potentially summed up by "I have been noticing that there isn't much of a... Continue Reading →
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