Got Punctum?: Recent Episodes
J. Sybylla Sith
Got Punctum shares the creative practice of contemporary photographers and explores the bookmaking process. We discuss the power of photography to change individual lives and affect positive social change.
Julian Sander presents a humanist portrait of society in 619 silver gelatin portraits of 20th-century Germans photographed by his legendary great-grandfather, August Sander.
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Caroline Mauxion provides an immersive experience in her solo Paris Photo installation illuminating a Crip phenomenology through an autobiographical lens.
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Éric Antoine is a skateboarding self taught French painter and photographer exhibiting La Forme, a solo exhibition of luminous ambrotypes reflecting a decade of evolution to pare his creative practice to its purest essence.
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I was stopped in my tracks by the groundbreaking work of Evelyn Bencicova in collaboration with graphic sound innovator Samson G. Balfour Smith being exhibited at the Artemis Gallery in the Digital Sector of the fair.
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A trailblazing book chronicling the fundamental and consequential contributions of Japanese women photographers.
Mariko Takeuchi and Pauline Vermare discuss their collaborative project creating a restorative history of Japanese photography. Offering a critical and celebratory counterpoint to the invisibility of Japanese women photographers this expansive and rigorously researched book features 25 portfolios, multiple essays and an illustrated bibliography of photobooks by Japanese women photographers. This bold book embraces emotion, experimentation and provocation in myriad forms of beauty, humor, and deeply spirited connections.
In this conversation, Mariko and Pauline discuss, among other things:
Pulling back layers of cultural understanding of being a women
Expanding vocabulary and objects of study
Womanhood, daughterhood and caregiving
Physical involvement with the medium
Utilizing self-portraiture to reclaim agency over one's body
Making tangible that which is invisible
An outward expression of internal experience
Including the voices of photographers in the essays and text
Making and remaking meaning
Referenced in the episode:
Aperture
Rencontres d’Arles Exhibition I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese women Photographers From the 1950’s to Now
A World History of Women Photographers by Luce Lebart and Marie Robert
The Third Gallery Aya
PGI Gallery
Behind the Camera: Gender, Power, and Politics in the History of Japanese Photography / Created by Dr. Kelly McCormick and Carrie Cushman
What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women, 1843–1999 by Russet Lederman and Olga Yatskevich
Women Making Art: History, Subjectivity, Aesthetics by Marsha Meskimmon
Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed
World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2023
Self-Portraits by Yurie Nagashima
Ume-me - Todays Happening by Ume Kayo
The Memories of Others - Akihiko Okamura / Photo Museum Ireland
Linda Troeller’s self-portraits are compiled into a luscious tour de force of womanhood, identity and aging.
Troeller utilizes her relationship with the camera to understand herself and a woman’s place in the world across decades. Her history traverses that of a beauty contestant, potential lawyer, photojournalism student, model, muse, photo teacher, photographer, provocateur and activist. With conviction, insight and wisdom Troeller celebrates and generously shares her embodied strength and fragility.
In this conversation, Lindadiscusses, among other things:
Universalizing the personal
Provocation aka myth-busting
The circular relationship of punctum
Linda-ness
Self-portraiture, performance and installation
Exploring internal and external ageism
Sacred water explorations
Book decisions - ie: including titles
Sequencing, process and collaboration
Ghost Ranch, Leonora Carrington, Sophie Calle and Carolee Schneeman
Referenced in the episode:
Healing Waters Film
Museum of Sex Exhibition
Chelsea Hotel
Erotic Lives of Women
Orgasm
TBW
Leica Gallery Exhibition - LA
Made of Rivers by Emory Hall
Chico Hot Springs
Neither Give Not Take Away - Sophie Calle at Arles
Two intrepid photographers and professors discuss the myriad educational strategies they activate and lead to enhance and strengthen women’s presence in photography.
Anna Fox and Karen Knorr share how they empower visual storytellers by engaging a global network of practitioners, academics and curators who exchange resources, challenges and strategies toward achieving gender parity in photography. We hear how they conceived and built Fast Forward, their multi-pronged research organization responsible for establishing data, developing project-based teaching tools and convening worldwide themed conferences. Lastly, we wrap by learning of their 8-year-long road trip following the route established by Bernice Abbott.
In this conversation, Anna & Karen discuss, among other things:
Data on the underrepresentation of women photographers
Addressing and critically analyzing gender inequalities in workshop formats
Impact of motherhood and caregiving roles on professional photographers
Teaching as an adjunct to pursuing one’s photographic work
Coalition-building, nurturing collaborative efforts and creating global conferences to discover hidden stories of and by women visual storytellers
Identifying key gate openers and partnering with willing arts and educational institutions
Network-building from exhibition practices
Ambition, Synergy and Foresight
Reaching for inclusion with innovative strategies
Grants, grants and grants
History of their multiple road trips photographing together
Image and text dialog
Referenced in the episode
Manifesto
Report on Equity and Inclusion
Fast Forward
Putting Ourselves in the Picture
The Other Observers by Val Williams
Impressions Gallery
University of the Arts London
Tate
MEP
Work Show Grow
National Portrait Gallery
Trolley Books
T.J. Boulting Gallery
Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography by Dr. Siobhan Angus is the lens through which we explore the multi-media artwork of Rosell Meseguer and Kosisochukwu Nnebe.
This deeply researched and resourced book contextualizes the dark side of photography, the mining and extraction of elements that make printing possible. Our conversation centers on the many intersections of image-making and resource extraction. The deep scholarship of my guest's practices makes manifest the complex relationship between photography, colonization, labor, ecological, economic and social impact.
In this conversation, Siobhan, Rosell and Kosisochukwudiscuss, among other things:
Flipping photography on its head
Implication and possibilities of the interaction of light with metals
Extraction of rare earth elements
Process-based practices - artists thinking out loud
Ideas, materiality & visibility
Art exploring gaps and erasure in archives
Chlorophyll printing
Colonial histories
Food policy, manufacturing and distribution
Talking about the past & the present simultaneously
Connecting science & art
Illuminating economics in our daily life choices
Art creating theory
Referenced in the episode:
Dr. Siobhan Angus
Rosell Meseguer
Kosisochukwu Nnebe
Hiền Hoàng
Women and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin
Unscripted conversations with Aldeide Delgado, co-founder and leader of Women Photographers International Archive, and recent WOPHA Research Fellow and scholar, Dr. Candice Jansen.
Each woman shares their expansive practice, leading with curiosity and utilizing inquiry to activate potentiality. As scholars, archivists, writers, curators, and collaborators - their open-ended investigations resist a singular way of seeing. They build evolutionary and community-driven paradigms based on research, and center the importance of the past to envision a more equitable future.
In this conversation, Aldeide and Candicediscuss, among other things:
Amplifying visual stories of marginalized communities
Rewriting photographic history from a feminist perspective
Curatorial activism
Rhizomatic thinking
Trial, error and play
Place as process
The audience as the protagonist
New vocabulary and new definitions - ie. Memorist
Photography as a medium and a whole-body experience
Establishing terms of visibility
Prismatic perception
Referenced in the episode:
Doreen Massey
bell hooks
WT Mitchell - what if race were a medium?
The Photography Network
Regarding Muslims
Stuart Hall 1990 essay
This seminal book, a compendium of image-based projects, illuminates the subtle evolution of ideas of photographic practice over time.
This book offers a non-authoritarian systematic deconstruction of photo history to expand ways of making, seeing, and thinking about the multi-layers of relationships within photography. Five revered photographers, teachers and scholars innovated ways to visualize process and reinvestigate archives. Their collaborative project results in a prismatic view, new vocabulary and an essential teaching tool.
In this conversation, Susan Mieselas, Wendy Ewald and Laura Wexler discuss, among other things:
Opening new relationships within the event of photography
Limits of visual vocabulary
Methodologies that favor listening, learning and unlearning
The malleability of ideas and associations
Seeing across time
Photo with the blinders off
Creating vocabulary
Seeing threads and weaving them
Discovering what is missing
Building understanding
Dynamics of visual culture
Referenced in the episode:
Susan Miesalas
Ariella Aisha Azoulay
Laura Wexler
Wendy Ewald
Leigh Raiford
This is an introduction to the Leica team in Mexico, Central, and South America, which is actively highlighting and amplifying the visual voices across Latin America.
Meet:
Aurora Bruzon - Latin America Marketing Manager
Betsy May - Commercial Director Latin America
Manolo Marquez - Gallery and Akademie Manager for Leica Mexico
Each one shares specifics on their mission to bring diverse services and expand programming with Latin artists. Aurora, Betsy and Manolo discuss among other things:
Fostering community among passionate visual storytellers
Building global bridges
Bringing Leica values to a larger audience
Implementing ways to see the world through a Leica lens
News from the flagship Mexico City store and gallery
Expansion of programming across the region
The 29 Leica Galleries around the world
Framing photography as an expressive art
Promoting diverse work
Commercializing a variety of photographic genres
Referenced in the episode:
Leica Mexico City
Leica Women Foto Project
Leica Oskar Barnack Award
Leica Akademie
Leica Camera, U.S.A.
WOPHA Congress
WOPHA Foundation
Perez Art Museum Miami
Norton Art Museum
Danielle Ezzo is a new media artist pioneering the lossy space of photography through a process of sourcing from the vast digitized open-access archive of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This beguiling book animates McLuhan's semiotic principle, the medium is the message, by activating the ability of photography to simultaneously communicate and mediate. Ezzo’s rephotographed art objects unleash an open-ended exploration into how history is shaped and its potential to propagate the future.
In this conversation, Danielle discusses, among other things:
Viewer as curator
Non-linear looking
Intuitive response led by the aesthetics of formal qualities
Freeing artifacts of origins
Subjectivity of documentation
Categorization matters
Lossiness
Letting go of presuppositions (aka prescribed notions)
Sensibilities change
How images circulate now
Sky as inspiration and analogous to virtual space
Reimagining artistic communities
NFT’s
Economics of being an artist
Synthetic images
Museums' role as cultural arbiters
Cultural lag
Number Theory
A decade of attending this fair has honed my ability to select from the staggering amount of concurrent offerings - astounding amounts of work, panel discussions, book signings and outside Prsi Photo happenings during a packed week in Paris.
In this conversation, Syb discusses, among other things:
Vernissage
New discoveries
Elles x Paris Photo platforms and anniversary book
Robert Cumming happenings - including a new documentary
Book Awards
AI and digital photography taking a foothold at the fair
Polycopies
Sophie Calle taking over the Picasso Museum
Bleak yet authentic reflections on maternal relationships at Le Bal
David Campany pays tribute to the multidisciplinarian artist Robert Cumming, known for his rigorous dedication to the aesthetic tonality of the B & W image and his uncanny investigations into the philosophical nature of perception. Lusciously printed images from original 8 x 10 negatives are evidence of Cummings' masterful camera work marrying his fascination with photography’s ability to simultaneously describe and mislead. David Campany's equal sensibilities are evident in an erudite, witty essay and compelling image sequence.
In this conversation, David discusses, among other things:
Nonsense & Sensibility
Chicanery & wit
Craft and camera work
Fluid interchange of media
Transition of an object into an image
Looking at work in the round
Not getting pigeonholed
Specialism
Modernist Ideals
Thinking of scale
Landing in the middle
Viewers response to the work provides its meaning
All you can do with a watermelon
This recent Radius release offers an expansive framework of the principles of publishing including the layered roles and responsibilities inherent within the creation of a photobook. NOT a how-to guidebook, this beautiful object elegantly packages decades of research and provides contemporary resources to illustrate the endless possibilities of the photobbook. Swanson and Himes share the mission to create impactful photography books by encouraging all artists to: slow down idea formation, linger in the making mode, and do thy research.
In this conversation, Swanee and Darius discuss, among other things:
The biggest challenge - conceiving the idea
Fostering a dynamic engagement with one's ideas
Seeing the end in the beginning
Play, patience & persistence
Concept guiding context
Stepping outside the medium of photoogrpahy to clarify and deepen your idea
Critical thinking
Not rushing the monograph
The book as art form
Photogrpahs as raw material
Impact of digital publishing
Pivotal role of self publishing
University Presses
Balancing creative & business perspectives
The evolving life of marketing a book
Episode Notes
Photojournalist Preston Gannaway won a Pulitzer Prize for her poetic photography documenting a New Hampshire family coping with a young mother's illness and death. Remember Me is her breathtakingly graceful and intimate chronology of EJ over the intervening years since he lost his mother at 3 years of age. Gannaway masterfully transcends one family's journey to speak to the universal touchstones of life, love, loss, and the abiding ties that bind.
In this conversation, Preston discusses, among other things:
Observation as a superpower
Finding a photograph
Parameters of storytelling
Intuitiveness and nuance
Consent & collaboration
Photojournalism
Documentary tradition
Community journalism
A prologue of images
Hindsight
Capturing presence in the absence
Taking away the ‘fever pitch’
Defining objectivity
An empathic eye
Editing and sequencing
Funding projects
Big, weighty things
Photography is innovatively and collectively utilized to create a new narrative challenging the stigma and stereotypes of this indigenous community. This book is a multilingual textural object of beauty and wisdom — a non-linear collective celebration and document of home, belonging, hospitality, reciprocity and the longing to live in communion with the land.
In this conversation, Rehab discusses, among other things:
Personal exploration as motivation and inspiration
Connecting to the protagonists of your stories
Seeing with an empathic eye
Giving voice to the voiceless
Blending practice and process
Calling out visual references
Internalization of the ubiquitous colonial gaze
Being Modern vs Western
Progressive traditional gender roles
Symbols & Metaphor
Empowerment & Elevation
Incorporating soundscapes
Fashion history as a cultural, socio-political window
American Bedroom: Reflections on the Nature of Life is a messy, energetic, playful and heart-stoppingly poignant romp into the intimate spaces of ordinary Americans. Each portrait is accompanied by text by the subject. The result is an anthropological study of the physical, emotional, spiritual, political and psychological landscape of 21st century America. Peacock brings a wealth of experience and a very expansive heart to this tour de force of human cartography.
In this conversation, Barbara discusses, among other things:
Leading with the light - especially cascading amber light
Grabbing the details
Serendipity
Being bold and thinking big
Following instinct and intuition
Envisioning
Street photography skills
Building an archive of inspiration
Brutal editing
Choral (collaborative) Editing
Crowdsourcing
Grants and funding
Capturing the climate of the country
Social media as help and hindrance
Doing the “Barb thing”
Elizabeth Clark Libert's bold diaristic conversation with herself is a reckoning with a twenty years old sexual trauma and its impact on raising her school-age sons. Boy Crazy is a masterfully designed melange of self-portraits, environmental portraits, seasonal landscapes and family photos. Interspersed in a searingly honest staccato manner are intimate musings, email correspondence with her perpetrator and snippets of pointed conversation with her sons. In this conversation, Elizabeth discusses, among other things:Art as processReclaiming agency following sexual traumaShooting through ambivalenceLyricism and raw emotion Giving contextCollaborationBeing in conversation with your workWasabi writingFinding the structure of the bookExperimenting and refiningAsymmetryVisualizing Generating change and opening hard conversations Being brave togetherVisit my website for a full list of resources.
Anastasia Samoylova furthers her exploration of place and the ability of photography to shape our perceptions of reality. Central to her investigation is the geography of human relationships to our natural and man-made environments. Utilizing her masterful ability to collage in-camera, her flattened imagery provides us with a kaleidoscope of ideas surrounding globalization, historical heritage, and cultural idealism.
In this conversation, Anastasia discusses, among other things:
Geometry of the frame
Alignment of elements
Figures in the landscape
Spatial interplay
Illusion of scale
Inviting interpretation
Dialoguing with a targeted audience
Exposing tools of the medium
Gendering of cities
Feminist geography
Stoic philosophy
Open enacts metaphor to make visible the layers of oppression experienced by Palestinian apartheid. Exposed documentary images and HTML-coded emails are bookended with Arabic calligraphy and poetry. Delivered in a sealed cardboard film box, this soft-cover book utilizes photography as a tool to activate our imagination, reveal expansive truths and offer a revision of what hope and resilience look like.
In this conversation, Morgan discusses, among other things:
The poetic capacity of an image
What makes a successful photo
Pivoting
Enacting of metaphor
Chemistry & materiality
Experimenting & refining
Activating the medium
Shifting failure
Pointing towards possibility
Collaborative sequencing
Mythmaking
Challenging pretend knowledge
Sharing agency
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In this conversation, Todd discusses, among other things:
Working in archives
Thinking in books
Approaches to appropriation
Running amok
Parameters for sequencing
Perceived opposites
Light leaks
Colliding technologies
Data corruption
Observation & measurement
Falsehoods & mystery
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Discovering Peary Land by Todd Forsgren
Phase Faze 2001/2021
Driving Into the Sunset
A Constant Wind Between a Breeze and a Gale
Old Pictures from Paradise
Untitled Re:Iterations Photographs from 2000-2014
Ornithological Photographs
Daylight Books
Pavel Banka
John McKee
Michael Kolster
S. Billie Mandle
Jenny Riffle
Rocky Mountain College
Ryniker-Morrison Gallery
Michael N. Meyer: SpectacleBox
AgX Arts
Atlantika Collective
f/4.5 Collective
Okkervil River Band
Website | Instagram
Tough Pleasures turns a bright light and witty lens on the conflicting dynamics of femininity and food—revealing appetite and desire. Susan Bright's astute and savory essay provides the perfect table setting for the environmental portraits that follow. Wilkinson masterfully interrupts the repetitive and limiting messaging of unattainable expectations and endless critique by putting power in the hands of her subjects, real women and girls.
In this conversation, Toni and Susan discuss, among other things:
Shooting intuitively
Slow looking
Penises
Capturing chaos
Too muchness
Interrogating with light
Breaking image sequence with detailed shots
Revisiting work and reopening the series
Defying prescripted roles
Playing with power plays
Image-making as a tool to engage in ideas
Slog, splendor and sensuality
Episode Notes
Cai Quirk deeply explores genderqueer self-portraiture in an original image creation and story formation orchestration. A phantasmagorical world unfurls, as six evolutionary text and image sections weave a mythical interdependency of body, spirit and nature. The result is an invitation to regard all beings and their fluid becoming with a gracious welcoming of honor and respect.
In this conversation, Cai discusses, among other things:
The queer body in art history
Deconstructing gender realities
Making myth aka writing new stories
Playful ambiguity
Image and story as an invitation
Intertwining elements
Accessibility
Children of ambiguity
Neo pronouns
The fluidity of transness
Listening beyond oneself
Spin Club Stories is a mixed-media reintegration of history, environment, society and self in an interactive dialog spanning centuries. Reclaiming the artform and impact of women’s handiwork, Astrid assembles collages of images and textiles, perforated with hand embroidery. Sourced from family heirlooms, she figuratively empowers her ancestors—and ultimately herself—to transform the future.
In this conversation, Astrid discusses, among other things:
Rediscovering culture
Culture as kaleidoscope
Selecting elements to tell her story
Textiles and embroidery as connective tissue
Allowing materiality to lead process
Considering art vs. craft
The role of “women’s work”
The shifting boundaries that define identities
Working with lost knowledge
Memory as a key to the future
Healing power of art, craft and story
Creating new visual language via abstractions
This book forms a collective reframing of the realities of motherhood beyond the mythologized patriarchal gaze. A global array of photographer mothers document, with bold authenticity, the carrying and caring of a human—the feral and relentless shared space of heart-exploding wonder and joy—all seen and shared through the eyes of those who experience it.
In this conversation, Karni discusses, among other things:
Photographer mothers using the camera to document their reality
Confronting the monumental occupation that is motherhood
Managing the duality of identities as a mother/artist
The politicization of the personal
The synergy of interconnectivity and the strength of collaboration
Forming a visibility chain
Flipping the narratives
Righting misconceptions
Managing expectations
Love and sisterhood
Not endorsing motherhood, but endorsing the choice
In this conversation, Britlanddiscusses, among other things:
Camera as mediator
Gender constructs
Male vulnerability
Strong opinions, loosely held
Human-inflicted trauma
Sensationalizing violence
Working from a set of rules
Creative kinship
Serendipity
Applied abstractions of visual allegory
Interiority displayed
In this conversation, Peggy discusses, among other things:
How a camera transforms what we see
Being addicted to film
Seeing inside the photographer's head
Vastness of observation
The intelligence (and swiftness) needed to respond to the presence observed
The high jinx of black and white imagery
The relationship between the image and time moving
Teaching strengthens editing
The rhythm of a book
Loving the gutter
Taking the long view
A hatbox of 100 mice
In this conversation, Russett and Lauren discuss, among other things:
What constitutes a photobook
The evolution of the photobook
Gendered discrepancies and the inequity of access and privilege
A lack and/or ambiguity of attribution or authorship
The personal and political visual voice of women
The artist’s concept as a driving force
Telling your own story
The image as an agent for social change
Sequencing a narrative
Context, form and content
Publication and distribution
The serendipity of open stacks
The multiplicity of ways to read a photobook
In this conversation, Kristen discusses, among other things:
The power of observation
Speaking through photos
Commanding the frame
Leaning towards iconography
Intentionality
A circular gaze
Reciprocity in relationship with subjects
Import of residencies and support of the Guggenheim
Performative girl power
The evolution of a series and the birthing of a book
In this conversation, Jessica discusses, among other things:
Mining family narratives
Focusing on what's in front of you
Working with light
The influence of teachers
Wrestling with the materiality of now
Transcending the ordinary
Photojournalism vs art
One ‘good’ photo a month
Life fitting into photography
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Interior Exposure by Jessica Todd Harper and Sarah McNear
The Home Stageby Jessica Todd Harper
Centre Claude Cahun
Rick Wester Fine Art
Kinship, The National Portrait Gallery
Bo Barlett at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Mothercraft, Toni Pepe
Undo Motherhood by Diana Karklin
Designing Motherhood
Hettie Judah
Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
VERMEER, Mary Cassatt
Maine Media Photography Workshops
Arnold Newman
The Mount, Edith Wharton
The Clark Institute
Published by Damiani Editore
Website | Instagram
Three deeply researched long-term projects; Immortality: Remnants of the Vietnam and American War, One Week’s Dead, and National Parks are compiled in a sumptuous two-volume slipcase. Hauntingly beautiful chlorophyll prints and daguerreotypes, printed with clarity and depth on dense black paper, animate a living history of war, refugee status, immigration and assimilation. Augmented by essays, poetry and historical material in an all-white soft-covered book, Danh has masterfully married intention with process as a means of transmigration.
In this conversation, Binh discusses, among other things:
The power of a work of art
Public consciousness
Cultural identity
Innovating chlorophyll prints
Receiving history
Art being activated by the viewer
Decoding the code of daguerreotypes
Negotiation of materials
Complicated stewardship of the land
Bringing light to dark places
A mobile darkroom called Louis
Undo Motherhood is a boxed set of soft-covered trifold booklets titled after the predominant feelings identified by regretful mothers: anger, fear, isolation, exhaustion, guilt, resignation and acceptance. Karlkin’s investigation was driven by a single question: “If you knew then what you know now, would you have made a different choice?” Respectful, intimate imagery makes visible a continuum of ambivalence.
In this conversation, Diana discusses, among other things:
Ideology of motherhood
Collective imagination
Maternal reckoning
Multicultural expectations
Innovating approaches to achieve neutrality
Visually exploring vulnerability
The language of images
Dismantling narratives
Referenced in the episode
Underbau
[m]otherhood
Singapore International Photography Festival
Marina Carpena Meyer
Elinor Carucci — Mother (2013)
Carmen Winant — My Birth (2018)
Sheila Heti — Motherhood (2018)
Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution by Adrienne Rich
The Lost Daughter film (2021)
The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
Screaming on the Inside by Jessica Grose
“Regretful Mothers” by Anne Kingston, Maclean’s
“Women who wish they weren’t mothers” by Diana Karklin, The Guardian
1854 Photography on Undo Motherhood, British Journal of Photography
Published by Schilt Publishing
Diana’s Instagram
The Drawer is a visual autobiography of Aletti’s deep canon of inspiration, experience and multi-media obsessions collected over five decades. Created and captured in a single day, each collage is a flurry of free association. This book animates his refined sense of composition, eclectic juxtaposition of image and text and chronicles the tectonic shifts of art and visual culture.
In this conversation,Vincediscusses, among other things:
The intentionality of the photographer
Intuitive arrangements between images—in both exhibition and book form
Unselfconscious coupling of imagery
Art informing how we think
Magazine culture
Subversion
Advertising driving editorial
Undermining narratives
How to make a life in photography
Fun or nothing
Being the Bill Cunningham of contemporary photography
Referenced in the episode
Issues: A History of Photography in Fashion Magazines by Vince Aletti
C/O Berlin
SPBH
School of Visual Arts, NYC
Lillian Bassman
Judith Joy Ross
Peter Hujar
True Homosexual Experiences: Boyd McDonald and Straight to Hell
Dawoud Bey
The Moon Is Behind Us by Fazal Sheikh
Adam Fuss
Leslie-Lohman Gay Art Foundation
Dashwood Books
Published by Self Publish Be Happy
Vince’s Instagram
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In this conversation, Jennifer and Odette discuss, among other things:
Collaboration
Inherent trust
Being reckless
Being process driven
Allowing the material to speak for itself
The social journey of a photograph
Playing vs working
Simplicity
Growing understanding
Undoneness
Referenced in the episode
Books by Odette England
Jennifer Garza-Cuen’s website
Books by Susan Bright
Photography and Collaboration: From Conceptual Art to Crowdsourcing by Daniel Palmer
Indeterminacy: Thoughts on Time, the Image, and Race(ism) by David Campany & Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa
Lacuna Park: Essays and Other Adventures in Photography by Nicholas Muellner
Anonymous Was A Woman grant
Robert Rauschenberg Foundation
Penumbra Foundation
RISD Photography Department
Texas A&M Photography BFA
Ithica College Image Text MFA
Odette: Website | Instagram
Jennifer: Website | Instagram
Susan: Website | Instagram
In this conversation, Syb discusses, among other things:
Gallery/Artist/Resources
Gallery:
Casemore Gallery/ San Francisco/Chris Grunder
Rolf Art/ Buenos Aires, Argentina/Florencia Giordana Braun
Julian Sander Gallery/Cologne, Germany/Julian Sander
TOBE Gallery/Budapest, Hungary/Tomas Opitz and Bea Puskas
Stephen Daiter Gallery/Chicago/ Lukas
Deepest Darkest Gallery/Cape Town, South Africa/ Deon Redman
Persons Projects/Berlin, Germany/Timothy Person
Boogie Woogie Photography/ Hong Kong, China/ Vanessa Franklin
Gallery Number 8/Brussels, Belgium/Marie Gomis -Trezise
Artist:
Sean McFarland
Rosamund Fox Solomon
Dafna Talmor
Anna Fabricius
Gary Schneider
Barry Saltzman
Tiina Itkonen
Takishi Shikama
Caroline Mardok
Phyllis Galembo
Veronica Mecchia
Resources:
Aperture Book Awards
Aperture Revolution is Love: A Year of Black Trans Liberation
Datz Press in South Korea
Digital Silver Imaging
Dysturb
Leica Women Foto Project
Elles X Paris Photo
MEP - Boris Mikailov Exhibition
Pompidou Center - Unframing Colonialism
Polycopies
Manual Editions
Photo Saint Germaine
Catchlight
Musee des Art Decortif Louvre - Elsa Schiaparellili Exhibtion
Parisol Foundation Trust
Fast Forward: Women in Photo
Sustainable Photobook Publishing Network
Website | Instagram
In this conversation, Matt discusses, among other things:
Taking a fixed object to a fluid space
Accessibility
Readability
Intentionality as a central focus
The purpose of publishing is to make public
Engaging the mobility of books
Taxonomy of the photobook
Establishing criticality standards
Reader-centric vs. maker-centric books
Sustainability
Stewardship of the photobook
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Offset Projects, Anshika Varma
A Parallel Road by Amani Willett & Tiffany Jones
The Content Machine by Michael Bhaskar
Photobooks: The Book Club Test (April 2022)
The Photobook in Art & Society by JOVIS (2020)
Photobook Sessions Conference
The Photobook Museum
World Photobook Day
Website | Instagram
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Photographer and filmmaker, Rita Leistner, blends fine art with documentary in her intensely lit, unstaged, metaphorically-inspired environmental portraits of the tree planters reforesting the cut blocks devastated by commercial logging.
In this conversation, Rita Leistner discusses, among other things:
Uncanny use of light
An innate sense of composition
Feeling not with the heart or head — but with the spine
The power of artificial lighting
What makes communities work
Bush legs and tree eyes
Capturing visual vocabulary in the real world
Light as media
The whiteness of the whale
Living the work
Matar gracefully investigates womanhood, identity, and empowerment - across time and place. Poetic, soulful, and bold portraits capture the agency of becoming, at the threshold of independence. Matar bridges differences in culture, religion, geography, and nationality, offering the connective experience of our shared humanity.
In this conversation, Rania discusses, among other things:
Working organically
Image as a bonus
Being open to collaboration on all levels
Serendipity
Observing beauty
Following curiosity
Giving subjects agency
The physicality of the print
Spending time with the work
The importance of hands in portraiture
Book design details
The impact of grants and awards
Referenced in the episode
Ordinary Lives (2009) by Rania Matar
A Girl and Her Room (2012) by Rania Matar
L’enfant-Femme (2016) by Rania Matar
She Who Tells a Story at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2013-2014)
In her Image at Amon Carter Museum of American Art (2018)
https://nmwa.org/exhibitions/live-dangerously/
Women To Watch, National Museum of Women in the Arts
The Wanderess by Roman Payne
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Unfortunately, It was Paradise by Mahmoud Darwish
https://www.saintlucybooks.com/
https://ayellowroseproject.com/
https://www.seal-usa.org/
https://www.radiusbooks.org/
Website | Instagram
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Holly Lynton melds form, content, and meaning in her strikingly beautiful images, capturing the lives of those providing our sustenance, while protecting our land. Lynton’s compositional framing, lush palette, textural tones, and transformative gestures craft a meditative beauty. Accompanying essays provide context for cultural contradictions, associations, and representations — speaking to the role art has played to perpetuate or reveal them.
Referenced in the episode
Lost in a meditation: Rural American life – in pictures, The Guardian
On the Basis of Art: 150 Years of Women at Yale
Signs of Return by Grace Elizabeth Hale
Questions of Travel by Elizabeth Bishop
Hoe Country, Alabama by Dorothea Lange
Blurred Identities: The Art and Audience of Lynching Photography
History, Photography, and Race in the South: From the Civil War to Now
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Love Child’s Hotbed of Occasional Poetry: Poems and Artifacts by Nikky Finney
Hold Still by Sally Man
NXTHVN
Website | Instagram
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In this conversation, Toni discusses, among other things:
Unpacking seeing
The family photo album
Pushing expectations of the image
Text as a tipping point
Enticing touch
Engaging viewers physically
Being driven by an idea
Collective learning
Cross-discipline experimentation
Stick-to-it-ness
Editing being crucial
The impact of when birth and death left the home
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In this conversation, Hettie discusses, among other things:
Gender care gap
Gender pay gap
Family as a trap for women
Domesticity and art
Need for subsidized, affordable childcare
The time-consuming emotional labor of parenting most often falls on mothers
Studio space & residency limitations
Commercial gallery's inconsistent gender parity
Art school’s ‘mother-sized’ holes
Female collectors’ big spending habits
Networking solutions
Polyvocality
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The full, messy & beautiful work of parenting
In this conversation, Colleen discusses, among other things:
Awakening to invisible justice
Bodily autonomy
Animal spectatorship
A practice of attention
Distilling process
Good obsessions
Book as archive
Puncturing social individuality
Sound is time made flesh
Sustaining projects is a puzzle
Imagining a kind future
Yemchuk’s second monograph is a form of visual poetry. Her exceedingly tender portraits exude sensuality, emotion, and kinetic energy. Her controlled compositions form a lyrical arrangement with words by Ilya Kaminsky. Together both artists capture the elusive essence of this magical city, beguiling and beyond time.
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In this conversation, Nancy and Scott discuss, among other things:
Exploring what a photo can do
The importance of story
The impact of presentation
Dancing around ideas
Photo as sculpture
Gendered objects
Creative agency
Housing fine art work
Allowing projects to unfold
RELATIONSHIPS
The magic of the art residence
Artists’ Resources/Inspiration
Organizations
Ralston Gallery
Newport Art Museum
3S Artspace
Creative Collaborators
Sean Alonzo Harris
Rachelle Steele
Steven Ferlauto
Tamara Magel
Jessica Hagen Fine Art and Design
Businesses
K. Hovnanian Developers
Bogarts Wooden Jigsaw Puzzles
Spoonflower
Nancy — Website | Instagram
Scott — Website | Instagram
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In this conversation, Karen discusses, among other things:
Falling in love with photography (and a photographer)
Modernism
Media hierarchy moving towards collaborative interdisciplinary exhibits
Impacting the breadth of community representation
Context & curation
Sequencing as the creative act of the curator
Consistency of vision within an exhibition
Creating critical conversations within an exhibition
Collector relationships
The medium and the message being one and the same
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Exhibitions
The Stillness of Things
Ansel Adams in Our Time
Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott
Make Believe
Media
Curatorial Lecture — Reimagining Ansel Adams
Curatorial Lecture — Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott
Curatorial Lecture — Make Believe
Creative Conversations: Daniel Handal and Karen Haas
Books
Gordon Parks: Back to Fort Scott by Karen Haas
An Enduring Vision Photographs from the Lane Collection by Lyle Rexer and Karen Haas
Edward Weston The Early Years by Margaret Wessling and Karen Haas
Photography by Anne E. Havinga, Nancy Keeler and Karen Haas
The Photography of Charles Sheeler: American Modernist by Karen Haas
Website | Instagram
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In this conversation, Mark discusses, among other things:
Performance art – specifically Men of the World
Image gestures – the body as a sculptural vehicle
Pre-visualization
Perspective and context
Bringing a feminist perspective to one’s work
Giving oneself permission, endlessly
Photo as phenomenon
Photography’s marginal history
Generative collaborations
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Artists
Spaulding Gray
Yoko Ono
Joseph Bueys
Karen Finley
Carolee Schneeman
Ana Mendieta
Lynne Tillman
Klea McKenna
Media
Winter of Artiface by Anaïs Nin
Notes on Ted Serios
Essay on Man of the World
Other
Gunet Abraham
MacDowell Visual Arts Residency
Website | Instagram
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*Got Punctum? Podcast Listed on the 70 Best Photography Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/photography_podcasts/
In this conversation, Daniel discusses, among other things:
Respect for straight photography
Conceptual photography as the Wild West
The 3 most important things to look for in an image
The impact of the personal book
Adaptation
Authenticity and being true to yourself
The power of print
Cutting the noise by using the postal service
Building your own ecosystem—not based on algorithms
Shooting in your own backyard
Following fascination
Reading as a free education
Visual creatives’ economic power
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Organizations
Blurb
Hello Future
Creative Collaborators
Hank Willis Thomas
Charlie Grosso
Michael Clarke
Zoe Sadokierski
Marcus Brownlee
Media
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog by Kurt K Gledhill
AG23
For What It’s Worth series
Shifter Media Podcast
YouTube
The Cult - Electric
Other
Fisher Space Pen
Website | YouTube
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*Got Punctum? Podcast Listed on the 70 Best Photography Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/photography_podcasts/
In this conversation,Jason discusses, among other things:
Photography as a tool to explore one’s interpretation of reality
Being private investigators of your subject
Engaging new book design perspectives
Making creative choices that build context
Organizational structure’s influence on editing
Allowing curiosity to explore one’s feelings
Jewish mysticism
The power of text
How the digital age impacts representation and acquisition
Crafting a dream within a dream within a dream
This work is traveling to:
Museum of History and Holocaust Education, Kennesaw, GA.
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland, OR.
Holocaust Museum, Houston, TX.
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Books
BERLIN by Jason Langer, Kerber Verlag
Twenty Years by Jason Langer, Radius Publishing
Possession by Jason Langer, Nazareli Press
The Art of the Memoir by Mary Karr
Memories, Dreams, Reflections by CG Jung
Media
Wings of Desire (1988)
Station to Station by David Bowie (1976)
Films of Wim Wenders’
Stevie Wonder
Creative Collaborators
Matthew Papa
Diane Smyth
Mary Virginia Swanson
Brad Temkin
Phyllis Galembo
Melanie McWhorter
Loli Kantor
Brassaï
Organizations
Jewish Book Council
Clamp Art, NYC
Esther Woerdehoff, Paris
Gillman Contemporary, Idaho
Website | Instagram
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In this conversation, Jaina discusses, among other things:
Photographing what you can’t see
Making space to document what you’re feeling
Making a mess
Doing insane things
Creating a creative team
The magic carpet ride of creativity
Trusting yourself
Sharing your process
The wonders of a shower notepad
Artist Resources/Inspiration
Little Weirds by Jenny Slate
Swamplandia by Karen Russell
A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True Self by Alice Miller
Stock Scenery Construction Handbook (Third Edition) by Bill Raoul & Mike Monsos
On Mental Toughness by Harvard Business Review
Directing Actors: Creating Memorable Performances for Film and Television by Judith Weston
Catching the Big Fish by David Lynch
Crafting Short Screenplays that Connect by Claudia Hunter Johnson
AquaNotes
Website | Instagram
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Using a large format camera with available light, Mandle compiles 40 color images of confessionals within Catholic churches across America. In illuminating spaces containing moments of grace, Reconciliation offers viewers the opportunity to seek, witness, and contemplate experiences of their own.
In this conversation, S. Billie Mandle discusses, among other things:
Correlations between confessionals and cameras
Photographers as collectors
Ways we create meaning as individuals and a society
Research impacting and shaping a project
Benefits of a design studio
Quieting color
Following affinities
Cold emailing for collaborators
Embodying paradox
Impact of oppressive societal structures
Referenced in the episode
Stellar Skytron
Night of the Fiestas - Kirsten Valdez Quade
Kehrer Verlag
Everything Studio
Dust Collective
Images As Action and Reflection Panel
Mass Cultural Council Berkshire Taconic Artist Resource Trust Fund
Mass Art
Cabinet
Rebecca Solnit - The Blue of Distance
Cynthia Cruz - Disquieting
Sovereignty of Quiet - Kevin Everod Quashie
Barbara Bosworth
The Land in Between - Ursula Schulz-Dornburg
Bluets - Maggie Nelson
The Poetics of Space - Gaston Bachelard
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
Website | Instagram
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*Got Punctum? Podcast Listed on the 70 Best Photography Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/photography_podcasts/
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.
Website | Instagram
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*Got Punctum? Podcast Listed on the 70 Best Photography Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/photography_podcasts/
2jAxlFDoKJ3wrVkDdULA
A palpable synergy permeatesDavid Campany’s animated sequence of over 140 images and paintings in Anastasia Samoylova, Walker Evans Floridas. A playful interaction that recontextualizes Evans' archive, also illuminates photography’s unique ability to capture paradox, metaphor and oxymoron. Both Samoylova and Evans investigate deeper truths and the mixed feelings generated at the intersection of myth, reality and the wild possibilities in between.
In this conversation, Anastasia Samoylova and David Campany discuss, among other things:
Contributing to the roadtrip canon from a female perspective
Looking first
Ungendered images
Parsimony and composition
Showing time in one frame
Ability of work to endure
Leaving meaning open
Nietzsche and Baudelaire
Nostalgia
Sovereign
Sense of scale
Referenced in the episode
Florida by Lauren Groff
AIPAD
Laurence Miller Gallery
ICP Photography Fest
The Photograpers Gallery
Photo London
Carol O’Breen Gallery
Walker Evans
The Lives and Loves of Images, 2020
William Klein: YES
Natalie Goncharova - Rayonism
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Anastasia Samoylova Website | Instagram
David Campany Website | Instagram
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*Got Punctum? Podcast Listed on the 70 Best Photography Podcasts https://blog.feedspot.com/photography_podcasts/
Jess Dugan utilizes their skilled observation and keen awareness of the dynamics of portraiture to pose questions on love, loss, risk, trust and belonging. Sixty poetic images possessed of affection and agency, are intermixed with poignant and highly personal prose, to create an object of beauty and an accompaniment to the trials and triumphs of a fully lived life.
In this conversation, Jess Dugan discusses, among other things:
Following desire
Being led by attraction
Looking to pictures to learn
Regulating the emotional space of portraiture
Ethics of care
Practice as process
Protecting creative space
Expanding the gaze - beyond identity
Capturing ambiguity
Personal storytelling as a model of possibility
Referenced in the episode
Every Breath We Drew - Jess T Dugan
To Survive on This Shore - Jess T Dugan, Vanessa Fabbre
Strange Fire Collective - Rafael Soldi, Jess T Dugan, Hamidah Glasgow, Zora J. Murff
Fine Arts Workshop Provincetown - Intimate Portraits led by Jess T Dugan
The Queer Indigenious Artists Reclaiming a Fluid Sense of Gender - The New York Times Style Magazine
Notes on Fundamental Joy - Carmen Winant
Brainstorm - Rebecca M. Jordan-Young
In Lieu of Flowers - Caleb Cole
Art After Stonewall 1969-1989 - Weinberg
Becoming Sisters: Women Photography Collective & Organizations
Jess Dugan Website | Instagram
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Seeing Being Seen is a synthesis of Dunn’s multi-decade career of leadership roles in design, publishing, arts administration and academia told in part through images by 36 photographers she has known, worked with or collected. A central theme is the ever-evolving journey of learning and understanding how we see. Included is a Primer, an accessible and portable teaching tool on how to read a photograph.
In this conversation, Michell Dunn Marshdiscusses, among other things:
Ways of thinking about the history of photo
The myriad (and often unconscious) factors that influence and inform how we see
Matters of history and heritage
Dismantling associations and identifying assumption
Normailizing difference
The neuroscience of seeing
The alchemical and iterative process of visual problem-solving, aka design
Sequencing as a spiritual practice
Portraits as aspirational
Intergenerational dialog
Publishing options
Buying from publishers websites is a smart choice
When to guide and when to let go
Referenced in the episode
Minor Matters
Multiplex by Paul Berger
All Power (Black Panthers at 50) Exhibit
Taking Aim by Graham Nash
Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX)
Highland Heritage Museum
The Unconcerned Photographer by Charles Harbutt
Ways of Seeing by John Berger
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright
Aperture
Chronicle
Jim Marshall
YoungArts
PCNW
Michelle Dunn Marsh Website｜Instagram
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Professor Dr. Lauren Walsh illuminates the complexity of visual journalism by highlighting the concerns and challenges of those who create, disseminate and consume images in our technologically driven times. Utilizing the interview format of her seminal book, Conversations on Conflict Photography, Walsh raises considerations on the changing notions of photojournalism, the heightened health and emotional safety needs of photojournalists given threats to press freedom.
In this conversation, Dr. Lauren Walsh discusses, among other things:
Importance of context
Levels of censorship
Media cycles
Headline dominance
Heightened dangers of being a member of the press
Doxxing
Vetted journalism
Pros and cons of citizen journalism
Tik Tok as a news source
Referenced in the episode
Conversations on Conflict Photography - Lauren Walsh
Content Authenticity Initiative
PhotoEthicsCenter
Reporters without Borders
Freedom House
Insurrection - VII Photo
George Floyd’s Amercia/Washington Post
Who Else is Culpable in George Floyd’s Death? - NYT The Daily
The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart - Alicia Garza
Fatal Force
1A.org
American Views 2020: Trust Media Democracy
Stongmen: Mussolinin to the Present by Dr. Ruth Ben Giat
Lauren Walsh Website | Instagram
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Abandoned Moments is a book, an approach, a tool and a philosophy. Kashi reconsiders his deep and expansive photographic archive shot in 100 countries over the past four decades to set them free of their original context. These fluid and engaging images vibrate with the chaos, wonder and complexity of the human experience.
In this conversation, Ed Kashidiscusses, among other things:
Shooting from the hip
Visceral cues and animal instincts
Becoming one with a camera
Play being essential to practice
Active investigation of a concept
Stumbling into results
Listening to ‘talking’ negatives
The beauty of decontextualizing images
Changes of heart and mind
The intoxication of the medium of photography
A joyful and collaborative edit
Referenced in the episode
THREE
Photojournalisms
The Enigma Room
The Newest Americans
Talking Eyes Media
VII Photo Ageny
Social Documentary Network
Alison Rose George
Ed Kashi Website | Instagram
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Golden Apple of the Sun animates the quotidian elements of Cole’s kitchen countertop in unposed meditations of color and form captured during a perilous 5-week period. This tapestry of image and text exposes the power of everyday objects to reflect the prismatic spaces we hold during our brief and precious life.
In this conversation, Teju Cole discusses, among other things:
Still life images as biography
Disappointing expectations
Postponing reaction
nofilter
Dead bird syndrome
Incorporating accidents
Positioning and modifications imposed by ethnocentricity
Translucence and opacity
Being difficult
Listening foremost to one’s self
Going your own way
Referenced in the episode
Phillis Wheatley’s Poetry
“A new literary timeline of African American history” - Eve L. Ewing 1773 New York Times, 1619 project
“A Photograph Never Stands Alone” - New York Times
“A Subtlety” - Kara Walker
“In Flagrante Two” - Chris Killip
“Black Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments” - Saidiya Hartman
“A Black Gaze: Artists Changing How We See” - Tina L. Campt
Shadows in Nature, Life & Art - William Vaughan
The Practicing Refusal Collective - The Sojourner Project
Digital Silver Imaging
Teju Cole Website | Instagram
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Black Diamonds seamlessly blends typographic, street photography, portraiture, and pictorial landscapes into a lyrical composition honoring the people and places of the misrepresented coal mining communities of Appalachia. Facun celebrates the strength of this diverse community in 63 square color images within a beautifully muted palette.
In this conversation, Rich-Joseph Facundiscusses, among other things:
Photographing for oneself
Photo as play and therapy
The fire that is punctum
Starting a project is like falling in love
Shooting at the edges of your real life
Instagram as an editing tool
Finding your voice in an edit
Accidental beginnings
The wisdom of taking the long way home
Finding trusting collaborators
Aligning vision and intent
Referenced in the episode
Little Cities of Black Diamonds Council
Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
Little Oak Press
In a pandemic, there’s no place I’d rather be than here in Appalachia by Alison Stine
Book Review by Odette England in the Strange Fire Collective
What is The Future of Black Appalachia - The New York Times
Anna & Elizabeth
Website | Instagram
The Certainty of Nothing continues her intrepid investigation into the limits of the photographic medium. Her palpable agency and precise command belie her playful and organic methodology. With a replete tool kit of mediums and materials, Fifield transforms encounter and experience to illuminate meaning and connectivity across cultures and time.
In this book group, Sandi Haber Fifield discusses, among other things:
Coupling images
Visual Gestault
Photo as source material
Magic happening in the studio
Stages of engagement with one’s work
Connotation and codification of color
Importance of slowing down
Working with the print vs the screen
“Shifting till they sing.”
Closing quote by Claire Ping for Musee Magazine:
“She uses various techniques to reconstruct images collected over time and create what may be termed visual poems, lyrically opening up new possibilities for looking or even thinking about perception…They suggest the radical potential of the photographic medium to expand our imaginative horizon, and challenge everyday vision.“
Referenced in the episode
The New Museum Triennel 2021 - Soft Water Hard Stone
Marty Forscher
Books by Sandi Haber Fifields
2013 After the Threshold, Kehrer Verlag
2011 Between Painting and Picking, Charta Books
2009 Walking Through the World, Charta Books
1997 Defining Eye: Women Photographers of the 20th century
“Nathan Lyons: Selected Essays, Lectures, and Interviews” (2012) edited by Jessica S. McDonald
Visual Studies Workshop
Nathan Lyons book
Erin Shirreff
Website | Instagram
Grundberg presents a personal reflection of his on-the-ground immersion in the world of contemporary art during the conceptual hayday of the NYC downtown scene in the 70’s and 80’s. In this scholarly tour-de-force he chronicles over 100 artists as photography became a means to deconstruct and make contemporary art approachable.
In this book group, Andy Grundberg discusses, among other things:
The popularity of contemporary art being a consequence of photography
Women photographers use of photo and performance to challenge the male gaze
How photography revealed structures which attracted artists to the medium
Arts’ ability to reveal it’s own contradictions
Shaping culture with Cindy Shermans’ new variant of self portraiture
Susan Sontag's prescient call to consciousness - ‘images consume reality’
The Starn twins barrier-breaking sculptural use of photography
Sophie Calle being an avatar of surveillance in photography
The import of magazine photography - it is where art photo happened
The contextualists (aka digital natives) leading photo forward
Referenced in the episode
Jill Freedman
John Edmonds
First Womens Congress
The Piedmont Manifest - Andy Grundberg
10 Female Land Artists You Should Know - Sarah Gottesman
Painting, Photography and Film - Moholy-Nagy
Joan Jonas Vertical Roll 1972
A.D. Colemen Light Readings : A Photography Critics Writing; 1968-1978/ 1979
Death in Photograph - Andy Grundberg
The Photography Reader - Liz Wells
Adrian Piper
Website | Instagram
See/Saw compiles observational musings on over 40 photographers plus reflections on the writings of Roland Barthes and John Berger. Erudite, entertaining and thought-provoking this book is a veritable library of looking. It introduces unheralded imagemakers that capture imagination while sending readers into deep research on the plethora of historical and contemporary references evoked.
In this book group, Geoff Dyer discusses, among other things:
Talking about meaning versus talking about the photographs
Conjuring images in words
Writing that combines the critical with the creative
Language everyone thinks they can speak
Ability of photos to illuminate consciousness
Instability and ever-expanding nature of photographic history
The aesthethic purity of Walker Evans
What constitutes signiifers now
A photograph as memorial
Referenced in the episode
The Ongoing Moment
The Street Photography of Garry Winogrand
On Photography NYT, The Mysteries of Our Family Snapshots, January 2017
The Suffering of Light by Alex Webb
Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
Mirrors and Windows: American Photography Since 1960
Believing is Seeing Errol Morris
Antonioni’s Blow Up
Website | Instagram
A master weaver intersecting the past with the future, Brea Souders constructs visual analogies that expose the layered intermediaries of communication. Positing centuries-old existential questions, Souders discovers her own lexicon, creating a language built on correlation, random chance and fleeting reaction.
In this book group, Brea Souders, discusses, among other things:
How we experience images now
Establishing an economy of means in image-making
Allowing other viewpoints to influence your creative decisions
Accidential observation
Science influencing art by experimenting with an objective
Being in dialog with your work
The creative limbo when between bodies of work
The fluid intersections of analogy and digital processes
The iPhone as sketchbook
Referenced in the episode
Google Photo Sphere
Millay Colony of the Arts
Good Pictures: A History of Popular Photo by Kim Beil
Photography is Magic by Charlotte Cotton
Ina Jang
Bruce Silverstein Gallery
Rachel de Joode
Blow Up
Website | Instagram
A manual on female dairy cows provides a portal for Odette England to unearth the latent truths of her girlhood, formed in the deeply gendered community of family-run dairy farming. Sequencing hauntingly mysterious images with succinctly insightful text, England explores conventions, offering an expansive and empowering response in their place.
In this book group, Odette England discusses, among other things:
Listening and living with your work
Making photographs as a conversation - before having a context or conceptual frame
Employing sincerity
An economy of text and image
Making in community and the importance of collaboration
Color as character
“A vertical experience of a horizontal wish”
Non-conforming females
Photos as slippery storytellers
Gifts & Omens
Referenced in the episode
Sexual Politics of Me - Carol J. Adams
Green Eyes - Marguerite Duras
Ordinary Affects - Kathleen Stuart
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Lightwork
Saint Lucy Press
Cara Buzzell
The Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolano
Decasia - Bill Morrison
Website | Instagram
Cig Harvey’s fourth monograph celebrates the sacred and the profane in lush, glossy, saturated color. In a hefty book of french-fold pages chronicles in image and text, Harvey’s courageous exploration of visual storytelling in form and narrative. Utilizing the medium of photography to illuminate the quotidian, Harvey reflects our human paradox, the unbearable lightness of being.
In this book group, Cig Harvey discusses, among other things:
The camera as a ouija board
The subconsciousness of sequencing
Living with senses wide open everyday
Color as subject
Photographing with a point of view
Flowers as healing agents and as reflecting the ephemeral nature of life
The push and pull of a strong image
Knowing the seasons of your own creative clock
Referenced in the episode
Cig’s Books:
You Look At Me Like An Emergency
You An Orchestra You A Bomb
Gardening At Night
Joyful - by Ingrid Lee
Interactions of Color - by Josef Albers
Modern Nature - by Derek Jarman
Wednesday is Indigo Blue - by Cytowic and Eagleman
The History of Bees - by Maja Lunde
InHarmonicity, The Tonal Walkway - by Julianne Swartz
Do Walk - Navigate, Earth, Mind and Body - by Libby DeLana
*Wildgeese - by Mary Oliver
Website | Instagram
Multi-media artist Stacy Mehrfar presents a collision of sensory experience in an actualization of the emotional terrain of migration. Portraits, landscapes, and still life images are purposely devoid of signifiers to place, time and space, inviting a collective encounter of dislocation.
In this book group, Stacy Mehrfar discusses, among other things:
Picturing emotion
The purpose of a portrait - is about the subject or the photographer?
Importance of place and how landscape defines us
Subjectivity of color
The power of montage
The invaluable role of a book desinger
Referenced in the episode
Documentation of TMBTE Immersive Video Installation
A Collective Performance, TEDx Live Stream
GOSTBooks
FIlm Form and the Film Sense
American Palimpsests
Tall Poppy Syndrome with Amy Stein
Naomi Riddle - Running Dog Art
Also see: Stacy kindly sent links to Avinu Malkeinu renditions and Farsi music from her childhood that are shared below.
Website | Instagram
Avinu Malkeinu:
Anne Vetter on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUFh_I7Axwx/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Barbara Streisand: khttps://open.spotify.com/track/25FJtwokc905OMHwyJsEbJ?si=7cc6ee37f6734c05
Phish Live Performance: https://open.spotify.com/track/4dcuDn0bswyBMyPCbLyRLy?si=fe60dcd8b39b4ded
David Grisman and Andy Statsman: https://open.spotify.com/track/055U63Cn1Z5EsFQ7K0LjN0?si=48c67e79a99e4236
Hilton Chilchik: https://open.spotify.com/track/68z5UU7tvw1Q5PTCg09I6z?si=3daa117d949b4881
In Sovereign, photographer Jocelyn Lee actualizes the democracy she sees between humans, nature and the animal world as she explores their cycles of fecundity. Her sensual and intimate portraits made in collaboration with mature women create fictional narratives which challenge the cultural coding of shunning the aged female body. Using natural light, a medium format camera and film, Lee skillfully composes portraits which expand notions of power, possession and passion.
In this book group, Jocelyn Lee discusses, among other things:
The camera as a philosophical tool
Consciously layering one’s subject with other priorities to inspire and expand imagination
Making visible the mythology of cultural codes
The beauty of our ‘animal bodies’
The magic of not knowing
The dance and performative nature of photography
The metaphorical power of portraiture
The excitement of exploring new methods and processes
Being in conversation with your work
Referenced in the episode
Mary Oliver
The Naked and the Lens
Justine Kirkland
Kristen Joy Emack
Erick Hawkins
Recollections of My Nonexistence
Website | Instagram
Renée Jacobs, a photojournalistic turned civil rights lawyer turned erotic documentarian, uses photography to explore her own sexuality and to listen and give voice to the desire of her co-collaborators. Joyful, intense, alluring and lustful, each image is a story grounded in visualizing felt emotion. Jacobs notes; “ I switched the lens and the lens switched me.”
In this book group, Renée Jacobsdiscusses, among other things:
Standing in your own light
Carving a space to listen to co-collaborators
Desire needing context
Twin motivators of loss and longing
Relating to Gordon Parks’ experience of needing Paris
Widening technical exposure, experiment
The luck to have mad genius friends
Inspiration from Japanese bookmaking techniques
The rule of 6 twists to pop French bubbly
Referenced in the episode
L'Oeil de Photographie- PARIS
Sinners Exhibit in Paris Video
Photo de Femmes
Cynthia McAdams
Alice Austin House
Smith Colleges - Voice of Feminism Oral History Project
Body; The Photography Book - Nathalie Herschdorfer
Fan the Flames ; Queer Positions in Photography at the Ontario Art Museum
Art & Queer Culture - Catherine Lord & Richard Meyer
Aperture 218 Spring 2015 - Queer
Joan E Biren - Dyke Show Lesbian Images in Photo 1850
Website | Instagram
By blending technique, process and intent Kuhn brings transcendent reflections to light by exploring shadows. Collaborating with her subjects, all enter into an undefined space to await the moment where art and life coalesce. In this session Kuhn’s restless energy generously shares her meditative photographic practice.
In this book group, Mona Kuhn discusses, among other things:
The humanist influence of Brazilian photographer, Mario Cravo Neto
Allowing life to enter one’s work
An image which keeps on giving, lasts
The role of vulnerability and insecurities to propel work
The collaborative role of the subject, their creative freedom which grants them the final decision in allowing publication
Being led by shadow
Being dressed in your own skin
The fecundity of the female
Discerning and protecting your visual vocabulary
Intuitive intelligence and the abundance of the unconscious
Referenced in the episode
BODY The Photography Book Nathalie Herschdorfer
Lucian Freud
Imogen Cunningham
August Colbert - Origin of the World
Mario Cravo Neto
Christian Cavo’s work
Getty Research Institute
Website | Instagram
Highly awarded for her vast humanitarian impact with over 500 global exhibitions, Ferrato is known for documenting the truth of domestic violence over the past 50 years. Holy is her call to action to celebrate the powerful complexity of all who identify as female. Combined for the first time are her intimate and unflinching images of survivors, swingers and activists. Three chapters are framed by her recreated Holy Trinity; Mother, Daughter and Other, for all those who honor and protect women.
In this book group, Donna Ferrato discusses, among other things
Taking time to build narrative (she took 10 years before publishing her legislature-changing images)
Knowing and protecting your image rights
While an image can influence, collective action is what leads to change
Be loud about the images you take - aim point blank at your intention/point
Iterate ideas and refine output till power is embedded in the work
The need for men to “heal thy penis”
Find the right publisher and advocate for your work
Provoke, be combative and have a good time
Love has nothing to do with violence
Referenced in the episode
National Domestic Violence Hotline (in the US). Helpline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
Hot Peach Pages. International abuse information in over 115 languages.
I Am Unbeatable
British Journal of Photography
Achieving Gender Equity - Radcliffe Harvard Institute
Undue Motherhood - Kickstarter by Diana Karklin
Blood Speaks - Paloma Basu
Ferrato exhibit at Vanderbilt University 2014
Current Ferrato exhibit at Newport Art Museum
After the eclipse - New York Magazine, 2017
He Threw the Last Punch Too Hard by Hannah Kozak
Reproductive: Health, Fertility, Agency, on show at the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago.
Bristol Photo Festival
GirlTrek - Black History Bootcamp podcast
Website | Instagram
This tactile hand-bound book is anchored by text excerpts from overshadowed contributions of three female visionary artists whose theses and research are seminal to our understanding of visual culture. Thomsen choreographs light and space to elicit wonder and activate curiosity to imagine post patriarchal structures of meaning and experience.
In this book group, Sonja Thomsen discusses, among other things:
Simultaneity of mind, body and spiritual experience
Co-authoring as a transformative art practice
Editors as essential translators of ideas into material and form
Books as portals, fluid conduits to generating ideas and innovation
Creating language reflective of non-binary experience
Defiance of a singular (or linear read) of an image or experience
The necessity of rules to create elegant structure for specific design elements
Referenced in the episode
Poor Farm Press
Figuring by Maria Popova
Brain Pickings
Penelope Umbrico
Piece of Cake Collective
Resmaa Menakem - Grandmother’s Hands
Lucia Moholy-Nagy - Marginal Notes
Website | Instagram
Skilled at making invisible the visible, Friedman, sensitively documents the irony and ambivalence found in the parallel experience of exile. The protagonists live in a precarious environment for same sex couples, while their work supports a creative troop who are not allowed to officially perform in their homeland.
In this book group, Misha Friedman, discusses, among other things:
The challenging puzzle of conceptual projects
Know the question your images are seeking to answer
Images as adjectives
The importance of pre-thinking (envisioning) pre-project
Making creative choices based on underscoring the concept
Focusing on one emotion
The responsibility of composition
Matching your personality to the jobs you seek
Diverse Humanity, the groundbreaking photobook series of LGBTQ-themed books exploring human relations in all their rich complexity.
Referenced in the episode
Diverse Humanity
Masha Gessen - New Yorker, August 18th 2020
Never Remember, Misha Friedman
Photo 51, Misha Friedman
The Idealists, Misha Friedman
Lyudmila & Natasha, Misha Friedman
Arcus Foundation
Website | Instagram
Boston-based documentary photographer, David Horton, and Swedish model and actress, Beatrice Lovely, share their serendipitous relationship and creative collaboration. What began as a skill-building exercise grew to a mutual exploration of the contours of emotion. The lyrical imagery was sequenced in a self-published monograph, woven with the reality of a recent grief.
In this book group, David Horton and Beatrice Lovely discuss, among other things:
The magic of following curiosity
Working outside your comfort zone
Intuition as a guide
Location scouting
The multiple variables in sequencing and the need to offer a “palate-cleansers-for-the-eye “
The myriad creative decisions to intentionally layer concept
Self-publishing options for photographers
The power of collective international engagement
Referenced in the episode
Flickr
Observe Collective
Edition One Books
Hecht/Horton
Mary Oliver
Website | Instagram
Chief Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza, shares specifics of his career-defining role documenting the Obama presidency. Through our candid conversation and his generous response to questions, we receive insights and behind-the-scenes stories of his iconic images. Pete explains how he, with skill and intent, used the visual archive he created to expose the truth of the Trump years in his book, Shade.
In this book group, Pete Souza, discusses, among other things:
The primary message is to document for history aka not for social media platforms
Being in the room when shit is going down
90% of documenting is the in-between-moments
Inspirational documentary photographers
Gender parity in the White House Photo Office
Editing as the act of selection
The value of collaborating with a photo editor
Creating a searchable photo archive
Secret rose garden weddings and famous pets
Referenced in the episode
The Way I See It
CharlottetheTortoise
GroundTruth Project
Report for America
Mary Anne Fackelman-Minor
David Guttenfelder, John Moore, Drew Angerer, Mark Ostow
Seacoast African American Center Exhibit
Bridge Gallery
Website | Instagram
Entertainment, fine art and fashion photographer BBS combined his boundless energy and expansive Instagram presence to turn an idea (initiated on a Zoomtail) into a historical record of an unforgettable time. Eleven thousand miles, six weeks and hundreds of engaging portraits later, Smith captures the soul and joy of connectivity. In this episode Brian and Paris Chong, Leica LA curator/director, graciously share their insights and experience in an in-depth Q & A!
In this book group, Brian Bowen Smith discusses, among other things:
Preparation, practice and play are keys to success
Aim for a specific goal and train like an athlete
“Hit the pavement, hustle, grind, be prepared.”
“Feed your soul with what you want to do.”
Use camera as light meter and keep a wide center frame
Anticipate natural light with the iPhone Sundial app
“Street photography is about numbers - always have your camera.”
“Art from the heart, please yourself.”
Referenced in the episode
Purchase Drivebys BBSDrivebys.com
Open Road by David Campany
LA Leica Gallery City of Angels Exhibit
Herb Ritts
Surfing Cowboy in Malibu
Hotel Chelsea by Linda Troeller
Website | Instagram
Andrew Feiler’s visually compelling narrative documents the generational impact of a unique challenge grant program. Created by Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington, it served to educate Black children denied access to public schools. Through extensive research and diligent outreach Feiler weaves the irrevocably impacted life stories, with the historical and political benchmarks of desegregation. The threads reach to current historical figures such as the revered late Congressman, John Robert Lewis, a Rosenwald school alum, who wrote the book foreword, to luminaries such as Gordon Parks, Maya Angelou and James Baldwin, Rosenwald Fellowship recipients.
In this book group, Andrew Feiler discusses, among other things:
The concept awareness of creative choices to layer the intention of your visual narrative
The power of education to change history
Art and activism
The role of the portrait as foreseen by Fredrick Douglass
The impact and intersection of civic involvement, economics, and politics
The austere beauty of WIlliam Christenberry and the agency of the land to tell its own story
When in Arkansas be sure to visit Toadsuck and Turkeyscratch
Referenced in the episode
For autographed/personalized books
“Rosenwald”, a film by Aviva Kempner
Isabel Wilkerson - The Warmth of Other Suns
NYTImes - Boston First Black Mayor - in 91 years!
Tuskegee Airmen at the White House
Little Rock Nine
Black Education before Brown
Website | Instagram
Durant invites us into a fluid free fall with his intentionally sequenced interplay of history, ideas and first-hand knowledge in text and image. Incubating his idea of how still images capture physical, emotional, social, cultural and political states grew to cross geography and time. Evocative and insightful this book is a symphony of authentic voices echoing the harsh and exciting realities of lived experience and the wilds of our collective imaginings.
In this book group, Mark Alice Durant discusses, among other things:
The semi-conscious states which feed creativity
Photo as a porous and democratic medium
Performance as a portal, able to renegotiate social contracts
Transgressing the specific to the symbolic
The beauty and elegance of a rigorous photo
How we see our past, photographically
The power of exclusion to push innovation and creativity
Referenced in the episode
Teju Cole, “A Photograph Never Stands Alone”
Walter Murch, In The Blink of An Eye
Larry Sultan, “Pictures from Home”
William Pope L. in conversation at The Walker Arts Center
Marco Breuer by Mark Alice Durant
Sigalit Landau, “DeadSee” (2005)
Mark Alice Durant, “Running, Falling, Flying, Floating, Crawling”
Website | Instagram
Sandwiched between endpapers featuring the 1938 Photogram, Stars, by artist Alexander Rodchenko, 120 photographs by known and anonymous artists reflect how one can think about images - underscoring their uncontainable hybrid nature. His compelling text ignites curiosity, excavates and illuminates intention and process, inviting the reader/viewer to ponder what and how they see.
In this book group,David Campany discusses, among other things:
The paradox of the malleability of an image and it’s fixed singularity
The boundary-defying work of women artists who have been largely ignored by traditional canons of art history
The symbiotic relationship of text and image
Scale and materiality
The experimental spirit of the Bauhaus
The meaning between photos
The muteness of images
Photoshop as a beauty parlor
References/Resources from this episode:
Traveling exhibition: https://davidcampany.com/a-handful-of-dust/
Visual IN Dialog https://davidcampany.com/da-dialogue/
www.instagram.com/dialogue_aandd/,
Roland Barthes essay Leaving the Movie Theater,
Victor Burgin essay, Seeing Sense
Website | Instagram
From her own experience of objectification and othering in corporate culture, Beal innovates entry points to spotlight the experience of ‘double consciousness’ as described by W.E.B. Du Bois, currently referred to as code switching, by compiling the stories of 65 Black women. Also collaborating with white students and colleagues she probes differences in human experiences, exposes assumptions, advances awareness, and increases diversity maturity.
In this book group, Endia Beal and Michelle Dunn Marsh discuss, among other things:
Questioning conformity and “similar-to-me” bias
Humanness transcending race and gender
Investment in scholarship to place more representative stories in the historical canon
The challenges and reality of fear as a maker/creator
The impact of others believing in your work
Bringing subjective truths to conversations on race and gender
Supporting the people who create platforms for conversations on diversity, inclusion and equity
Mentorship and community in the creative process
Resources
Endia Beals’ Workshops
Young, Black, Female and Envisioning Corporate Life
9-5 film by Endia Beal
Office Scene by Endia Beal
Seeing being Seen -link to be a co publisher
Allyship & Action
Girl Trek and Black Women’s History Bootcamp
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man - by Emmanuel Acho
My Grandmothers’ Hands - by Resmaa Menakem
Website | Instagram
Bogre honors the foundations of evidential aspects of photography to forge human connection and activate advocacy. She wrestles with the elasticity of the medium as digital capture and distribution impact and change everything. Accountability and authenticity remain essential while construction, portraiture, and installation are broadening the tool kit for visual storytellers.
In this book group, Michelle Bogre discusses, among other things:
Photojournalism as a subset of documentary photography with its own rules
How documentary is in its essence connected to the truth or fact of a story
The power of an image based in evidence, witness and narrative
How images tell a truth not the truth
Documentary as “the canary in the minefield”
Content over technique
Visual lyricism in stories revealing hidden histories
Responsibility to visual literacy
The absence of women photographers work being distributed and known and consequently all but absent in the canon of photo history
Decolonizing the camera
Resources
From Memory to Experience: The Smartphone, A Digital Bridge - Stephen Mayes
The Four Corners Project - International Center of Photography
A Photograph Never Stands Alone - Teju Cole for New York Times
iSee - exhibition review J Sybylla Smith
On Abortion - book review J Sybylla Smith for ZEKE Magazine
The Most Important Picture - non profit organization to continue collaborative work in marginalized communities worldwide
Companion Website for the book
MIT Open Documentary Lab
Decolonizing the Camera: Photography in Racial Times - Mark Sealy
VII Photo - Anarchy in the U.S. and IN feed by Chrisopher Morris using 3D scanner app for iPhone with Lidar
Website | Instagram
Precision, observation, and reflection meet patience, serendipity and courage in this lyrical and poetic visual exploration of the fragile and threatened Virginia coastline. Eich deftly exposes our human gravitational pull to the unspoken and invisible weaving of our relationships, our physical landscape, our shared history and the mortal coil.
In this book group, Matt Eich, discusses, among other things:
In-camera attention to the edges of your frame
The lasting power of the photobook
Trusting your subconscious
Allowing time between making images and being in conversation with them
Essential collaborations with photo editors and book designers
The value of tinkering
The life-changing power of residencies
Using the tool of the camera to ‘speak’ to the present moment and your concerns
Referenced in the episode
Sturm & Drang
Together Right Now
The Seven Cities : Community We Also Move and Breathe
The Seven Cities : Family
I Love You, I’m Leaving
Rich-Joseph Facun
Black Diamonds
Matt Eich, Little Oak Press
Matt Eich - Sin and Salvation in Baptist Town
Matt Eich —The Seven Cities
Website | Instagram
Defibaugh, alongside a selective team of scientists, historians, and anthropologists, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, Nikon Camera and a host of cultural organizations in Greenland, created a modern and multi-media ethnology of life above the Arctic Circle. Living among the Inuit, over 15 months in four progressively remote locations, Defibaugh was able to establish portrait studios and conduct middle school photo workshops with exhibitions of their work, providing a contemporary and interactive visual record of these endangered indigenous people.
In this book group, Denis Defibaughdiscusses, among other things:
Persistence in grant writing - (hint his third attempt was the charm)
The power of collaboration across auspices and professions
The ability to communicate and form friendship without shared language
The value of embedding in a culture to provide a reflective cultural representation
The wonders of whale meat, reindeer and wolf fish
Santa’s Summer address
Referenced in the episode
North by Nuuk : Greenland After Kent
Polar Field
Uummannaq Polar Institute
National Science Foundation
Asanninneq - Hans-Ole Amossen Jam
Nanook - Ingerlaliinnaleqaagut
Music of additional interest:
DeBartali Crew that Hans Ole put together.
Uummannaq Childrens Home singers; traditional music.
Brody debunks lies and shatters delusions by confronting false narratives and simplistic notions of war. Revealed is the perpetuation of military-created propaganda commonly amplified by legacy formats of the media. War, Brody argues, does not contain moral and noble causes nor glorifies or institutes an ideology; it weaponizes human instincts and makes monsters of everyone.
In this book group, Ben Brodydiscusses, among other things:
Self publishing realities aka the brutality of bookmaking
The key factor of the photographers intention
The import of citizen journalism
Using the medium of the book to layer concept
Essential expertise of book designers
Artists who use photo vs photographers who use art
Self Licking Ice Cream Cones (see glossary)
Starting your own book imprint
Referenced in the episode
Kummer & Hermann
Groundtruth Project
Report4America
Foreverstan Project
Mass Books
Paris Photo/ Aperture Photobook Awards
Website | Instagram
Confronting the societal and familial taboo of addiction, Keulards courageously shares her journey to understand the impact on her brother, herself and their family. Fifteen years following her brother's death by cardiac arrest in a luxury Berlin hotel room due to his drug use, Keulards literally and metaphorically pulls back the curtain to reveal her exploration and discovery of the human experience of addiction. With this tactile book and a companion multimedia installation Keulards creates an immersive experience.
In this book group,Vivian Keulards discusses, among other things:
Understanding the implications of sharing a family secret
How assumptions slip into facts
Depicting the human side of addiction
The benefits of working with book designers and a publisher
Her crowd-sourcing experience to fund the project
The magic of serendipity
The role of collaboration
Referenced in the episode
Tonic by Ralf Mohren
Trailer of Christiane F
Poulomi Basu - Blood Speaks
Design Agency PutGootink
Schilt Publishing
Lensculture Review
Book Content
Website | Instagram
Utilizing the name and frame of John Szarkowskis’, Frailey highlights 100 photographers based on Susan Sontags’ premise that photography is an instrument for knowing things, and this is his collection of what he knows. His intention is to provide a platform to repeatedly explore the layered discoveries within a single image. As Frailey notes : “all images traffic in the marketplace of ideas.”
In this book group, Stephen Frailey discusses, among other things:
developing sensibility
exploring styles outside of comfort zones
transitioning from one body of work to another
animating still lives
degrees of appropriation
Referenced in the episode
John Szarkowski - Looking at Photographs
Book Review - Hank Willis Thomas
Jeanine Michna-Bales
Thomas Demand
Playboy, Braille Edition - funded by U.S. Congress since 1985
Arnika Dawkins Gallery
Dear Dave - for a signed copy of the book
Website | Instagram
Kyle Meyer’s process-driven art practice is a multimedia exploration of the tactile potential of the photograph with an end goal of creating meaning and conveying presence in a blend of handmade craft and technology.
The result of a post college grant landed Meyer in Swaziland, now Eswatini, as a journalist exploring the reality of a country with the world’s largest HIV population. He began with a job in a candle factory, spending two years without access to the internet. Led by curiosity and his ability to create community Meyer developed the framework to honor and amplify the visibility of the African gay man.
In this book group, Meyer discusses, among other things:
blending craft and technology
allowing process to drive concept develop
the process of creating a book
the African LGBTQ community
Millhook Residency
a glimpse into his next project
Resources:
Millhook Residency
Rock of Hope
Health Plus 4 men
Bridget Riley
Yoon Ji Seon
Meyers’ Process
Website | Instagram
Walsh lays bare the issues which confront fair representation, including limitations caused by censorship, complacency, race and gender inequity. A conversation that lands on answering the question “what is conflict photography?”, with an attempt to enlighten our sense of collective awareness and lessening the distance between us and them.
In this book group, Walsh discusses, among other things:
what is photojournalism and how is the later perceived by a Western audience
politics of representation
the impact of the historically Western, white, male gaze in documentary photography
grief fatigue
technology and war
desensitization and public disengagement caused by a lack of empathy
Referenced in this episode
The Enough Project
VII Peace Project
Everyday Africa/ Everyday Projects
Verbatim Photo
Drik Picture Library
Arab Fund for Arts and Culture
The GroundTruth Project
Generation Human Rights
A Culture of Safety Alliance
See my Fall 2020 review in ZEKE, The Magazine of Global Documentary, here.
Website | Instagram
Self described as a painter, with a digital palette made of images, Forman discusses her inspiration, and her background, that led her to create the images captured in her book. The breaking of rules, constraints and the frame is discussed as a quiet revolution found within her works.
In this book group, Fran Forman discusses, among other things:
The conceptual impact of photomontage
Being a digital painter
Surrealism and cinematic choreography as muses
Defying constraints of one’s medium
Referenced in the episode
Taika Waititi - The Art of Creativity
Music - Michael Haneke
Maxfield Parrish
Website | Instagram
This book, like England, is generous, respectful and exploratory. The Winter Garden Photograph, which is foundational to the text, is described as a childhood image of Barthes’ recently deceased mother, Henrietta. England posed this query to a handful of colleagues, what to you is a reimagining, an homage or a reflection of this elusive photography?
In this book group, Odette discusses, among other things:
The Winter Garden Photograph
Englands’ process using: materiality, gesture and happenstance
a seeding question, and over 200 sprouting responses
the collection of essays contributed by a multitude of English contemporary photo curators and historians
Referenced in this episode
A Photograph Never Stands Alone by Teju Cole
Hold Still: A Memoir with Photographs by Sally Mann
Memories, Dreams and Reflections by Carl Jung
Website | Instagram
