The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Melanie Chapman • Crumple the Dress, Handle Tenderly the Lens Arresting Beauty, the new Thames and Hudson publication of photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) is truly a thing of beauty to behold and be held. Drawing from the archives of the Victoria and Albert Museum (home to the world’s largest collection of Cameron’s... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
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 →
Review by Wayne Swanson • In 1955, a 14-year-old Black youth from Chicago, visiting relatives in the South, walked into Bryant’s Grocery Store in rural Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till wasn’t inside long, but he is said to have whistled at a white woman behind the counter. A few days later his body — beaten, shot, and... Continue Reading →
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 →
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 →
Review by Steve Harp · Lynchian: noted for juxtaposing surreal or sinister elements with mundane, everyday environments, and for using compelling visual images to emphasize a dreamlike quality of mystery or menace. - Oxford English Dictionary Lynchian is a description that immediately came to mind on my first viewing of Jon Horvath’s 2022 monograph, This is Bliss. It may be because... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • Think back to your childhood, and there likely is a special place in your memory. A place of play, of adventure, of wonder, of self-discovery, and perhaps even of danger. For photographic artist C Fodoreanu, Lake Sacalaia was such a place. The deepest fresh-water lake in Transylvania, Lake Sacalaia is steeped in... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This photobook presents the coming-of-age process of two people, a young woman and a young man, each in a different world. The former is presented as a series of photographs, while the latter is a short story in French, bound into the middle of the book. The photographer Antoine Seiter... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 