The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Gerhard Clausing • How much of a country’s culture can we discover in a shop interior, a worn work shirt, or a face glimpsed on a train? Walker Evans: Now and Then, edited by David Campany, invites us to examine how Evans made such encounters significant. His photographs preserve the appearance of American... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · Letters to Azan is about photographer Lali Khalid’s relationship with her son. Khalid is from Pakistan. She grew up and studied there before moving to the US to study photography. Her son Azan was born in the U.S. in 2012. We do not hear anything about Azan’s father, but we... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Captivating! Exotic! Breathtaking! Yes, this book is all of that, but those words understate the exquisite view into nature’s beauty Thomas has wrapped into these pages. The reader experiences relationships among people, horses, eagles, and the land. This isn’t a book about an exciting apex predator or a beautiful but... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · OK, another senior photographer has just published a book of their early work. So let’s check it out. Is it like similar books? Is it murky, derivative student work that hasn’t yet found its voice? Would it see the light of day if not for the photographer’s name recognition and... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Jerusalem is a city like no other…traditions, faiths, races, separation, strife, love, hate, all living, loving and lasting together for 5,000 years. Gabay describes these city attributes as “layers” where places and people share the same space, sometimes the same frame and in that "captured in the camera" moment lives... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This fascinating book blends striking photography with human sociology, using the metaphor of a two-way mirror to reflect a Europe beyond postcards—and the people at its margins looking back. It is puzzling, yes, but undeniably compelling. In Yesilyurt’s opening manifesto, he makes clear that his aim is not to present... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · When is less more and when is it less? When do fewer images in a photobook result in a better viewing experience, and when are more images better? It is a tricky question. Everyone’s experience of a book is personal. One person’s overstuffed album is another person’s fascinating collection. One... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • As you start viewing João Linneu’s JJ VFF VV, you quickly get the idea that joy and pain go hand in hand and that a good portion of stamina pays off. The parents waited ten years to get the OK and participation of their son Valentín for this impressive journey... Continue Reading →
Review by Henry Kallerud · The opening photograph of “April” peers down onto an old house bounded by thick walls of shrubbery. Rissman populates this secluded garden with intimate portraits of people at varying stages of life that appear in non-chronological sequence. They engage their reader in recognizing faces across stages of childhood, adolescence, and... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook, To Love, Fear and Consume by Kostis Argyriadis, presents a host of challenges to the viewer. First and foremost, what do the three verbs in the title suggest? Our lives are certainly full of challenges, and in our present time we feel particularly vulnerable and are anticipating many... Continue Reading →
