The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Wayne Swanson • There’s a classic Irish short story in which a child in a village asks an Irish Traveller girl “Do you never tire of the road?” The girl’s quick response is “Do you never tire of being fettered?” That pretty much sums up the world views that divide mainstream society from the... Continue Reading →
Review by Lodoe-Laura Haines-Wangda • The first image in Zora Murff’s photobook At No Point In Between is actually just half an image; a tiny loose color print, six-centimeters tall, tucked in between the pages. In the fragment, Walter Scott is running, but he is separated from what he is running from. In Slow Violence and... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • “Were it not for.” What a perfect phrase for our Trumpian times. With these four words you can claim responsibility and assess blame. Deflect accountability, cast aspersions, or simply cover your ass. To “control the narrative” is the goal. In Michael Ashkin’s hands, the four words turn deadpan images into ominous... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • What defines a city? Civic boosters point to all manner of urban amenities, but highways and freeways are seldom among them. Functional at best, highways are more likely known as noisy, divisive, and unsightly rips in the urban fabric. Yet in the post-World War II era, their impact on American cities... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • “Let’s go for a walk.” That might sound like a pleasant invitation, but in the Spain of dictator Francisco Franco, it was often a chilling euphemism for a death sentence. During the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) and its aftermath, armed bands would round up people, take them to a remote... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • “. . . we went up to Mangapapapa to establish a place of wānanga for the river and it's many connections through whakapapa.” That neatly sums up Te Ahi Kā: The Fires of Occupation by photographer Martin Toft. But it takes quite a journey up the Whanganui River on the north... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • As a college student in the early 1980s, I had my first opportunity to visit the beachfront area of Atlantic City, the coastal town in New Jersey that inspired the board game MONOPOLY. Being from California, I was familiar with West Coast beach scenes that included palm trees and attractive... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Lorena Turner provides an emotional complex personal narrative in her self-published photobook A Habit of Self Deceit. She reveals her lasting emotional trauma sustained during her youth from her alcoholic mother and now after many years, the futility to obtain reconciliation due to her mother’s steady memory decline as a... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Scot Sothern has an extensive record photographing and publishing provocative portraits and scenes. In an interview published in Vice (UK) in 2012, he stated in connection with his book featuring prostitutes, “I hope the book makes the viewer pause and think about the implications of the work; the fucked-up-ness people... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • For better or worse. The marriage vows which can only hint at future possibilities. We are all usually happy about the “better“ events and there is not much to complain about. It’s the “worse” events and conditions that are an unknown and can become ominous. What defines “worse” is also... Continue Reading →
