The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Wayne Swanson • Ben Brody understands the chaos, absurdity, and surrealism of war. He was a combat photographer covering the United States’ involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, which resulted in his acclaimed photobook Attention Servicemember (reviewed here). His new book is an epilogue to that one, and a fitting way to sum up United States’ ill begotten... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • In that distant era – seemingly so long ago, yet in many ways the world in which we still live – of the onslaught of the COVID-19 virus, all of our lives were shattered and altered in ways we are still crawling from and trying to understand. In that now... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • At a time when finding common ground seems increasingly difficult, there is still one place to go — underground. The subway is a great equalizer, bringing together people of all ages, social and economic classes, ethnicities, sexual orientations, religions, and homelands. In METRO/ New York/ London/ Paris, renowned photographer Herb Robinson captures... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • During the COVID-19 pandemic a number of creative projects resulted from the forced need to isolate from one another that substantially reduced our ability to have personal interactions. One such project is the collaborative endeavor by Dawn Surratt and Sal Taylor Kydd that resulted in their self-published book A Passing Song. Similar... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • At first glance, Impermanence seems an unlikely title for a monograph honoring the 50-year career of a master photographer and platinum printer whose work has stood the test of time. And quite a substantial book it is, weighing in at more than seven pounds and featuring 220 quadtone images lusciously reproduced on 12... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • I discovered the work of Ragnar Axelsson in a slim volume I came across in a small photo bookstore/gallery in Reykjavik in 2014. A part of the Photo Poche Series, published by Crymogea, it was titled simply Ragnar Axelsson. I loved the book’s compact size – it suggested to me nothing so much as a sketchbook,... Continue Reading →
Review by Paul Anderson • How does one get the Tower Bridge of London to dance? Thomas Kellner has found a way, and it can be seen in his 2021 book Tango Metropolis. Kellner’s reworked image of the iconic London landmark turns the bridge into something straight out of a fairy tale, transforming the bridge’s towers into... Continue Reading →
Review by Melanie Chapman • Why would someone carry a 258-page hardcover photobook with them across an ocean and throughout four countries when much of the photographer’s work is accessible on-line? When the book is the new retrospective Vivian Maier published by Thames and Hudson, the only appropriate response is “Why Not?!” - As the “someone” who... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • In The Flow of Light Brushes the Shadow, Douglas Stockdale has produced an artist book which sets out to visually articulate his anxiety felt as a traveler. The book is part therapy, an exercise in search of catharsis. Stockdale uses the aesthetics of the photographic medium as a vehicle to navigate the... Continue Reading →
Reviewed by Rudy Vega • The cover of Julie Blackmon’s Midwest Materials depicts the following: four children-all of which have their faces turned away from us, the viewers. They are caught in mid-stride–two girls skipping towards the wall of the building marked by the name of the book- Midwest Materials, while another has arms stretched skyward... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 