Category Archives: Book reviews

Photobooks 2011: a view from Japan

By eyecurious | Published: 9 January 2012
As 2011 came to an end, I (somewhat foolishly) decided to compile the many ‘best photobooks of 2011′ lists that were popping up all over the internet to see whether there were any books that were consistently getting all the plaudits. The result is the previous post, a meta-list drawn compiling a total of 52 [...]
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Naoya Hatakeyama: a book and an exhibition

By eyecurious | Published: 16 December 2011
My most recent trip to Japan in October happily coincided with Naoya Hatakeyama’s first retrospective at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography. Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of his work – and there is quite a lot of it – so I was curious to see how this exhibition, entitled [...]
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Another best books of 2011 list…

By eyecurious | Published: 13 December 2011
I have given up, caved in, admitted defeat. Although the world does not need it, the temptation was just too great, so I have gone ahead and compiled a selection of my favourite books of the year. Instead of giving you a top 10 I decided to humbly borrow the format of the Oscars and [...]
Also posted in Collecting, Photo-books | 5 Comments

Cornell Capa’s Peruvian suitcase

By eyecurious | Published: 28 October 2011
I spend quite a bit of time with photobooks, whether it be for this blog, it’s slightly less wordy Tumblr cousin, or just for my personal pleasure, but it is not often that I get to spend a day with a book like this one. In fact, it is not a book but a maquette [...]
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Review: Cary Markerink, Memory Traces

By eyecurious | Published: 20 October 2011
I should start by saying that this review is long overdue. This is partly due to the fact that my blogging activity has ground to a halt of late, but also because of Memory Traces itself. The book is an intimidating object consisting of one oversized (30.5 x 41 cm) volume weighing in at a [...]
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Review: Valerio Spada, Gomorrah Girl

By eyecurious | Published: 20 April 2011
I caught up with Valerio Spada after missing the book launch of Gomorrah Girl at Le Bal in Paris in early March. The tallest Italian I have ever met, his enthusiasm and heart-on-his-sleeve sincerity are infectious and endearing (check out his Tumblr for a nice example of this). Spada explained how Gomorrah Girl had initially [...]
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Review: Inger Lise Rasmussen, Brilliant City

By eyecurious | Published: 26 March 2011
When I met Inger Lise Rasmussen at the Fotofest Paris portfolio review last November, one of the first things she said to me was “I’m not a photographer, I’m a print-maker.” This distinction is worth keeping in mind when looking at her work. Going through her portfolio at the time, it was clear to me [...]
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Review: Adriaan van der Ploeg, Mont Purgatoire

By eyecurious | Published: 5 January 2011
After Mariken Wessels‘ two mysterious tomes (one of which was reviewed here) which seemed to make most ‘best of 2010′ photobook lists, our Dutch friends have done it again and produced a book which really should not exist. I couldn’t help but try to imagine this book idea being pitched to any halfway-sane book publisher, [...]
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Review: Mariken Wessels, Queen Ann. P.S. Belly Cut Off

By eyecurious | Published: 10 December 2010
From the moment you hear its title, it becomes clear that Queen Ann. P.S. Belly cut off is not going to be an ‘easy’ photobook. By ‘easy’ I mean a book that gives itself to you on first viewing, immediately hitting all the right buttons. To use one of my favoured musical analogies, in the [...]
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Review: Hijacked Vol. 2, Australia/Germany

By eyecurious | Published: 2 November 2010
When I first saw Hijacked Vol. 2, I did a double-take. With an Australian mother and German father, you don’t come across many photobooks that appear to be you in book form. I had missed Hijacked Vol. 1, Australia/America when it came out two years ago so I was excited to discover the Hijacked ‘format’. [...]
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