The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Steve Harp • When I was younger and traveled more frequently, some of my favorite places to photograph in foreign countries were grocery stores. The items on the shelves - daily staples of life - were recognizable but different: packaging, the numbering units for pricing and size, the product names. They were uncanny in the sense... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Spending time with this photobook has some consequences, in spite of the title, which is probably somewhat facetious. What is street photography? What are the implications of observing a photographer’s street observations? And perhaps even more important, what is the photographer’s intent, and what is the viewer’s response to all... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • No doubt street photography can benefit from some creative new approaches. Gone are the days of garnering attention by showing the ubiquitous downtrodden and certain other predictable scenarios that we have seen many times before. Vasco Trancoso, a retired physician, whose career involved keeping things going in his patients’ bodies,... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Three street photographers and their three unique perspectives and shared interests; they came together in 2019 at the International Video Art Festival of Camagüey and this photographic book project resulted from that meeting and their time wandering the streets of Camagüey, a city on the island of Cuba. The book’s title, Camagüey, Camagüey, Camagüey subtlety... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • The cover of Mark Gill’s photobook The Airborne Toxic Event shows a solitary figure crossing an intersection dressed in a red, full-length hooded jacket wearing a mask, carrying a couple of tote bags and, oddly, wearing open-toed sandals. The man in red, as it turns out, is also the only... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Ah, street art and graffiti — the color, the raw energy, the in-your-face graphics. They are such inviting targets for photographers. But how do you make them your own? Photographer Bill Wishner succeeds by going beyond mere documentation to turn them into collaborations. Wishner spent seven years traveling to cities... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Americans have always exercised their right to demonstrate and protest, and the peaceful public expression of a multitude of opinions has always been the basis of a healthy democracy. After all, governments always implement a series of compromises, and the majority will usually stand behind major decisions, but it is... 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 Melanie Chapman • “Beautiful, interesting… and sometimes cruel.” If Robert Frank had played in a punk rock band, how would that have influenced his work? What kind of images would he have made? Luckily, we have Tatsuo Suzuki’s new photobook Friction/Tokyo Street to answer that question. Wow. What an exciting book! One cannot... Continue Reading →
Review by Kristin Dittrich • When her photobook reached me for review, I had to put it aside at first. Benita Suchodrev’s Of Lions and Lambs weighs a hefty 5 kg and comprises more than 360 pages. In the past, books like this one contained an artist’s life’s work; today, other standards exist in many... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 