Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

Linda Troeller joins me to talk about her book, SEX. DEATH. TRANSCENDENCE., published by TBW. Linda has a storied life in photography from her early self-portraiture, to her book, The Erotic Lives of Women, and now to Sex. Death. Transcendence., Linda has been exploring the female gaze since the early 1970’s. We talk about her ideas on self-portraiture, healing waters, and her amazing time at the Chelsea Hotel, all of which have led to their own publications. https://sites.google.com/view/lindatroeller/sex-death-transcendence?authuser=0 https://tbwbooks.com/collections/single-titles/products/sex-death-transcendence This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Linda Troeller’s art projects focus on self-portraits, women's and social issues. She made the Chelsea Hotel her base for 20 years, curating an exhibition for the 125thAnniversary, “Chelsea Hotel Through the Eyes of Photographers,” and publishing a monograph, “Chelsea Hotel Atmosphere – An Artist’s Memoir,” 2007 and a new book, “Living in the Chelsea Hotel, Schiffer Publishing, 2015 that won the International Photo Award, 2016. She had a major exhibition at Leica Gallery, Los Angeles, Ilon Art Gallery, Harlem, 2018 and Laurence Miller Gallery, NYC and Museum of.Sex, NYC. Aperture published her Pictures of the Year award winning images in “Healing Waters,” exhibited at their Burden Gallery, NYC and powerhouse Books published her next book, ‘Spa Journeys,” 2004. Her book, “Erotic Lives of Women,” Scalo, Zurich, 1998 was reviewed as one of the “most gutsy and imaginative books of the decade,” NYTimes. The exhibition opened at Fotohof Gallery, Salzburg traveling to Berlin and Weimar, Germany. Her second book on women, Orgasm, Daylight, 2014 was introduced at the Filter Photography Festival and is in major libraries from Kinsey to Harvard to National Museum of Women in the Arts.’ She received a New Jersey Arts Grant and the Woman of Achievement Award from Douglass College, in 1991 for her TB-AIDS DIARY, a series of photo-collages in Color Polaroid that helped prevent discriminative stamping of HIV in passports. It was exhibited at Fotofest, Houston and over fifty galleries and covered in the Asbury Park Press and Trenton Times to European Photography Magazine. The set of 19 prints was recently acquired by the Norton Museum of Art permanent collection, West Palm Beach, Florida. She photographed three Fashion Catalogues for the Apolda Museum, Germany and exhibited “Apolda Fashion, 2005” at Centro Colombo Gallery, Medellin in 2006. She returned to Colombia to teach self-portraiture to women in poverty in 2010 for the University of Antioquia. She has an ongoing series of self-portraits, “Self-Reflection.” She has lectured at School of Visual Arts, NYU, Parsons, Yale, Salzburg Summer Art Academy, New Orleans Photo Alliance, Ryerson University, Toronto and was a professor of photography at Stockton College of New Jersey, Indiana University, and Bournemouth College, England. She has a MFA, School of Art, and MS, Newhouse School, Syracuse University and BS from Reed School of Journalism, West Virginia University. She was an assistant at the 1974 Ansel Adams Workshops for Ralph Gibson and in 1987 for Annie Leibovitz and David Hockney. Her photographs are in corporate and private collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, American Express, Johnson & Johnson, Library of Congress and is in archives such as Special Collections Bird Library, Syracuse University. She graduated from Toms River High School which named her to their Hall of Fame, and resides in New York City and New Jersey.  Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

As part of an ongoing series recorded at the 2024 Chico Review, I recorded with photographer Raymond Meeks to discuss his latest book, The Inhabitants published by MACK with an extended poem by George Weld. Ray and I talk about how this work, which traces the passages of refugee crossings inside Spain and France, profoundly affected Ray's approach to making work and how he views his role as a photographer. This episode picks up where Sasha and Ray left off back in episode 51 on PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf. http://www.raymondmeeks.com https://www.mackbooks.us/products/the-inhabitants-english-edition-br-raymond-meeks-george-weld This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Raymond Meeks (Ohio, 1963) has been recognized for his books and pictures centered on memory and place, the way in which a landscape can shape an individual and, in the abstract, how a place possesses you in its absence.  His books have been described as a field or vertical plane for examining interior co-existences, as life moves in circles and moments and events—often years apart—unravel and overlap, informing new meanings. Raymond Meeks lives and works in the Hudson Valley (New York).  His work is represented in numerous private and public collections.  He is the sixth laureate of Immersion, a French-American photography commission sponsored by Fondation d’entreprise Hermès.  Exhibitions from this commission are scheduled for New York (ICP September, 2023) and Paris (Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson  September, 2024).  The Inhabitants, a book made in collaboration with writer George Weld, was published in August 2023 by MACK. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Return guest, Michael Joseph, talks about his new book, Lost & Found, published by Kehrer Verlag. You may already know the work from the Travelers series on his Instagram account. This is a beautifully laid out and printed book and we get into many of the details and decisions that went into making this book. First, the decision to publish this series, connecting with an editor, the fundraising, what kinds of text would be used, all the design elements, and finally having it in hand. Michael generously shares each step along the way. We also catch up on how Michael’s next series, The Wild West of the East is coming along. https://www.michaeljosephphotographics.com https://www.michaeljosephphotographics.com/book-purchase/p/lost-and-found-book https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/michael-joseph-lost-found This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Michael Joseph is a street portrait and documentary photographer.  Raised just outside of New York City, his inspirations are drawn from interactions with strangers on city streets and aims to afford his audience the same experience through his photographs.  His portraits are made on the street, often unplanned and up close to allow the viewer to explore the immediate and unseen. Themes throughout his portraiture and projects include identity formation, found family, wanderlust, the human journey, the search for equality and human authenticity. His first monograph, "Lost and Found: A Portrait of American Wanderlust" will be published in Fall, 2023 (Europe) and Spring, 2024 (USA) by Kehrer Verlag. Michael’s work has been featured on CNN, Vice, The Guardian, Dazed, AnotherMan, Paper Magazine, HUCK, the Advocate, and published in magazines internationally including Elle, Inked, 1814 and SHOTS. He has been exhibited nationally, with solo shows at Daniel Cooney Fine Art (New York, NY) and the Soho Photo Gallery (New York, NY) and the FP3 Gallery (Boston, MA). Group exhibitions include the notable Aperture Gallery (New York, NY), the Getty Images Gallery (London, UK) and the Griffin Museum of Photography (Massachusetts). He has lectured at the International Center of Photography (New York, NY), the Savannah College of Art and Design (Savannah, GA), in portraiture classes at the New England School of Photography (Boston, MA) and taught at the Light Factory (Charlotte, NC).  His portraits are held in the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Houston, TX) Fort Wayne Museum of Art (Fort Wayne, Indiana), the Rochester Museum of Fine Arts (Rochester, NH), the Jack Sheer Collection, Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery (Saratoga Springs, NY)and private collections. He is a 2023 and 2016 Photolucida Top 50 Photographer, 2020 Photolucida Finalist, and LensCulture Portrait Award Finalist. He is a recipient of the fellowship in photography from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation.  Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

David De Lira (he/they) is a queer, BIPOC, lens-based artist and educator born and raised in northern Mexico. He is currently based in Schenectady & Syracuse, New York. I met David at the Biennial Homecoming show at RIT this past winter. David’s work explores their connection and relationship to a white queer community that he married into with their partner. David’s photographs of this community are often made within or accompanied by images of northern landscape that is equally new to David’s life. We talk about how David came to be where he is and how David’s family and friends informs who he is and how that is all revealed in David’s work. https://www.deliradavid.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com David De Lira (he/they) is a queer, BIPOC, lens-based artist born in 1991 Raised in northern Mexico, De Lira currently residing in Schenectady, New York. De Lira holds a BA in Art History & Studio Art from SUNY Albany (2019) and an MFA in Art Photography at Syracuse University (2023). His undergraduate education dramatically influenced his aesthetic, formal skills, and research interests for his present work in art photography. De Lira’s work concentrates on intimacy, desire, and love, which have been important elements of his own embodiment, along with the subjects of his photographic gaze, who are part of his chosen family--his husband, friends and lovers.  He consciously uses elements of light, color, gesture, and pose to imbue his photographs with emotional and psychological intensity. De Lira’s work does not attempt to provide definitive answers. Rather, he invites viewers to engage with others in an intimate, meaningful way, requiring them to reflect on their own identities in the process.  Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, Louis Chavez and I have a conversation about New Intimacies, Louis’ photographic study of gay cruising. It is inspired by Peter Hujar’s work but takes a more experimental approach with more inspiration by writings of José Esteban Muñoz. We also discuss Louis’ work as a curatorial assistant at the George Eastman Museum and, as your teaser, you just might learn a little bit about the Situationist International and Pscyhogeography. Louis was also kind enough to send a video slideshow on the Real Photo Show YouTube channel so you can see the work while listening. https://chavezlouis.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Louis Chavez is a photographer and curator based in New York. Their solo exhibition, New Intimacies, was exhibited at the University of Rochester’s Hartnett Gallery in 2021 and at PeepSpace in Tarrytown, NY in 2023. Chavez was a participant in SOILED: The Downtown Dirty Book Fair, curated by Matthew Leifheit in 2022, and was a graduate presenter at the Society for Photographic Education’s national conference in 2023. In addition to their visual arts practice, Chavez is a curatorial assistant in photography at the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY. They were a guest curator at Visual Studies Workshop in 2020 and a studio assistant to photographer Joshua Rashaad McFadden in 2021. Chavez holds an M.F.A. in Photography and Related Media from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a B.S. (summa cum laude) from SUNY Brockport. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer and New York Times Photo Editor, Mikko Takkunen, joins me today to talk about his upcoming book, Hong Kong, published by Kehrer Verlag with an essay by Geoff Dyer. Hong Kong is Mikko’s farwell to the place where he worked for over 5 years the New York Times desk’s Asia photo editor. It is also where he started his family and witnessed some of the greates social upheavals in the country’s recent history. We talk about how this book is not a social or political statement but an observation and an embrace of a place he loves and is forever connected through experience.  https://www.mikkotakkunen.com https://www.kehrerverlag.com/en/mikko-takkunen-hong-kong   This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Mikko Takkunen is a photo editor at The New York Times’s For- eign desk where he’s spent more than five years between 2016– 2021 in Hong Kong as the desk’s Asia photo editor. He began tak- ing these photographs in early 2020 at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and continued until the summer of 2021 when he left Hong Kong. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, founder of Charcoal Book Club and Press, and the Chico Review, Jesse Lenz, is my guest today. We talk about his upcoming book, The Seraphim,  the second book in a series of seven that Jesse calls The Seven Seals septology. We break down what that means and how Jesse sees this life long septology as connected to and inspired by his family, his home, and his life. Jesse and I also talk a lot about the way he has setup his life to make photos, to promote the work of others through the Charcoal Book Club and Press, and to help mentor and provide growth for new generations of artists through the Chico Review. https://www.jesselenz.com https://charcoalpress.com/shop/the-seraphim This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com   Jesse Lenz (1988, Montana) is a self-taught photographer and multidisciplinary artist. He is the author of The Locusts (Charcoal Press, 2020), and he is the founder and director of Charcoal Book Club and the Chico Review. As an illustrator he has created images for publications including TIME, The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and many others. From 2011-2018 he also co-founded and published The Collective Quarterly and The Coyote Journal. He lives on a farm in rural Ohio. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Erin Hoyt is the Director of Operations at Filter Photo, owns and operates a successful wedding photography studio, and is a cotemporary photography collector, and a photographer. Erin learned photography and business outside of academia through internships, work experience, and just being highly self-motivated. We talk about all of these things and about Erin settling in after her recent move to Atlanta.  https://www.filterphoto.org https://erinhoytphotography.com https://www.instagram.com/erinhoytphotography/ https://www.instagram.com/emariehoyt/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Erin Hoyt is the Director of Operations at Filter Photo, a non-profit photography gallery and festival based in Chicago. At Filter, Erin manages an ongoing series of artist lectures, professional development workshops, and portfolio reviews. Since joining the organization in 2010, she has overseen over 90 exhibitions and 13 annual festivals. In that time, she has worked with a range of artists including Carrie Mae Weems, Tarrah Krajnak, Zora J Murff, Todd Hido, Poulomi Basu, and Rodrigo Valenzuela. Erin splits her time between Atlanta and Chicago.    Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.mfaphotographyreviews.com https://www.chicoreview.com Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer and former student, Dan Bassini and Michael talk about how Dan has been cutting his own path in photography through sheer will and the use of an old plastic camera. Dan talks about his series, No Invite, a fashion/portrait zine made annually during Fashion Week in New York. Dan also shares the stories behind his current books, Cruel Summer, I Still Feel It, and we talk about an upcoming book and show. Michael and Dan also reminisce a little about his time at Mercer and some funny stories from Michael’s very early teaching days there. https://www.danbassini.com/ https://therangefinderdiaries.com https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Dan Bassini is a photographer in the New York City area specializing in digital and analog photography. He has released ten books within the "No Invite" series, as well as three non-portraiture books: Highway Hypnosis, Cruel Summer, and I STILL FEEL IT. His work has been displayed in many solo and group shows in the New York City area. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer and educator, Lara Shipley talks about her book, Desire Lines, published by Overlapse. Desire Lines combines imagery and text, both contemporary and historical, as a vehicle to have a thoughtful and contemplative discussion about immigration. It looks at  our current humanitarian crisis at the southern border and views it through the larger context of human migration and shifting borders. Lara and I also talk about her current collaboration with Antone Dolezal called The Naked Truth, a story about a Victorian Spa founded by a snake oil saleseman and which eerily resembles the disinformation media world that was particularly effective during Covid. https://www.larashipley.com https://www.overlapse.com/catalog/desire-lines/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. Lara Shipley is an American photographer. She exhibits in galleries across the United States, and her work has appeared in notable exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, GuatePhoto international photography festival in Guatemala, the Benaki Museum in Greece and a recent solo exhibition at the international photography festival Cortona on the Move, in Italy. Her work is in collection institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), and the Nelson Atkins Museum for Art (Kansas City). Lara’s photographs have appeared in publications such as Harper’s Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Atlantic Monthly, Vice, and NPR. She received a MFA in photography from Arizona State University and a Bachelors of Photojournalism from the University of Missouri. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Michigan State University. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, director, designer, and composer, Umberto Nicoletti talks about his first monograph, Asylum, published by Rizzoli New York. Umberto uses his skills as a fashion and celebrity portrait photographer to share the experiences of members of LGBTQI+ refugee community and to portray them, not as victims, but as role models who have survived acts of violence and discrimination from the countries they left and the countries from which they requested asylum. https://www.asylum-thepr oject.com - https://www.umbertonicoletti.com - https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9788891835925 - https://youtu.be/PrpkwqC4ZmI (book trailer) This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. Born in Padua, Italy, Nicoletti graduated in the early 2000 at “I.S.I.A.” (Higher Institute for Artistic Industries, University of Urbino), and at the Fachhochschule in Augsburg (Germany). He attended the “Università dell’Immagine” (University of Image), the first course on the five senses in Milan created by Fabrizio Ferri. He began his professional career as assistant photographer and in 2005 he opened his own studio, Das Studio, which deals with photography, video, art installations, graphic design & creative direction. Umberto Nicoletti’s first photography fine-art book titled "Asylum" was released on May 16, 2023, published by Rizzoli New York. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Nigel Baldaccino is a multi-media artist and architect based in Malta. Michael and Nigel talk about his interest in architecture and how it influences his work. Nigel also discusses how his experience with anxiety disorder affects how he interacts with the world and makes art. Michael makes a lot of references to Nigels projects in this episode so you may want to check his website while listening. Also, be sure to watch Nigel's video on the Real Photo Show YouTube channel. https://nigelbaldacchino.com https://maltabiennale.art https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at  https://charcoalbookclub.com BIO Nigel Baldacchino [b. 1989] is an artist and design architect based in Malta. His artistic practice extends to various media, including photography, music production, video, text, and design of physical objects / spaces. His impetus towards taking photographs runs loose in theme, and is often fuelled instead by his own sporadic musings about the way one relates to the world around them through their presence in space and their perception of it. Past collective photographic exhibitions include Sense of Place [BOZAR, 2012], In Transit [NRW Forum in Dusseldorf / Stadskantoor / Leewarden, 2017], Transitions [Peinture Fraîche, 2020], BLINK [Valletta Contemporary 2021] & most recently the first show from the exhibition series ‘those eyes, these eyes, they fade’ [Valletta Contemporary 2022]. The latter is a project he initiated with Benedicte Blondeau & curator Anne Immelé. Prints of his photographs and work in video were acquired by the The Malta National-Community Art Museum in 2017 as part of their collection. His photography was also published on GUP Magazine’s first edition of ‘FRESH EYES’ (2020). In 2019 Nigel published Soon Out of Context (Unsolicited Press) featuring instances of his own poetry presented in dialogue with found images lifted from old publications, now in the public domain. In 2021 he published his first solo music release under his experimental ambient project ‘pool night’, with Belgian label Complex Holiday, titled Everything is Still Here. Baldacchino is currently part of the 2023 Long Term Photobook Program by Penumbra Foundation / Image Threads Collective & was recently appointed curator & lead exhibition designer for the first edition of maltabiennale.art. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer Emma Hardy and Michael talk about her first monograph, Permissions, published by Gost. Emma talks about recognizing how inauthentic family photos seemed to her even at a very early age. This desire for authenticity when photographing her children and her life has been a driving force in her personal work as well as a guiding principle in her commercial work.  Permissions,  is a tender document of motherhood and childhood, love and yearning, and leaving home. The images in the book are gathered and distilled from Hardy’s personal archive and span a period of 20-years. -Gost Books http://www.emmahardy.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Emma Hardy was born in London and studied Drama and French at Bristol University. She moved to Paris for four years working in the art world before returning to London to pursue a career in acting, but found herself better suited to life behind the camera. By this time, she was married, living in rural Suffolk, and raising her family of three young children. She has photographed for British Vogue, The Telegraph Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Fader, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone amongst others. Her first solo exhibition "Exceptional Youth" was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2006 and 39 of her portaits are included in the gallery's collection. Hardy Continues her work as a portrait and documentary photographer for a wide range of publicaitons, returning to new phases of her family images whenever she can. -Gost Books Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Michael visits with photographer and educator, Stephen Hilger at his studio in Brooklyn to talk about his upcoming book, In the Alley, published by Purple Martin Press. Stephen was a guest on the show all the way back on episode 47 so we don’t spend a lot of time on his history but we do talk alot about the alleyways in Beverly Hills and the creative decisions that went into making this leporello book. Order Here: https://www.artbook.com/9780979776854.html http://www.stephenhilger.com Don’t forget to check out our bonus content: https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club where members receive signed copies of each monograph, guest curator notes, special edition prints, members-only pricing to our store, and first dibs on exclusive editions. @charcoalbookclub Stephen Hilger is a photographer whose work traces historical memory in the American urban and social landscape. His monograph, Back of Town (SPQR Editions, 2016), chronicles the disappearance of a neighborhood in New Orleans. BLVD, (ROMAN NVMERALS, 2017) presents visual motifs at the intersection of public and private spaces throughout Los Angeles. Hilger’s forthcoming book, In the Alley, (Purple Martin Press, 2023) is currently in production. Hilger has exhibited at venues including Acta International, Rome; Los Angeles Contemporary Art Exhibitions; Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles; Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles; the Contemporary Art Center New Orleans; and Transmitter, Brooklyn. His photographs are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Hilger's photographs have appeared in periodicals including New York Magazine and the New York Times. He has written about photography and contemporary art including for Aperture’s PhotoBook Review and BOMB. Hilger received his B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from Columbia University and was a fellow in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program. He teaches at Pratt Institute where he is an Associate Professor in the Photography Department. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer and Red Hook Editions partner, Igor Posner joins Michael for a discussion about his book, Cargó, published by Red Hook Editions. Igor is a self-taught photographer whose work explores the psychological impacts of migration and changing immigrant neighborhoods. Michael and Igor talk about how his projects come together and the way he needs to reinvent and change what he does in order to keep making work. https://igorposner.net https://www.redhookeditions.com/books-1/carg This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. Born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). After the fall of the Soviet Union, Igor moved to California in the early 90s. He studied molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he first started to take pictures and experiment in the darkroom. Initial infatuation with picture-taking led Igor to explore the silent and haunting experience of walking after dark on the streets of Los Angeles and Tijuana. Collision of social and typical with personal and psychological, this first series of images “Nonesuch Records” savors the strange solitude of the enigmatic region between California and Mexico; amid the streets, bars, night shelter hotels, and disappearing night figures. After 14 years, Igor returned to St. Petersburg in 2006, taking up photography full time, which led to a book project entitled“Past Perfect Continuous”, published by Red Hook Editions in 2017. In 2022, Igor publishes his second monograph, entitled, “Cargó.” The book is a visual exloration of psychological aspects of migration and gradual disappearance of neighborhoods based on  immigrant communities in North America. At present, Igor is based in New York. In 2021, he joined Red Hook Editions, Brooklyn based independent publishing company, as a managing partner.  Igor’s work has been shown in North America, Europe, Russia, and Southeast Asia. He joined Prospekt Photographers agency as a full memebr in 2011.  Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, co-founder of Media NINJA, and CatchLight Fellow, Rafael Vilela talks to Michael about some of his amazing visual stories from Brazil. Rafael shares the story behind Invisible Gravediggers, the forgotten workers of the pandemic, and he talks about his current work, Forest Ruins, an ongoing project that addresses the role of cities in the climate crisis from the perspective of the Guarani Mbyá Indigenous people in the city of São Paulo. Forest Ruins is what brought Rafael to the CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit both as a CatchLight Fellow and recently as a panel speaker along with Anastasia Samoylova at the summit. https://www.catchlight.io/2023-visual-storytelling-summit https://rafaelvilela.visura.co Rafael Vilela is an independent Brazilian photographer currently reporting on climate and economic crisis in his country. He was one of the founders of Midia NINJA, an initiative that today has more than 8 million followers. His photographs are part of São Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art (MAM-SP) permanent collection. In 2014 he was invited by Magnum Photos to be one of the Brazilian photographers in the OffSide Brazil project to report on the World Cup. Rafael was also nominated for World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in 2013, 2014 and 2015. He has collaborated on international publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, VICE, The Intercept and National Geographic. In 2020 he was selected by National Geographic's Emergency Fund for Journalists covering Covid-19 and his work with Covid Latam won the POYLatam and the FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo. In 2022 Vilela was awarded the Catchlight Fellowship and the National Geographic Explorer grant. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. CATCHLIGHT VISUAL STORYTELLING SUMMIT 2023: THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE  April 29, 2023 - https://www.catchlight.io - Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco  The non-profit media organization CatchLight will hold its 2023 Visual Storytelling Summit on the theme “The Change We Want to See.” Organized with Elizabeth Krist, curator and formerly a longtime photo editor at National Geographic, the event will feature a portfolio review in the morning, followed by presenters and topics spanning artificial intelligence imagery, reporting on environmental issues, reproductive rights, racial justice, and how local journalists are holding power accountable at a time when trust in public institutions is at an all-time low. CatchLight Global and Local Fellows—including Rafael Vilela and Harika Maddala, among others—will discuss their projects along with artists, founders, technologists, and innovative creatives working at the nexus of art, media, journalism, technology, and social impact.    This year’s theme, “The Change We Want to See,” reflects the unique power of photography, visual journalism, and creative practices to drive social impact. “Images are instrumental to how we understand our world,” says Elodie Mailliet Storm, CEO of CatchLight. “Not only do they connect people emotionally to issues, they also promote deeper understanding, build trust, and spark action. I want the Summit to be a place where the global community of visual storytellers, media, and technology leaders can gather, share ideas, and push the field forward through partnership and innovation.”  Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, Anastasia Samoylova joins Michael to talk about the 2023 CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit: The Change We Want to See. This year’s summit emphasizes the unique power of photography, visual journalism, and creative practices to drive social impact. Ana will be talking about her book, Floodzone published by Steidl along with photographer, Rafael Vilela. Their panel is titled Picturing New Frontiers: Environmental Storytelling. Ana and Michael talk about how Ana went from photography to Environmental Design, and back to photography and how her experiences growing up in Russian and living in Florida shapes her work and how she thinks about art and activism. RSVP for CatchLight Summit: https://airtable.com/shrz8sfXJWVrqciWX https://www.catchlight.io/2023-visual-storytelling-summit https://www.anasamoylova.com Anastasia Samoylova (b. 1984, USSR) is a Russian born American artist who moves between observational photography and studio practice. Her work explores notions of environmentalism, consumerism and the picturesque. Recent exhibitions include Fundación Mapfre; C/O Berlin; Eastman Museum; Chrysler Museum of Art; The Photographer's Gallery, London; Kunst Haus Wien; HistoryMiami Museum; and Museum of Fine Arts, Le Locle. In 2022 Samoylova was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. Her work is in the collections at the Perez Art Museum, Miami; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; among others. Published monographs include Image Cities (Fundación Mapfre / Hatje Cantz, 2023), Floridas (Steidl, 2022) and FloodZone (Steidl, 2019). This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. CATCHLIGHT VISUAL STORYTELLING SUMMIT 2023: THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE April 29, 2023 - https://www.catchlight.io - Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco The non-profit media organization CatchLight will hold its 2023 Visual Storytelling Summit on the theme “The Change We Want to See.” Organized with Elizabeth Krist, curator and formerly a longtime photo editor at National Geographic, the event will feature a portfolio review in the morning, followed by presenters and topics spanning artificial intelligence imagery, reporting on environmental issues, reproductive rights, racial justice, and how local journalists are holding power accountable at a time when trust in public institutions is at an all-time low. CatchLight Global and Local Fellows—including Rafael Vilela and Harika Maddala, among others—will discuss their projects along with artists, founders, technologists, and innovative creatives working at the nexus of art, media, journalism, technology, and social impact. This year’s theme, “The Change We Want to See,” reflects the unique power of photography, visual journalism, and creative practices to drive social impact. “Images are instrumental to how we understand our world,” says Elodie Mailliet Storm, CEO of CatchLight. “Not only do they connect people emotionally to issues, they also promote deeper understanding, build trust, and spark action. I want the Summit to be a place where the global community of visual storytellers, media, and technology leaders can gather, share ideas, and push the field forward through partnership and innovation.” Speakers will include Jonas Bendiksen, Adrian Burrell, Pamela Chen, Hany Farid, Isadora Kosofsky, Lynn Johnson, Sarahbeth Maney, Anastasia Samoylova, Ashima Yadava, Alexey Yurenev. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Mixed-Media Artist, Shae Detar and Michael talk about her debut monograph, Another World published by Skeleton Key Press. They take a deep dive into Shae’s process from selecting locations, inviting women to be photographed, to hand painting the final images. Shae and Michael also talk about how the book is a celebration of the female nude as well as a personal introspective look at loss and recovery from a repressive religious experience. https://www.shaedetar.com https://shaedetar.myshopify.com/collections/all SHAE DETAR is an award winning and widely published American artist who merges painting and photography to surrealistic effect. Her easily recognized work has been exhibited internationally and featured in many publications including Vogue Italia, Vogue NL, Marie Claire, Interview, i-D, VICE, Dazed, Grazia, The New Yorker, ELLE UK, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Forbes, NYLON, Teen Vogue, Fast Company, and Refinery29. Another World is her first monograph. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club. A monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. https://charcoalbookclub.com Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Alexandra Huddleston is a photographer, writer, and walking artist. Michael and Alexandra talk about her latest book, Traces of Time, walking the Jardins de l’Abbaye de la Cambre in summer, a hand-bound, limited edition artist’s book. Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and Bamako, Mali, her upbringing has led her to explore landscape and culture from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. Between 2009 and 2014, she walked thousands of kilometers on pilgrimage in Spain, France, and Japan, journeys that led to her current walking art practice. She has won a Fulbright Grant, and her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian and the British Library. https://www.alexandrahuddleston.com Bonus Content: https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This episode is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Working with the most respected names in contemporary photography, Charcoal selects and delivers essential photobooks to a worldwide community of collectors. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at Charcoalbookclub.com Alexandra Huddleston is a photographer, writer, and walking artist. Her most recent projects describe landscape as a space of dynamic change. It’s a vision gained by walking thousands of miles in the last two decades. Alexandra brings motion through time and space into her work, expressing what it’s like to be within an ever-changing landscape. Through this process, she has radically expanded how landscape is represented photographically. Alexandra’s research into the impact of walking on perceptions and depictions of landscape is conducted both independently and with the support of art organizations like Cow House Studios, Ireland and Cill Rialaig, Ireland. Between 2009 and 2014, she walked thousands of kilometres on pilgrimage in Spain, France, and Japan – solitary journeys that led to her current walking art practice. Most recently, she explored the Rurban landscape in the Netherlands during a masterclass at the Jan van Eyck Academie (2019) and photographed the project Traces of Time while an artist in resident at the Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain (2021 Belgium). Alexandra presents her work to the public through her books, exhibitions, and lectures. Her books and prints are collected in archives around the world, including the British Library, Harvard University’s Hutchins Center Library, New York University’s Bobst Library, the Smithsonian Institution, and University of Cape Town’s Oppenheimer Library. As creative director and co-founder of the Kyoudai Press, Alexandra’s major publications include Lost Things (2012), 333 Saints: A Life of Scholarship in Timbuktu (2013), East or West (2014), Vertigo (2016), and Traces of Time (2022). Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and Bamako, Mali, her upbringing has led her to explore landscape and culture from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. In 2007, she won a Fulbright Grant to research and photograph traditional Islamic scholarship in Timbuktu, Mali. Alexandra holds a Masters of Letters in Fine Art Practice from the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. She studied broadcast and print journalism (MS) at Columbia University, USA and fine art and East Asian studies (BA) at Stanford University, USA. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Today’s episode features a former student of Michael’s, Val Dagrain who is finding his way in the film and tv industry after leaving Trenton, New Jersey, and after years in the music business as a rapper. Val is working in New Orleans as a PA, a data manager, a camera assistant, and now coming full circle from his days with Michael, starting as an on-set photographer, the job he has been working towards.  https://www.instagram.com/valdagrain/ Check out the YouTube Channel for bonus content: https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow/videos This episode is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Working with the most respected names in contemporary photography, Charcoal selects and delivers essential photobooks to a worldwide community of collectors. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at Charcoalbookclub.com  Val Dagrain is a 2nd Camera Assistant / Data Manager on film sets in the Gulf Coastal regions. mostly in New Orleans, but also Houston, Austin & Jackson, MS. He is from Trenton, NJ and attended Mercer County Community College for a year before leaving to pursue a career in music. Val pivoted to being a film/tv as a crew member and has begun to work as an on-set photographer. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show