The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook is the fourth volume of Nick Brandt’s epic series The Day May Break, and presents its most urgent and intimate chapter yet. Brandt turns his focus toward one of the most extreme settings of climate and humanitarian crisis: the arid deserts of Jordan, where displaced Syrian families navigate... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • When you first hold this large loose-leaf book project in your hands, the sheer impact of its size and its images is overwhelming. We get that same feeling when we are overwhelmed by incessant appeals on all our “entertainment” media which are our constant companions – on phones, television, etc.... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • Folklore and rituals are vital components of our ancestral heritage. The stories that were told for many generations survive in one form or another and are enhanced as they are told and retold. I am currently investigating creation mythologies of various groups, and it is amazing how much wisdom and... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • In Zero Hour, Birthe Piontek continues her exploration of identity and mortality. Known for her psychologically charged portraiture and introspective photographic storytelling (especially in Abendlied, which I reviewed previously), Piontek’s newest photobook connects the personal and the universal in a significant visual narrative. The term “Zero Hour” is historically charged—it... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • For many of us the circus is a special experience full of magic. Some of us have at times felt a longing to be part of such a group of itinerant individuals that create illusions and bring special feats into what for most of us was the rather humdrum existence... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook presents a narrative of the collision of several parallel realities, both current and historical. A pristine lake, the largest in a Polish province, lies in the vicinity of a major airport and an airbase, both of which also constituted a prime nuclear target in case World War III... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson • In Maria Elisa Ferraris’ Aqua we witness the wild, terrible, awesome, raw, relentless power of water. In 34 spectacular photographs it rises, falls, lifts, pushes, pounds, churns, heaves, hammers, roils, boils, breaks, surges, slams, crashes, smashes, thunders, roars, and rages. It comes at you and doesn’t stop. The images in... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson • Part of the fun of reviewing photobooks is getting under the hood and taking a book apart to see what makes it work. Sergey Bykov’s photobook After Us is a good candidate for a closer look, as it resists easy analysis. Or rather there is an obvious reading but then... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • What do we think of when we see the word glitch? Some part of a technical system that doesn’t work, something that slips through a control mechanism, something used or abused, like a loophole? Something unusual or abnormal that suddenly appears and just as quickly disappears in the middle of... Continue Reading →
Review by Brian F. O’Neill • Ed Panar’s January 2024 release Winter Nights, Walking, has arrived after much anticipation. I originally became aware of Panar’s work with the 2018 release of In the Vicinity (published with Deadbeat Club), a book that depicted indirect aspects of the marijuana market in the so-called Emerald Triangle of California... Continue Reading →
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