The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Wayne Swanson • Bodie, that 19th-century gold rush ghost town in the California hills east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, has been a theme park for photographers for years. Everyone from Ansel Adams down to Mom, Dad, and the kids with their point-and-shoots has captured the picturesque “arrested decay” of what is now... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • German photographer Florian Schwarz takes on the entire universe in his new book A Handful of Dust. Schwarz spent four years traveling to observatories in some of the most remote places on Earth. These observatories, operated by the Las Cumbres Observatory Foundation (LOC) in Santa Barbara, span the globe to allow... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • In Melissa Borman’s self-published book, A Piece of Dust in the Great Sea of Matter, she captures her subjects being actively engaged with the natural landscape as a metaphor for the elements of life. A Piece of Dust, a component of her book’s title, is to place a focus on... 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 →
Review by Wayne Swanson • While it’s officially spring on the calendar, snow is making its last stand in many places around the world. But what if it were the last stand ever? In places like the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, that tiny European country surrounded by Belgium, Germany, and France, climate change is quickly making... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • The allure of air travel seems a distant memory in our current era of long lines, invasive security checks, and packed flights. Yet airports, when considered through the eyes of a photographer rather than a harried traveler, can be captivating places. Longtime Magnum photographer Harry Gruyaert is drawn to them. “The... Continue Reading →
Book review by Steve Harp • Good Days Quiet, Robert Frank’s final book – or the final book he would have made editorial contribution to – continues the series of books published by Steidl “organizing” Frank’s archives in the twilight of his career. Subtitled “memories from Robert” the book alternates photographs (interior and exterior) of... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • America the beautiful. The American Dream. America First! From a vantage point here in the United States of America, these phrases carry specific geographic, social, and political meanings. But from the broader perspective of The Americas, they merely represent one of many parochial views. The Edge of Knowing confronts these narrow... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • The daily surrealism of war is a subject that has inspired some fine literary and artistic works. Ben Brody’s photobook deserves a place among them. Attention Servicemember is a wry look at the war machine, the way images are used to shape and undermine perception, and the lasting personal impact war has... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 