The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Hans Hickerson · A photographer working outside the mainstream has advantages and challenges. The challenges include not being networked as an insider and sustaining belief in yourself when you are unknown. Among the advantages is the enormous benefit of seeing with fresh eyes, along with the ability to follow your own path without... Continue Reading →
Review by Hans Hickerson · In art, as elsewhere, less is often more. Pare something down, eliminate unnecessary details and distractions, reduce it to its essence, and you end up with a core that resonates beyond its supposed limits. Eugene Richards’ New World works like that. His 56 black and white photographs depict scenes from... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • As you start viewing João Linneu’s JJ VFF VV, you quickly get the idea that joy and pain go hand in hand and that a good portion of stamina pays off. The parents waited ten years to get the OK and participation of their son Valentín for this impressive journey... Continue Reading →
Review by Douglas Stockdale • Marseille – A True Fictional Photostory Hans Hickerson’s Marseille backstory is that this is a series of photographs that were captured in August 1983. A time when “You think the grass is greener somewhere else, but then you travel and discover that it is not… you go somewhere else, but you are... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • I was drawn to this book by the image on its cover promising a deep look into the city, people, and texture of Calcutta (Kolkata), and I was not disappointed. Kowshik is a street photographer, and his book immerses us into the places, cultures, and people of Kolkata. His images... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • Imagine sitting in an overstuffed chair, in a hushed, book-lined sanctuary, completely spellbound by a virtuoso storyteller spinning tales of love, war, resilience, post-war recovery in Europe and the canvas of artistic mid-century New York City. This wonderful collection of firsthand images of post-war transitions in Europe and Manhattan was... Continue Reading →
Review by Olga Bubich · Addressing traumatic or otherwise challenging pasts and processing childhood trauma have long been among the most common subjects in photography, and photobooks are no exception. Every year, numerous projects are created, sharing with distant readers stories of close proximity: those of complicated – or non-existent – relationships with fathers, those... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This book is a masterful blend of history, urban transformation, and culture brought together in the context of a street known round the world: Manhattan’s Broadway. Throughout 1905, C.G. Hine a businessman and amateur photographer made images along Broadway, organized them geographically by city block, and then created hand-made books... Continue Reading →
Review by Lee Halvorsen • This delightful photographic journey through parts of Mexico is a fun, heartfelt connection to the culture and the car that brings them together. That car, an icon of their national identity, imagination, and energy, is the Volkswagen Bug, The Beetle, and, in Mexico Los Vochos! Villar moved to Mexico in 2016 with... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega · Sean Perry’s Fairgrounds is a modest book in scale but not in feeling. There are no crowds, no bright over the top color, and no appetite for nostalgia as popular entertainment. Instead, the book treats the fairground as a site of afterimage and projection: a place to re-enter through atmosphere.... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 