Long term readers of this blog will remember 1) my love of late-90s diaristic type photography and 2) a time where I wrote many more reviews than I do now. I don’t have much to say about the second, and not much has changed about the first. As such, I bought Swan Moon’s Swan Moon within seconds of opening an email from TBW Books, and that was a long time ago now. Oh well. I would say “better late than never,” and it’s likely that many of the photobooks on my shelves will go unreviewed. Oh well.
Flipping through Swan Moon, it struck me… This is not “Hiromix in LA,” which is sorta what I hoped. I mean, it is, sorta, and where Hiromix is a bit older than me and therefore the cool older girl who seemed to have a bunch of interesting friends and do all sorts of things I can imagine and kind of understand, Swan Moon is somewhat younger than me and doing things that I saw other, younger people do, and the mystery and fascination is gone.
And that’s not what Swan Moon is about, really. It’s less a diary than a stage show. Moon herself made some of the pictures in her mid teens, and the pictures move between her teenage work and photographs of her and her friends as they (re)imagined the 1950s mod scene. I dabbled in some of that around the same time and North Texas provided a different background than the very artificial-looking backgrounds of LA, but I recognize the ethos and find it familiar.
They say that familiarity breeds contempt, and I don’t hate this book or Swan Moon’s work at all. Moon knew what she was doing, and her black & white work is sometimes evocative, sometimes inspiring, and nearly always shows a good knowledge of various filmic and photographic tropes. Growing up near LA as she did, Moon had access to a late 20th Century cityscape that looked much like it did in the mid-Century, and her friend group was ready and able to try and bring back that look.
An essay by Chris Krause near the end goes into this more than I have here, and with more focus and better words, and I think the photographs largely speak for themselves. A group of contact sheets at the end of the book give an interesting view into some of Moon’s self portraiture, and the overall edit and sequencing by Moon and Paul Schiek provide a flow and sort of story that works well.
After looking through the book again, and then again, I came away being much more positive about it. The black & white works very well and the way Moon and her friends pose, and Moon’s deployment of the built environment are inspiring in ways that Hiromix’s work is not. Where Hiromix is sort of aspirationally nostalgic for me, Moon’s work is more approachable, more (not-really-)possible. Good stuff.
Not Rated. Recommended.
I bought Swan Moon’s Swan Moon directly from TBW Books. At time of writing (June 2026) copies remain available. The book makes a nice addition to my over-large collection, and I’m privileged to have a copy. Moon is also more or less active on Instagram, and her contemporary work there is worth a look, I think.
Edit: I feel like I’ve lost my touch a bit… And no wonder: I haven’t reviewed a book since November of 2025. I want to be better and I make no promises.