The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Douglas Stockdale • This book is part retrospective with an autobiography about the early phase of Neil Folberg’s long photographic career, and part portfolio for early unpublished body of work. As an interesting combination of biography and portfolio, it is front-loaded with his personal reflections on his career change to photography while studying at... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The word vale can have a number of meanings. It can imply a farewell, a letting go of things that perhaps are unattainable or forever lost. Or, it can be a valley, a hidden place between hills or mountains that may not be so easy to get to or to... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Mardi Gras in New Orleans is an old tradition. Just as is the case in Europe and elsewhere, there are religious and tribal underpinnings to these liberating rituals that have been around for many centuries. Of special importance is the fact that participants can assume alternate identities; they can feel... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • What does a sorcerer’s apprentice observe over a sixteen-year period? Avedon was certainly a flamboyant creator, and Lewin, his assistant, became an amazing artist in his own right. In this attractive photobook we are taken on a photographic journey, supplemented by verbal narrative, that documents those years of collaboration. Gideon... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • An excellent portrait is one that transcends time and place and is able to reach us with eternal human truths. This is a difficult task, since many individuals wear their outer appearance and their facial expressions like masks that are difficult for photographers to penetrate. In the case of people... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Let’s forget preconceived notions projected onto images of the female body. Yes, I know, we live in a callous time in which some politicians have been elected or appointed to high positions even after engaging in or advocating misogynous crudities from within the stereotypical outmoded repertoire of “old white men.”... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Once in a while one makes a truly surprising discovery: the work of Marcel Sternberger certainly fits that category. Iconic portraits of 20th century luminaries, depictions that were relatively unknown for many decades, have now been unearthed from his archive, thanks to the work of Jacob and Stephan Loewentheil of... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • I believe a photobook based on a body of work that explores the nude form has some high esthetical and contemporary hurdles to overcome; a genre of art that predates photography itself. The nude and semi-nude, both male and female, are frequently subjects for photographers for a wide variety of... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • So often, suburbia is portrayed as a bland and vacuous place — tract homes, franchise convenience stores, and a lot of sullen youth. That’s not the way Australian photographer Bill Henson sees it. Through Henson’s lens, suburbia is a dreamscape filled with dark shadows, fluffy clouds, Egyptian ruins, teenage angst, pastoral... Continue Reading →
Review by Madhu Joseph John • They say that the American South is a land in transition what with the incursions of globalization and the migrations of diverse populations. Some of us might be familiar with images of the “new South” depicted by artists such as Eugene Richards, Mitch Epstein, Tommy Kha and Shane Lavalette. Perhaps... Continue Reading →
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