Coca-Cola and the Implied Apathy of Tomatsu Shomei’s Photographs

Full Article with More Images on Patreon   It is essential to understand the biography of Tomatsu to understand what the emotion of rage or anger may be prevalent in his work. As a pubescent teen during the atomic bombing of Japan and the subsequent end of the Second World War, Tomatsu recalls the occupation […]

Ishiuchi Miyako Club & Courts Yokosuka Yokohama

Full Article on Patreon   So, the dig at post-industrial decay has put a giant bee in my bonnet. But what should I expect about the unspoken class issues that revolve and permeate through and in photography these days? I mean, if you have a New York-London-based photographer stat in your bio and are in […]

Nick Gervin Portlanders

Full Article on Patreon   Gervin’s work reflects the American moment in the second decade of the second millennium through tendencies similar to those seen in a good deal of American photography during the Vietnam War era.  I see some resemblances to protest coverage by Gene Anthony, a Black Star agency photographer who captured the […]

Dave Heath One Brief Moment

  Dave Heath – One Brief Moment Review by Simon Bray   Within the opening pages of Dave Heath’s ‘One Brief Moment,’ there is a certain air of occasion. Gathered masses fill the middle of the street, suggesting that these are not singular moments but a crowd united by a collective sense of anticipation and […]

Pedro Alfacinha 1985

    Full Article on Patreon   Returning to the idea of memories, one can feel all of these tendencies in the work used to enforce a slippage of time. Close-up images and somewhat obscure faces place the photographs inside a dream factory or memory farm. These fragments of realism play heavily with our ability […]

Nobuyoshi Araki The Banquet (Shokuji)

  Full Article on Patreon   “The Banquet is a different affair built around the same context of mourning. Instead of pictures of himself or his deceased wife, Araki presents a catalog of their last meals together. The images are shot with a close-up ring flash and a short lens to give a microphotographic feel […]

Jonas Feige This Soil We Create For Ourselves

    Editor’s Note: I wrote the original press release for this book. Pointing this out before you read the review for transparency is fair and necessary, as it will inevitably show some bias. In place of a review for this concern, I have decided to extend the format with what appears as inanity but […]

Tomaso Clavarino Padanistan

The full 2100 Word essay with 11 photographs on Tomaso Clavarino‘s Padanistan published by Studio Faganel and Guest Editions can be found here. Thank you for your support. Summary Text below     “My suggestion is that this is a vital book. I am not sure if it is a bit regional in scope. One […]

Lee Friedlander Fundación MAPFRE

There isn’t much more that can be said regarding the importance of Friedlander’s work on the psyche of subsequent generations of photographic enthusiasts and artists alike. From his self-portraits to his Little Screens, Friedlander’s work is simultaneously charged with an inner and external pathos that presents both as a partial reflection of the artist’s psyche […]

The Cracks on the Floor: Sebastián Mejía’s “Tempo”

“We often expect high-end production values in contemporary photobooks, but not every publication can afford some of the eccentricities that we have become accustomed to. In this sense, Tempo reminds us that our material expectations shouldn’t dismiss publications that use humble materials, often produced outside the usual centers of culture and power.”

Laura Bielau Arbeit 2016-2019

  Laura Bielau’s Arbeit 2016-2019 (Spector Books, 2021) is a stripped-back and minimal series of investigations that regards the environmental working effects and detritus of art labor in 2021. Though the aims are not overtly class-oriented or political, they function as a personal case study between the artist and the alien consumer objects that become […]

Thiago Dezan When I Hear That Trumpet Sound

  I was confronted with three parts of a mental soundtrack while paging through Thiago Dezan’s new book When I Hear The That Trumpet Sound (Selo Turvo, 2021, ed. 200). The first track based on title and the book’s black endpapers and the ominous black cover was Behemoth’s Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel, a rich and […]