Rabbit

Self-published, 2023; hardcover, first edition, limited to 100 copies, 136 pages, 9¼”x 12¼”, signed on title page.

Rabbit is a limited-edition facsimile of a one-of-a-kind artist’s book, designed as a photographer’s intimate journal and scrapbook. It features over 100 mostly black and white photographs from extended journeys over the past four decades, including the United States, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

 The book contains reproductions of a wide array of personal items and ephemera related to these trips: diary entries, poems, Polaroids, maps, contact sheets, newspaper clippings, found notes and images, and numerous letters and postcards exchanged with family, friends, lovers, and my artistic mentor Robert Frank. In addition, there is an author’s explanatory afterward in the format of a “letter to the reader,” sealed in its own airmail envelope. To recreate the intimate feeling of an original scrapbook, many of these items are separate and distinct objects I have manually trimmed, folded, assembled and bound and attached to the book’s pages.

 The project records a meandering, epistolary tale of my rabbit-like wanderings: searching for love and connection, fleeing private demons, trying to disappear down the furthest reaches of a dusty road or jungle river, and hoping ultimately to attain some nirvanic state where I lose myself completely and become one with the world around me. In this sense, the book’s photos should not be viewed so much as a visual record of places or people encountered but as reflections of my state of mind on a very internal journey.   

***Please Note: Because each book takes several hours to finish by hand (as described above), please allow up to 5 months after purchasing for the book to be shipped. Thank you for your patience!***

hardcover - $200

SOLD OUT

To see videos and photographs of the book, and how it is finished by hand click here.

To purchase click here.

The West Behind Us

Self-published, 2014. First edition, second printing of 100. 148 pp., 44 duotone illustrations, 6"x8½".

This collaboration between myself and author Lisa Wells documents four small, rural towns in Oregon – Fields, Mitchell, Long Creek and Halfway – investigating the challenges faced by rural communities in an age of increased urbanization and economic depression. Working in the tradition of WPA era artists James Agee and Walker Evans' Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, the book includes 44 black and white photographs by me, along with extensive interviews with residents and first-person narrative by Lisa Wells. As Dave Blanchard of Oregon Public Broadcasting writes about the project: "The two Portland-based artists understood the challenges of accuracy and exploitation inherent in documenting the lives of others. They traveled to the locations separately, not wanting to come across as offering a definitive account of the towns. They instead focused on their personal connections with the towns and the people who live there." The results are two independent, complementary visions of life in rural America on the cusp of the urban millennium. (Click here to view images from the project (originally titled "The 45th Parallel"), and click here to see pages from the book.)

A special edition of 10 come with an 8"x10" silver gelatin photo printed by me in my darkroom.

softbound - $45 (sorry sold out)
special edition w/ 8"x10" print - $200 (sorry sold out)

to purchase directly from this site click here, or purchase from photoeye.com

North Portland Polaroids

Limited edition of 100. Introduction by Julia Dolan, Minor White Curator of Photography, Portland Art Museum. Self-published, 2015. 80 pp., 70 duotone illustrations, 6"x8½".

I spent two years shooting hundreds of Polaroid Type 55 portraits of strangers on the streets of St. Johns, a distinct, historically working-class neighborhood in Portland, Oregon. I have compiled 70 images in this book.  I printed 100 copies, 10 come with an 8"x10" silver gelatin photo printed by me in my darkroom. Julia Dolan writes in the book's foreword: 'Abrahamson meets these people exactly where they are, precisely where they want to or should be. Himself a resident of St. Johns, Abrahamson is not only their photographer, but their neighbor, and his subjects respect this-notice how close he manages to get to so many of them. Their command of space and direct gazes attest to an undistracted presence, a strong link to their environment, and a wary trust in the artist.' '...this place isn't just anywhere. It is St. Johns, and these are it's people, quietly yet eloquently described by Bobby Abrahamson and his photographs.' (click here to view images, click here to see pages from the book.)

softbound - $45 (only 1 book left)
special edition w/ 8"x10" print - $200 (only 1 left!)

to purchase directly from this site click here, or purchase from photoeye.com

Pacific Northwest Postcards

44 handmade 4"x6" postcards, in 4"x6" archival box with photo on cover, limited printing of 20 sets, 2010.  

The postcards present the best images from 5 years of photographic wanderings in Portland and throughout the Pacific Northwest. Each postcard is printed using archival pigment ink, glued & trimmed by hand, and signed and editioned on the back in pencil.  To view photos of the postcards click here. To view a gallery of all the images in the series click here.

limited edition box set - $300 (only two boxes of postcards left!)

to see more images and to purchase click here.