The Contemporary Photobook Magazine
Review by Micah McCoy • While Odette England’s Dairy Character may first seem a pointed feminist critique of dairy farm culture, a deeper investigation of the text reveals the nuance necessary to adequately address the author’s complex relationship with her past. Odette was raised a farmer’s daughter on her parents’ Australian dairy farm. Her upbringing came with expectations... 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 →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • “What do we yearn for? What exactly have we lost?” There is something very refreshing about Juan Barte’s new photobook. It is based on his observation that our freedom has been severely curtailed in recent times, both by ever-present technology and by the pandemic. Both of these hold us captive... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • The categories of genders and gender-related behaviors and preferences are not as binary as some would have us believe. According to Western psychology, we all have both male and female sides; either side can predominate or be more pronounced at times in individuals. The same is true of a variety... Continue Reading →
Book review by Rudy Vega • The recent publication, Time Traveler by Gianluca Galtrucco is a love letter to the daydreamer in all of us. Making clever use of props, settings, archival footage and captions–Galtrucco has produced a book that guides us back to engage in youthful wonderment. Gazing up to the night skies, who has not pondered... Continue Reading →
Review by Gerhard Clausing • This impressive photobook starts with the well-known quote by George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And sure enough, the publication of this book is very timely, since we again find ourselves experiencing various similar expansive acts of aggression and a variety of autocratic... Continue Reading →
Review by Kristin Dittrich • While visiting the first “Photobook Fest“ on May 22, 2022, a new art fair at ICP New York dedicated to the contemporary photobook, I discovered this wonderful small photobook, like a zine, with the title Fragments. This project tells a strong and visually beautiful story about the immigration of a woman... Continue Reading →
Review by Steve Harp • As I looked through Ara Oshagan’s 2021 monograph displaced, for some odd reason I was reminded of James Agee’s 1941 study of tenant farming in the American south, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. There is a surface level of similarity in that both books are, in a sense “documentary” - considerations of the lives of... Continue Reading →
Review by Wayne Swanson • The hills and hollers along the Appalachian Mountains running down the eastern United States are steeped in folklore and folkways. In From Yonder Wooded Hill, photographer Riley Goodman spins a narrative tale from his experiences there and the stories he heard growing. Drawing from his own photos, archival images, short passages of text and poetry,... Continue Reading →
Review by Rudy Vega • Photobooks come in all different shapes and sizes. Generally speaking, they adhere to more or less standard configurations. A foreword and an introduction, followed by photographs in support of a concept. A typical photobook might be organized around a central theme or it may consist of series of images investigating typologies... Continue Reading →
PhotoBook Journal 