Over 60 black and white images, many previously unpublished, constitute this erudite book, Signs, a current exhibition and a recent acquisition to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. With candor and respect, Dow provides a living history of human spirit and ingenuity. Senior Curator April M. Watson’s essay, A Sense of Things in Time, places Dow’s 45-year contribution as photographer and professor within the lexicon of photography.

In this conversation, Jim Dow and April M. Watson discuss, among other things:

Art school as boot camp

How environment shapes us

Edgy idealism

The point of speculation

Recontextualizing one’s work

The importance of collaboration

Concern for your book audience

Consistently learning something new

A need for public intellectuals with a functional delivery system

Referenced in the episode

American Studies Jim Dow

Marking the Land Jim Down in North Dakota

Discovering the Vernacular Landscape John Brinckerhoff Jackson

Being Black in America is Exhausting Jonathan Capehart

American Photographs Walker Evans

The Danger of a Single Story Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer

The Elements of Value Eric Almquist

On Photography Susan Sontag

Sontag: Her Life and Work Benjamin Moser

The Burden of Representation; Essays on Photographies and Histories John Tagg

A Parallel Road Amani Willett. 2020.

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