Review by Gerhard Clausing • Cosplay is a fun activity. You take your innermost thoughts out to be seen in public, as you embody, through your costume and makeup, a fictional character you admire, showing yourself as your personal hero or heroine to everyone out there. These personalized and externalized emotions can be seen at... Continue Reading →
Charles Fréger – Aam Aastha: Indian Devotions
Review by Gerhard Clausing • I know from my experience with students acting out various drama roles on the stage, in a foreign language even, that the most effective performances take place when the role is totally internalized and performed not just from the mind but also from the heart. It is at that moment... Continue Reading →
Andreas Herzau & Holger Noltze – Bamberg Diary #1, #2, #3
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Bamberg is a Franconian town in Bavaria with a substantial history going back at least 1,000 years. I was able to visit Bamberg this past summer; the juxtaposition of ancient traditions and contemporary approaches are a delight to experience. Part of that culture is a distinguished Symphony Orchestra that is... Continue Reading →
Jason Langer – Berlin
Review by Gerhard Clausing • To me, the fact that human beliefs can result in the intentional deaths of others has always been an unfathomable tragedy. Whether it is local warfare against minorities or worldwide imperialist campaigns against some groups, the goal in all these instances seems to be the enforcement of the preferences of... Continue Reading →
Sonia Lenzi – Looking For My Daughters
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 →
Kevin Bubriski – Nepal Earthquake
Review by Gerhard Clausing • As I write this review here in Southern California, which also is an area subjected to the instability of the earth from time to time, I am in awe of the destruction shown in these images and impressed by the spirit, resiliency, and continuity of the people of Nepal who... Continue Reading →
Izabela Jurcewicz – Body as a Negative: Sensations of Return
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Those of us who have undergone operations know about the many forms of mental and physical anguish these entail, as well as about the stamina, fortitude, and patience we as patients are expected to muster during the whole process, before, during, and afterward. When it comes to very serious operations... Continue Reading →
Miro Kuzmanovic – Signs by the Roadside
Review by Steve Harp • In considering Miro Kuzmanovic’s Signs by the Roadside, one would do well to keep in mind the title while moving through the book. For what does a road sign do but orient the traveler to where one is and where one may be headed? The traveler depends on signs for... Continue Reading →
Rohina Hoffman – Embrace
Review by Gerhard Clausing • All of us who have roots or interests in more than one culture (maybe that’s even most of us) can benefit greatly from the many insights Rohina Hoffman has incorporated in this new photobook. As a member of US society with roots in India, as one who has advanced to... Continue Reading →
Anna Strand – Collecting I
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Collecting can easily be very intense, perhaps more so than other pursuits. But then other kinds of activities including photography have been known to become highly ritualized as well. Need I remind you of the meticulous pursuits of water towers in order to present them in tomes of typologies, or... Continue Reading →