The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Wayne Swanson • Is trying to explain Garry Winogrand’s photographs an interesting challenge or a fool’s errand? After all, Winogrand repeatedly rebuffed attempts to philosophize about his work with statements like “You’re talking about meaning. I want to talk about the pictures.” Nevertheless, Geoff Dyer gives it a shot in this big book of... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Want to be a street shooter, traveling the world in search of decisive moments? Here’s one path to success: Join a rock band, get famous, tour the world, get bored staring at hotel-room walls between gigs, decide “Yeah — get a camera.” It worked for Andy Summers, who played with a... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Are you fluent in photography? Not f-stops and apertures. Not representational or abstract, fine art or documentary. Not Ansel or Robert Adams. Rather, do you understand the visual language of photography? For the late Nathan Lyons (1930 – 2016), the world was “a vast repertoire of signs that await being... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook by Cristiano Volk is all about the mysterious and historic Venice, Italy. It is a novel view of a place that has been incessantly photographed, resulting in zillions of predictable tourist snapshots that imitate tourism brochures. The city is built on islands, always poised to battle the surrounding... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • As we know from history, the Greeks are distinguished seafarers and explorers, going back to ancient times. Part of the transmitted past is the story of Jason and the Argonauts, made famous by the poet Apollonius of Rhodes in the third century B.C.; their mythical task was to retrieve the... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook is a delightful symphony, a cinematic kaleidoscope, and all of that to present a dynamic portrait of a city. Eamonn Doyle has his roots in photography and painting, as well as in music creation and production, and this certainly has greatly enhanced this special work, which combines his... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • This is a collective body of work by the husband and wife team of Deanna and Ed Templeton that investigates their upper middle class Southern California neighborhood. Their Huntington Beach (HB) neighborhood is also not far from my residence/studio in Orange County and appears somewhat similar, except for their... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • For anyone who has ever visited Venice Beach in Southern California, comparisons to New York City’s Coney Island might not seem much of a conceptual stretch. Both are famous urban beachscapes that have been luring tourists from around the world for decades, both are celebrated more for the colorful locals... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • It is a pleasure to start 2019 with the presentation of such an attractive large-format photobook. Louis Jay, who worked as a commercial photographer for many years, has returned to his early love of photographing on the street, without succumbing to the clichés of street photography, but supplying streetscapes that... Continue Reading →
