Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

Kai McBride is a photographer, teacher, musician, and maker who recently uprooted from Brooklyn to sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico. He spent ten years teaching photography and managing the photo facilities at Columbia University, his alma mater, where he received an MFA in 2008.Born on the island of Kauai in 1972, by his 18th birthday Kai had lived in California, Oregon, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Texas, Oahu, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. He sharpened his powers of observation while adjusting to life between suburban ranch-style homes, cabins with no running water, and a twenty foot teepee in the field of a commune.In 2021, Kai and Corn Wagon Thunder finished creating a small off-grid cabin on a mesa east of downtown Santa Fe which he named ATARAXIA. Solar power. Captured rainwater. Built with their own two hands. In 2025, they completed constructing a small art studio building on the property.To make ends meet, he teaches photography classes online for StrudelmediaLive and can be found behind the counter at photo-eye santa fe three days a week.https://kaimcbride.comhttps://bsky.app/profile/kaimcbride.comThis podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book ClubBegin Building your dream photobook library today athttps://charcoalbookclub.com

Vann Thomas Powell, Lisa Beard, and Micah McCoy remotely joined Michael Chovan-Dalton and Dani Paglione at the JKC Gallery at Mercer County College to talk about their newly formed photography collective, Disparate Projects. We will also discuss the process of publishing their first book, Fractured by Christiaan Lopez-Miro.Vann Thomas Powell is a photographer, curator, and researcher. Vann received his MFA in Experimental and Documentary Art at Duke University (2023) and has been featured in solo exhibitions, books, and periodicals in the United States and abroad including The Independent (UK), Glitterati Editions (New York, NY). His books and works can be found in private and public collections including the Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (Duke University) and the Museum of Fine Art Special Collections (Tufts University). Vann is a Photolucida Critical Mass 2023 Top 200 Finalist.Lisa Beard is a photo-based artist, writer, teacher, and curator. Featured in national and international exhibitions, her work has appeared in group and solo shows, recently as a featured exhibitor for Head On Photo Festival in Sydney, AU. She has also been included in publications for The International Center of Photography, The Hand Magazine, Float Magazine, and Broad Magazine. She is a 2024 Klompching Fresh Finalist and Photolucida Critical Mass 2024 Top 200 Finalist. Lisa received her MFA in Media Arts from Maine Media College (2022).Micah McCoy is a photographer, curator, and poet based in Northwest Arkansas. He received his MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2022) and has exhibited work in solo and group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad. His work explores issues of religiosity, anxiety, and social detachment. Micah’s editorial photography has been featured in publications including NBC News, The New York Post, and others. https://disparateprojects.comDisparate Projects is an evolving collective and platform dedicated to the exploration of contemporary photography. Founded by Lisa Beard, Micah McCoy, and Vann Thomas Powell, we are committed to thoughtful photographic curation, engaging critical discussions in photographic theory, and nurturing collaborations with photographers of disparate approaches.This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book ClubBegin Building your dream photobook library today athttps://charcoalbookclub.comThe Real Photo Show is hosted and produced by Michael Chovan-DaltonThe JKC Gallery Artist Talks are hosted and produced by: Real Photo Show/Michael Chovan-Dalton, Julia Colonna, and Dani Paglione.

Amani Willett is a Boston-based photographer whose practice is driven by conceptual ideas surrounding family, history, memory, and the social environment. Working primarily with the book form, his three monographs have been published to widespread critical acclaim. Disquiet (Damiani, 2013), The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer (Overlapse, 2017) and “A Parallel Road (Overlapse 2020)” were selected by Photo-Eye as “best books” of the year and have been highlighted in over 70 publications including ​Photograph Magazine, PDN,​ ​Hyperallergic, Lensculture, New York Magazine, The New York Times, 1000 Words, NPR, The British Journal of Photography, Collector Daily and Buzzfeed and recommended by ​Todd Hido,​ ​Elisabeth Biondi (former Visuals Editor of The New Yorker), Vince Aletti and Joerg Colberg (Conscientious), among others. https://www.amaniwillett.com/invisiblesunbook https://www.instagram.com/amaniwillett/ INVISIBLE SUN is a visual meditation on survival, transformation, and fragility by artist Amani Willett. The project traces the impact of childhood medical traumas and the ways they continue to reverberate through the present. Slideshow from book: https://youtu.be/dl5-nDcpfoc Confronting these early challenges amid new chronic health challenges, Willett turned to intensive therapies. Within this process he encountered vivid, unsettling memories, often of his younger self, that became a generative source for the work. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book ClubBegin Building your dream photobook library today athttps://charcoalbookclub.com Amani’s photographs are also featured in the books​ American Geography (SF Moma/Radius Books, 2021), Bystander: A History of Street Photography (2017 edition, Laurence King Publishing), ​Street Photography Now​ (Thames and Hudson), ​New York: In Color​ (Abrams), and have been published widely in places including The Atlantic, A​merican Photography,​ Newsweek​,​ Harper’s,​ ​The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine and The New York Review of Books​.​ His work resides in the collections of the Tate Modern, The Library of the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Sir Elton John Photography Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Oxford University, and Harvard University, among others.

Anika Burgess | Flashes of Brilliance, The Genius of Early Photography and How It Transformed Art, Science, and History WW Norton & Co Anika Burgess is a writer and photo editor. She has been published in The New York Times and Atlas Obscura. Anika has won a Front Page Award from the Newswomen’s Club of New York and has presented at Photoville New York. She holds degrees in law and history from the University of Sydney, and qualified as a lawyer before changing careers to journalism. Anika lives in New York with her husband, son, and an obstinate schnauzer called Sigmund.  Photo credit: Amir Hamja

The eighth and final installment of attendee recordings from the 2025 Chico Review with those who came to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. The 2026 Chico Review is now open for applications. https://chicoreview.com https://www.charcoalworkshops.com 03:28 - Giovana Schluter Nunes https://www.giovanaschluter.com https://www.instagram.com/giovanaschluternunes 12:01 - Robert Stone https://robertarthurstone.com https://www.instagram.com/robertarthurstone 20:47 - Stephanie Schwiederek https://www.schwiederek.com https://www.instagram.com/steph.schwiederek 29:24 - Valerio Geraci https://valeriogeraci.com https://www.instagram.com/valeriogeraci This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

The seventh installment of attendee recordings from the 2025 Chico Review with those who came to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. The 2026 Chico Review is now open for applications. https://chicoreview.com https://www.charcoalworkshops.com 02:05 - Anastasia Davis https://www.anastasiadavisphoto.com https://www.instagram.com/anastasiadavis_ 09:16 - Chris Mammone https://www.chrismammone.co.uk https://www.instagram.com/chrismammonephotographer 17:55 - Christina Diaz https://www.christinamdiaz.com https://www.instagram.com/christina___diaz 24:14 - Jesús Umbría https://umbriabrito.com https://www.instagram.com/milton_bananas This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ave Pildas worked early in his career as a photo stringer for Downbeat Magazine in the Ohio Valley and Pennsylvania in the 1960's, and has been a successful photographer and educator for the past 40 years.    In 1971 Pildas began working as the Art Director at Capitol Records in Hollywood and designed and photographed album covers for the label's recording artists. He launched a career as a freelance photographer and designer soon after, specializing in architectural and corporate photography. His photographs have been exhibited in one man shows at the: Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Photographers Gallery, London, Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, Gallerie Diaframma, Milan, Cannon Gallery, Amsterdam, Gallerie 38, Zurich and numerous group shows. They have been featured in: The New York Times Magazine, 'ZOOM', 'PHOTO', 'CAMERA', 'photographic' and many publications both in the United States and abroad .    Photographs by Ave Pildas are included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Bibliotheca National, Paris; the University of Arizona as well as numerous other public and private collections. He is a Professor Emeritus at Otis College of Design.    Pildas created intimate portraits of Jazz greats in live performance, at small clubs and Jazz Festivals in the Midwest, many have never been seen before. Ave currently lives in Santa Monica, CA in the solar powered, zero scaped home and studio he collaborated on with W3 Architects. He is digitally archiving his vintage work, and continues with new projects while inspiring, polishing and guiding young talent. http://www.avepildas.com https://deadbeatclubpress.com/products/ave-pildas-star-struck This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com APPLY NOW OR SOON: https://www.chicoreview.com/2026 https://www.homecomingbiennial.com/submit https://photowork.foundation/photowork-junior-fellowship/

The sixth installment of attendee recordings from the 2025 Chico Review with those who came to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. The 2026 Chico Review is now open for applications. https://chicoreview.com https://www.charcoalworkshops.com 02:59 - Felix Denomme https://www.instagram.com/godspeed.felix/ 10:23 - Gregory Jundanian https://www.jundanianphotography.com https://www.instagram.com/gjundanian/ 16:37 - Michelle Arcila https://www.michellearcila.net https://www.instagram.com/michelle.arcila/ 22:30 - Owen Davies https://www.owen-davies.com https://www.instagram.com/owendaviesphoto/ 32:26 - Susan Weiss https://www.susanweissart.com https://www.instagram.com/susanweissart/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

The fifth installment of attendee recordings from the 2025 Chico Review with those who came to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. https://chicoreview.com https://www.charcoalworkshops.com 02:50 - Alana Perino https://www.alanaperino.com https://www.instagram.com/lanapino/ 12:00 - Francesco Aglieri Rinella https://www.francescoaglieri.com https://www.instagram.com/francesco.aglieri 24:34 - Eileen Meny https://eileenmenyphotography.com https://www.instagram.com/meny.photo/ 33:53 - Paul Fong Bothwell https://www.paulfongbothwell.com/ 42:20 - Pie Aerts https://www.pieaerts.com https://www.instagram.com/because.people.matter/

Nat Ward lives in Queens, NY. His work is collected by the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Parrish Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. His previous book of photographs and poetry, Big Throat, was published by +KGP in 2020. Ward founded the collaborative photographic project space A New Nothing with Ben Alper in 2014 and has had features on his photographic work published in Aperture, Interview, Collector Daily, Photobook Journal, Photography & Culture, C4, The British Journal of Photography, Unseen, Vogue, Vogue Italia, Vice, and Juxtapoz. He has exhibited photographic and text-based installations at Nathalie Karg Gallery, New York Live Arts, Hampshire College, and The Jewish Museum. Ward has been awarded residencies and fellowships from Yaddo, The Cooper Union Professional Development Fund, the Edward F. Albee Foundation, and The Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program. His poetry and critical writing have appeared in publications from Wendy’s Subway, 1080Press, The Brooklyn Review, and Beautiful Days Press. Ward’s poems appear alongside photographs by Sara J. Winson and Aaron Canopy in Shades, published by Push Pull Editions (2024). Ward holds an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University and an MFA in Poetry from Brooklyn College. https://nat-ward.com https://www.instagram.com/mrnatward/ https://powerhousebooks.com/books/ditch-montauk-new-york-11954/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Photographer and Educator, Siri Kaur, joins me to discuss her new monograph, Sistermoon published by Void. Artist Siri Kaur has been photographing her family for over 30 years, and her youngest sister, Simran, is the central focus of her forthcoming book, Sistermoon. Kaur’s photographs are combined with those from her family archive to create an unconventional album, illustrating the cycles of life and transformation, whilst questioning who observes, who is seen and who belongs. Kaur’s biography informs her work. The book opens with a timeline of photographs from her mother’s traditional family, taken in the 1950s by her grandfather. Kaur herself was born into a cult—one image in the book depicts her parent’s wedding at the Happy Healthy Holy Organization, or 3HO in 1976. After Kaur's family left the cult, her father established a rural living community in Vermont where her siblings remain today. Kaur simultaneously belonged to the family and was also an outsider. Her relationship with her family, in particular her sister, was formed and strengthened by creating photographs together. Photography enabled her to observe, catalogue, and connect. https://void.photo/preorder https://www.instagram.com/sirikaur/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Siri Kaur is an artist and photographer who examines identities that occupy dualities, diversity, and contradiction. Originally from Maine, Kaur is currently based in Los Angeles. She received her MFA from the California Institute of the Arts, and an MA and a BA from Smith College, Massachusetts. Her work has been exhibited widely at venues such as Aperture Foundation, New York; Camera Club of New York; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Arkansas; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Portland Museum of Art; San Antonio Museum of Art; Vermont Center for Photography, amongst others. She was a Professor of Fine Arts at Otis College of Art and Design from 2007-2018 and currently teaches at UCLA.

More wonderful attendee recordings from the 2025 Chico Review with those who came to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. https://chicoreview.com https://www.charcoalworkshops.com 03:00 - Caitlyn Kingery https://www.instagram.com/cat.kingery 13:00 - Oliver Stegmann https://www.instagram.com/oliverstegmann https://www.oliverstegmann.com/ 20:50 - Sasha Williams https://www.instagram.com/sashacastawilliams https://sashacasta.com/ 28:35 - Eric McCollum https://www.instagram.com/eemccollum http://www.eemccollum.com 36:35 - Mischa Lluch https://www.instagram.com/mischalluchphoto https://mischalluchphoto.com/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

More wonderful attendee recordings from the 2025 Chico Review with those who came to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. https://chicoreview.com https://www.charcoalworkshops.com 04:25 - Sharday Swanepoel https://www.instagram.com/shardayswanepoel 12:25 - Theo Zeal https://www.instagram.com/theo_zeal/ 19:25 - Anna Leigh Clem http://www.annaleighclem.com https://www.instagram.com/aapertura/ 26:04 - Walter Morataya Ramirez https://www.instagram.com/walterrr/ 33:35 - Christopher Jarvis https://www.christopherjarvis.net https://www.instagram.com/christopher_jarvis_/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Alejandro Cartagena | Ground Rules Photographer, publisher, and curator Alejandro Cartagena joined me at the 2025 Chico Review. We talk about the many different ways in which Alejandro practices photography and how much he has embraced being and editor and curator for others. Alejandro also discusses his upcoming retrospective, Ground Rules, at SFMOMA, curated by Shana Lopes along with the accompanying book published by Aperture. The show opens in September and the book is scheduled for November. https://alejandrocartagena.com — https://www.instagram.com/alexcartagenamex/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Alejandro Cartagena, Mexican (b. 1977, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. His projects employ landscape and portraiture as a means to examine social, urban, and environmental issues. Cartagena’s work has been exhibited internationally in more than 50 group and individual exhibitions in spaces including the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and the CCCB in Barcelona, and his work is in the collections of several museums including the San Francisco MOMA, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, The MFAH in Houston, the Portland Museum of Art, The West Collection, the Coppel collection, the FEMSA Collection, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the George Eastman House and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and among others. Cartagena has received several awards including the international Photolucida Critical Mass Book Award, the Street Photography Award in London Photo Festival, the Lente Latino Award in Chile, the Premio IILA-FotoGrafia Award in Rome and the Salon de la Fotografia of Fototeca de Nuevo Leon in Mexico among others. He has been named an International Discoveries of the FotoFest festival, a FOAM magazine TALENT and an Emerging photographer of PDN magazine. He has also been a finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Award and has been nominated for the Santa Fe Photography Prize, the Prix Pictet Prize, the Photoespaña Descubrimientos Award and the FOAM Paul Huff Award. His work has been published internationally in magazines and newspapers such as Newsweek, Nowness, Domus, the Financial Times, The New York Times, Le Monde, Stern, PDN, The New Yorker, and Wallpaper among others.

More wonderful attendee recordings from the 2025 Chico Review with those who came to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. https://chicoreview.com -- 03:10 - Ryder Collins https://rydercollins.com https://www.instagram.com/streetphotographyisdead/ 11:35 - Carey MacArthur https://www.careymacarthurstudio.com https://www.instagram.com/careymacarthur 19:30 - Richard Dachtera https://www.richdachtera.com https://www.instagram.com/richdachtera 26:50 - David Bowman https://www.bowmanstudio.com https://www.instagram.com/bowman.studio/ 37:24 - Andrew Owen https://andrewowen.tv https://www.instagram.com/andrewowen/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Photographer Daniel Arnold joined me at the 2025 Chico Review. We discussed how photography became a compulsion and a means of connection, transforming his life and leading him to leave his writing job at Nickelodeon. Additionally, we talk about Daniel’s approach to assignment work and how his photo addiction has evolved over the years. https://www.secondname.agency/photographers/daniel-arnold/portfolio_/ ||| https://www.instagram.com/arnold_daniel This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photo-book library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com ||| https://www.chicoreview.com Daniel Arnold's work is deeply human, with a sense of intrigue and humor that breathes fresh air into an age of extreme curation and editing. With a dynamic and versatile voice, he has covered everything from home births to high fashion, from the Met Gala to the 2016 campaign trail and multiple inaugurations. Arnold began his career documenting the streets of New York City with an innate curiosity and a wry smile that quickly gained him a cult following and frequent collaborations with the New York Times and Vogue. In 2022, he was profiled by the New Yorker in conjunction with the release of "Pickpocket," a collaborative monograph compiled by the Safdie Brothers' Elara Press. His odd, enduring photos can also be found in art galleries around the world. Arnold is based in New York.

Here are some of the recordings I made in 2025 for my second year at the Chico Review with the wonderful attendees who come to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. This year I recorded with over 40 attendees! I’ve also linked to the guest’s Instagram and Websites so you can see the work. And again this year, I was recording in a variety of spaces at the beautiful Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. https://chicoreview.com 02:00 - Joe Reynolds https://joereynoldsphotographs.com 09:55 - Darby Routtenberg https://www.instagram.com/jointheclubsandwich/ |||| https://www.darbyrouttenberg.com 16:20 - William Stock https://www.instagram.com/stock_/ 27:30 - Shin Ono https://www.shinono.com |||| https://www.instagram.com/shin_ono/ 34:40 - Sean Stout https://www.seanfstout.com |||| https://www.instagram.com/seanfstout/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Brad Zellar | Till the Wheels Fall Off Author, editor, and photo collaborator Brad Zellar joined me at the 2025 Chico Review to talk about his life as a writer, including his work with Alec Soth and Little Brown Mushroom, and his novel, Till the Wheels Fall Off (Coffee House Press). We discussed Brad’s love of photography and how Chico and Montana have become a second home for him. Brad also shared how his early struggles with addiction and an unintentional photography grant helped him to refocus on his writing and clarify his relationship to photography. (Cover photo: Eric Ruby) https://www.instagram.com/bradzellar/ |||  https://coffeehousepress.org/products/till-the-wheels-fall-off This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com |||  https://www.chicoreview.com Brad Zellar has worked as a writer and editor for daily and weekly newspapers, as well as for regional and national magazines. A former senior editor at City Pages, The Rake, and Utne Reader, Zellar is also the author of Suburban World: The Norling Photos, Conductors of the Moving World, House of Coates, and Driftless. He has frequently collaborated with the photographer Alec Soth, and together they produced seven editions of The LBM Dispatch, chronicling American community life in the twenty-first century. Zellar’s work has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, Paris Review, Vice, Guernica, Aperture, and Russian Esquire. He spent fifteen years working in bookstores and was a co-owner of Rag & Bone Books in Minneapolis. He currently lives in Saint Paul.

Agnieszka Sosnowska | Bryan Schutmaat | FÖR Bryan Schutmaat and Agnieszka Sosnowska join me today to talk about the process of publishing Agnieszka’s monograph, FÖR (Trespasser). Agnieszka shares her journey from Poland to Boston to Iceland, and how she considers herself a teacher and a provider before thinking of herself as a photographer. Bryan and Agnieszka detail their time together looking at the work, along with Trespasser’s co-founder Matthew Genitempo, and the book was later designed by Trespasser’s designer, Cody Haltom. We also have a wide ranging conversation about the legacy implications of publishing your work, the differences in editing color photography, and the importance of being a smaller imprint. https://www.sosphotographs.com ||| https://www.bryanschutmaat.co ||| https://trespasser.co/shop/for This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Agnieszka Sosnowska was born in Warsaw, Poland and was raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and a MFA from Boston University. She is currently an elementary school teacher. She lives on farm in East Iceland. Sosnowska has been the recipient of a number of grants, including a Fulbright Scholars Fellowship to Poland and an American Scandinavian Fellowship to Iceland. She was awarded the Hjálmar R. Bárðarson Photography Grant awarded by the National Museum of Iceland. Her series was awarded the Director’s Choice by the Center awards in 2017 and she has been in the Top 50 of Critical Mass on 3 occasions. Her work has been exhibited in the National Museum of Iceland and The Reykjavik Museum of Photography. Sosnowska's monograph, FÖR (Trespasser) was published in 2024. Bryan Schutmaat is a photographer based in Austin, Texas whose work has been widely exhibited and published. He has won numerous awards, including a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, the Aperture Portfolio Prize, and an Aaron Siskind Fellowship. Bryan’s prints are held in many collections, such as Baltimore Museum of Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Pier 24 Photography, Rijksmuseum, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. He co-founded the imprint, Trespasser.

Jake Benzinger (Wych Elm) and Tabitha Barnard join me to officially launch my series on publishers and authors where I explore the relationship that builds between publishers, editors, designers, and photographers and to hopefully provide some insight as to how photobooks are being made. Tabitha’s book, Dead Trees Speak to Me, was Jake’s first photo book that was not his own and Jake and Tabitha will share how they came to know each other and why Jake wanted to publish Tabitha’s work. We will talk about the editing and sequencing of the book as well as some of the more traditional questions about how they both got to where they are. https://wychelm.press  |||    https://jakebenzinger.com   |||      https://www.tabithabarnard.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Tabitha Barnard was born in Freedom, New Hampshire in 1994. She is a photographer who grew up in rural Maine with three sisters. Growing up in a very Christian female-dominated family has had a huge influence on her work. Barnard works primarily in digital color photography exploring themes of femininity and religion. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art from Maine College of Art in the Spring of 2016 and a Master of Fine Art from Massachusetts College of Art in the Spring of 2021.  She has worked in both commercial studio settings, as a shooting assistant, and as the media technician for the photo department at the Maine College of Art. She currently works in Portland Maine, teaching at the Maine College of Art and the University of Southern Maine.  Jake Benzinger (he/him) is a photographer, book artist, and writer based in Rockland, Maine; he received his BFA in photography from Lesley University, College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA. His work has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Haute Photographie Rotterdam, Center for Fine Art Photography, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, 82Parris, Panopticon Gallery, RIT City Space Gallery, and more. He has been featured by numerous platforms including GUP Magazine, Lensculture, Float Magazine, Lenscratch, Transference Magazine, and Fraction Magazine. His publications are held in collections at the National Gallery of Art, School of Visual Arts, SMFA at Tufts, and Griffin Museum of Photography, and his monograph, Like Dust Settling in a Dim-Lit Room (Or Starless Forest), was shortlisted for the 2023 Lucie Photobook Prize.