Rachel Filler – ‘Do I make you happy more than I make you sad?’

Rachel Filler‘s Do I make you happy more than I make you sad? is a sort of celebration of youthful friendship and relationships. In the faces and gestures, I see some of the exuberance and wonder I felt, like, 20 years ago, and I simultaneously miss that feeling and am glad to be beyond it …

Joel Sternfeld – ‘On this Site’

On this Site: Landscape in Memoriam is best summed up, in my mind, with a quote from Sternfeld himself. In his Afterword, on going to Central Park (in 1993) to photograph the spot where Jennifer Levin was strangled (in 1986), he writes “It was bewildering to find a scene so beautiful . . . to …

Andrea Modica – ‘Treadwell’

Sometime in 2019, Andrea Modica moved and set up a new darkroom. In the process of moving, she came across an unopened case or two of her long out of print book Treadwell. Luckily for Charcoal Book Club members, Modica had just enough copies to pass on to us, and Treadwell became the photobook selection …

Enter the Instax Wide…

Last year, my dear Mom gave me a Lomo LC-Wide with the Instant Back package for it, and since she was gifting a LC-Wide, she picked up a pack of Instax Wide film for it… My employer uses this Bravo! thing for employee recognition, and after several years* I built up a bunch of reward …

Gregory Halpern – ‘Omaha Sketchbook’

Omaha Sketchbook was the Charcoal Book Club selection for August 2019. Had it not been for Charcoal, I probably wouldn’t have picked up a copy of it. First off, I’ve been on a photobook buying hiatus since June 2019; second off, well, I don’t have a good reason. Gregory Halpern’s work is excellent, and Omaha …

On ‘Annie on Camera’

You’re probably not too familiar with Annie on Camera. I hadn’t heard of it, and don’t remember where I found out about it, but I’m glad I did. In 1982, Ray Stark produced the film adaptation of Annie. At a party during filming, he engaged Anne Hoy to hire some photographers to come and photograph …