The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Matt Schneider • "fever days fleets erected at a dazzling pace rigs roaming the seas sonar boats scanning the ocean floor young men recruited fortunes made conquering frontiers establishing capitalism" (p. 77) Forgotten Seas, by photographer, Tanja Engelberts, is a hefty photobook. By this, I mean that it is large, yes. The book is 216 pages... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • Walker’s Vein by David Bernstein is a mystery masquerading as a travel guide. My immediate reaction in encountering the book object was to note its somewhat unusual dimensions – 8” x 13”, a tall, thin volume. These are proportions I usually associate with guidebooks; not a totally idiosyncratic connection, as the book presents itself... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega · The cover of Ewan Telford's The Ecology of Dreams is solid dark blue with gold text. The text displays in dictionary fashion a brief overview of Los Angeles and then followed by the definition of dreams. An image of a skull with sickle and scythe positioned right above a thumbs down illustration completes the... Continue Reading →
Review by Paul Anderson • Between 2014 and 2022, photographer Chris Maliwat rode the rails of the New York City subway system with his camera, skillfully capturing its quirky and colorful passengers. He began photographing during pre-COVID days and continued through the height of the pandemic. A selection of these images is assembled in his 2022... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • I really love portraits that are mysterious and different. Fryd Frydendahl has definitely succeeded in consistently producing such unorthodox portraits over a ten-year period that fit the bill, and then some. This photobook gives us insights into her method. If you look at the front cover above, you find one... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • To cover more than 70 years of history and the accompanying photographic styles and to make an interesting photobook out of it requires quite a bit of talent. Gerry Badger, with all his editorial and curatorial background, is the one that can accomplish such a gargantuan task; he presents all... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Parents always worry about their children, since the world is full of challenges. Once the kids are out there in the big wide world, away from the protective nest that was their home of origin, these parental worries become intensified. Sonia Lenzi has produced this effective visual essay that expresses... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • In 1955, a 14-year-old Black youth from Chicago, visiting relatives in the South, walked into Bryant’s Grocery Store in rural Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till wasn’t inside long, but he is said to have whistled at a white woman behind the counter. A few days later his body — beaten, shot, and... Continue Reading →
Reviewed by Madhu Joseph-John • This is what you might first see when you have Pradip Malde’s photo book in your hand: women, young and old, some with head covers, some with razor blade in hand, others grinding a clay like mass with stones, girls with their legs splayed and being held down by women, acacia... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • As I looked through Ara Oshagan’s 2021 monograph displaced, for some odd reason I was reminded of James Agee’s 1941 study of tenant farming in the American south, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. There is a surface level of similarity in that both books are, in a sense “documentary” - considerations of the lives of... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 