Published by Michael Chovan-Dalton
Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton is a podcast about photographers and the related arts.
Listen on Apple Podcasts13 min
Photographer Klaus Ruckgaber joins Michael Chovan-Dalton from the 2026 Chico Review to discuss Sehnsucht, the German word for a kind of longing, and how he uses that in his work. https://fleischkleidung.com https://www.instagram.com/fleischkleidung/ I was born March 7th 2002 in Mexico City. I am attracted by the manifestation of feeling, the existential and the ungraspable. I am an individual who believes that there are no absolutes, there is no absolute beauty or an absolute truth or meaning. My work is focused on that idea. Our flaws, we are our own unreliable narrator in our existence and we shouldn't hide this but instead to carry it with tenderness and acceptance. The way we see the world is unique, splendor can be found in the unconventional, the “dregs” of life can also be beautiful. In decay flowers bloom, in the lesions there are lessons and without loss, love has no consequence. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com
11 min
Sipke Visser is a photographer and speaks about how he collaborates through photography at the 2026 Chico Review https://www.sipkevisser.nl https://www.instagram.com/sipkevisser/ https://www.chicoreview.com After being born I spent the first 19 years of my life in Leeuwarden, a small town in the North of the Netherlands. In 2005 I moved to London for love and to pursue a life in photography. While making a living as a retoucher I have consistently been working on making art with photography as the main medium. While by very proficient with photoshop I never alter any of my own work, apart from grading. My projects usually involve people. I love involving them with a project asking them to participate somehow, usually by adding text or drawings to a portrait or image. In 2005, for Return to Sender, I sent 500 hand written letters with an image to random people all across the UK, asking for a response. For the HAIR project I asked people to have all their hair cut off and to then reflect on that. In the pandemic I photographed the neighbours in black and white to then revisit them 2 years later inside their houses, shooting them in colour now. For Take a Look at Yourself I photographed 150 people with a large plate camera over a period of 8 years. I then asked them to have a really long good look at the image, and reflect. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com
45 min
Photographers CJ Harker and Jacob McGuinness join Michael Chovan-Dalton and Julia Colonna to discuss the founding of The Halide Project in Philadelphia, Harker's Tintype photography and work with Skate Jawn Magazine, and McGuinness' award winning pinhole photography. https://www.thehalideproject.org https://www.jacobmcguinness.com https://cjharker.com Jacob McGuinness is a photographer based in Philadelphia, PA. He received his BFA in Photography from the Tyler School of Art in 2017. He often works by building his own cameras, using them alongside alternative photographic processes to explore possibilities of analog photography. The work emerges from the balance of craft, invention, and image, where the tools themselves are reflected in the final vision. Jacob is a member of the New Jersey Pinhole Club (NJPC) and works with Philadelphia’s film community as a lab monitor and teaching assistant for The Halide Project. CJ Harker is a photographer currently located in Philadelphia. Born and raised in Trenton, NJ, he was initially drawn to making both still and moving images through skateboarding. Skateboarding not only reenforced an anything-goes, DIY mentality but also nurtured his ingenuity and creative output. CJ enjoys focusing on the craft of photography as well as keeping current with the latest technologies. In addition to a systematic digital workflow CJ’s skill set is comprised of historic and alternative photographic methods including traditional film processing, scanning and darkroom practices. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com
12 min
2026 Chico Attendees Series Hannah Edelman is a photographer from South Florida and the 2026 Charcoal Publishing Prize recipient. We talk about using photography as part of processing traumatic experiences. Hannah Edelman (b. 1996) is a South Florida–born visual artist whose work in analog photography and printmaking bridges the technical and the poetic. Formally trained as a gelatin silver printer, she uses the camera to create works that explore cultural memory, myth, and the psychological weight of place. Rooted in process and materiality, Edelman’s practice reflects on how landscape and identity shape one another. https://hannah-edelman.format.com/ https://www.instagram.com/hannah__edelman/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com 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. 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
11 min
2026 Chico Attendees Series Henry Comes-Pritchett, philosopher and photographer, speaks about photography as a tool to describe both memory as well as his vision of the future. https://twodimensional.space https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-comes-pritchett/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com 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. 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
19 min
2026 Chico Attendees Series Mark Woods, photographer and cinematographer, speaks about his love of the stand-alone image. Mark Woods is a fine art black & white still photographer and commercial cinematographer raised in a California family deeply rooted in photography and film. His father operated a portrait studio in Hollywood, while his grandfather famously purchased and released the film Reefer Madness. Growing up surrounded by cameras, film, and darkrooms would later shape Woods’ lifelong visual career. Woods discovered his passion for image-making while attending the University of California, Berkeley in 1968, where he studied Photo Ethnographic Anthropology. During his years at Berkeley, he became known for creating powerful street photography and formal documentary imagery. By the time he graduated in 1971, Woods had become the university’s preferred photographer for student activities, jazz festivals, and campus publications, often credited as Francis Woods. After returning to Hollywood, Woods worked extensively in both still photography and motion picture production. He opened a still photography studio at Columbia Studios, producing advertising imagery before transitioning fully into cinematography. Over the course of a 30-year career, he shot and directed more than 1,000 commercials and 25 feature films, earning multiple industry awards for his work. In addition to his commercial career, Woods taught advanced cinematography at several respected institutions, including California State University Northridge (CSUN), the American Film Institute (AFI), National University, and ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. In 2004, Woods returned to his roots in analog black & white photography, building a traditional darkroom and focusing more deeply on fine art still imagery. His photographic series include Berkeley 1968–1973, W/O & Later (Hollywood Behind The Scenes ’73–’79), Pasadena’s Arroyo landscapes, early Chinese structures at the Huntington Gardens, floral portraits, and other still life works. Working primarily with large format photography and traditional analog processes, Woods combines documentary realism with a strong pictorialist influence. His landscapes are created using natural light, while his still lifes are carefully illuminated using strobes, tungsten lighting, or available light depending on the subject and mood. Today, Mark Woods continues to explore timeless photographic methods while preserving moments of history, atmosphere, and human experience through both still photography and cinematography. https://www.markwoods.com https://stills-that-move.myshopify.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com 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. 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
1 hr 0 min
Photographer Michelle Arcila joined me at the JKC Gallery to discuss the process of making incredibly personal work that involves family and trauma and who that work might be for. We also talk about photographing your family, especially your children, and how to find the balance between exploring a painful narrative in the work while protecting those you are photographing from your past experiences. https://www.michellearcila.net https://www.instagram.com/michelle.arcila/ Michelle Arcila is a Costa Rican/American photographer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2002 with a BFA in photography. Her work primarily focuses on family lore, motherhood, bicultural identity, and ancestral trauma. Her photographs have been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally; they also appear in a number of private collections. In 2012, after the birth of her first daughter, she took a hiatus from commercial work. During that time she was able to really start exploring how the work she was creating related to not only her experience of growing up in the United States as a first generation American; which came with the feeling of not feeling from here and not feeling from there (“No soy de aquí, no soy de allá.”) and how that sentiment played into her role as a mother and perhaps how all of this combined has affected her mental health struggles. She is the recipient of the Photowork 2025 Fellowship and was shortlisted for the PHMuseum 2025 Women’s Grant. She currently divides her time between the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn, NY, where she lives with her husband and two daughters. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com
10 min
Susan Weiss speaks about Hello Susan and Black Tulip at the 2026 Chico Review https://www.susanweissart.com/portfolio-3 https://www.instagram.com/susanweissart/ Susan Weiss works in the visual arts in many mediums, including photography, film, painting and drawing. Her work explores the issues of personal identity and the psycho-social landscape. She also teaches drawing and student artist portfolio preparation both live and in zoom consultation. Susan's projects include the ongoing series Humanity in the Modern World, documenting humanitarian work in other countries, most recently the immigration story at the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border with a Washington D.C, based NGO. Her short documentary films explore the experiences of womanhood, have played on the festival circuit and won many awards. THE ORCHARD, seasonal photographs of a Vermont apple orchard, tell the story of hope and faith during the years of the pandemic. Susan photographs with both digital and film cameras depending on the project, including Mamiya 7II, Leica M9P and Leica M10, Polaroid SX70 and 680, Iphone 17 Pro Max, and plastic toy cameras. “Exploring and photographing the human condition is the major theme in my work. I attempt to connect with people and photograph their lives to document what makes them unique as individuals. The stories are personal but they become my stories as I photograph and interpret through the lens of my camera, and their lives become my art. It is this attraction to lives that are unique and with a sense of vulnerability that drives my work.” This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com
15 min
2026 Chico Attendees Series Jordan Monloire speaks about Sweet Tarts and her reasons for coming to the Chico Review Jordan Monloire is a photographer + book maker living in the pnw, usa. Presently doing time in the dark room and shooting only a fraction of sites worth seeing. She predominantly focuses on gonzo style black and white, post-documentative portraiture. The core of her practice is her "fruits basket"—the act of capturing the realities of her experience and maintaining the ability to collect and share. You’ll find most of her work in silver gelatin fibre prints, with periodic appearances inlaid in installations and handmade zines When I was 19 a man stopped me on a city bus in Seattle, he wound up gifting me my first analog camera. This exchange is what introduced me to making pictures. I currently live in Seattle Washington, working on my forthcoming book titled Sweet Tarts. https://jordanmonloire.com https://www.instagram.com/alphag3rl 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. 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 _____ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com
59 min
Photographer, educator, and writer Odette Elix England speaks about her latest book, Isn't X Beautiful (The Ice Plant) as well as, The Long Shadow: Unwrapped ~ Marion Post Wolcott’s Labor and Love (Libraryman), and to be developed, to be continued (Tall Poppy Press). https://www.odetteengland.com https://theiceplant.cc/product/isnt-x-beautiful/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com Odette Elix England is a photographer, writer, avid reader, and educator. A 2022 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, her artistic and research work explores the rituals of loving and leaving. She has exhibited her work in over 120 museums and galleries worldwide and has received grants and awards from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, and Anonymous Was a Woman, among others. She has been nominated for the Foam Paul Huf Award (twice) and the Prix Pictet. She has published six award-winning books. Her first photo novella, Isn’t X Beautiful!, is available for preorder here. She is currently working on her second novella, Once I Was A Photograph, and an experimental re-telling of Susan Sontag’s On Photography. Elix England received her Ph.D. in 2018. She now teaches at the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University.
36 min
Pia-Paulina Guilmoth joins Michael Chovan-Dalton to talk about two of her books, Flowers Drink the River (Stanley/Barker) and Fishworm (Void), Pia's collaboration with Jesse Bull Saffire, and how different the approach to these bodies of work were and also how Fishworm was a return to what Pia loved about photography when she started out. https://pguilmoth.com https://www.instagram.com/p_guilmoth/ https://charcoalbookclub.com/products/fishworm This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com Pia Paulina Guilmoth was born in 1993 and lives in rural Maine. She makes work thinking about gender, ritual, class, dysphoria, euphoria, beauty, and relationships to the land. Pia uses large-format photography, sculpture, and collaged found ephemera gathered while wandering around the backroads. Guilmoth has published five monographs. Her third book titled Flowers Drink the River, which was released in November 2024, received the Jurors' Special Mention from Paris Photo / Aperture 2025 PhotoBook Awards. Her work is in the permanent collection of SF MoMA. Guilmoth has won a Google/Aperture Creator Labs grant and a Peter Reed Foundation grant in photography. In 2022 she was a MacDowell Fellow in Visual Arts.
54 min
This Alabaster Grave is Cengiz Yar’s first monograph exploring the overwhelming destruction and pain faced by the Iraqi city of Mosul, within the context of its history and unique, now largely ruined, architecture. The book questions the cost of the fight against ISIS and global war on terror as told through the lives and city that bore the brunt of its destructive force. The photographs were made between 2015 and 2023 and fluctuate between reportage and moments of contemplation. The book includes a foreword from Azmat Khan, an essay by Campbell MacDiarmid, and a pullout map. It is designed by Jason Koxvold of Gnomic Book and written in both English and Arabic. Near the end of the show Michael also asks Cengiz about his time in Minnesota during the height of the ICE protests. https://www.cengizyar.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com Cengiz is a documentary photographer and editor based in El Paso, Texas. Cengiz has worked in visual journalism for over a decade, from reporting in the field to building groundbreaking online packages. He is currently a visuals editor at ProPublica, where he edits, photographs, and art-directs stories across the site. His primary focus is visual coverage of projects in the Midwest, Southwest, and Texas. Before joining ProPublica, he edited for publications like Rest of World, Roads & Kingdoms, and the Guardian. As a photographer his work has primarily focused on human migration and the conflicts in Iraq and Syria. He is the inaugural recipient of the James Foley Award for Conflict Reporting, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and a Dart Center Ochberg Fellow in Journalism and Trauma. His photography clients include Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, WIRED, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Instagram, Google, UNHCR, and The New York Times among others. He is HEFAT, RISC, and FAA drone pilot certified. His first monograph, This Alabaster Grave, was published in 2025 by Ocotillo Press.
1 hr 24 min
In 2025 Lily Colman took on the initiative to start her own publishing non-profit, FRAME/SEQUENCE, through fiscal sponsorship with CultureWorks of Philadelphia. FRAME/SEQUENCE is a quarterly print periodical spotlighting underrepresented and emerging photographers, writers, artists, and communities across Philadelphia and Greater Pennsylvania — connecting art, story, and place in a uniquely intimate and enduring form. FRAME/SEQUENCE’s first edition, On Motherhood, captures motherhood’s diverse and powerful experiences through art and storytelling. This collection highlights the complex realities of nurturing, sacrifice, mourning, and celebration, offering a platform to voices often unheard. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at: https://charcoalbookclub.com https://www.frame-sequence.com https://www.lilycolman.com https://hmcooper.com/home.html https://www.keavyhandleybyrne.com Keavy Handley-Byrne is a photographic artist, writer, and educator. Their work has been exhibited across the United States and included in numerous publications. Their photographic practice focuses on themes of queer identity, grief, and the intersections therein. They are based in New York City and work across the tri-state area. Helen Maurene Cooper, is an artist and educator living in Philadelphia, PA. She earned a MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a BA from Bard College. Selected exhibitions include; Onomatopee(Eindhoven, Netherlands), Clare Morris Gallery ( Ireland), Soap Factory (Minneapolis), Space Mountain (Miami), and Gaylord & Dorothy Donnelley Foundation (Chicago). Awards and Fellowships include; the Cultural Council of Eindhoven, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, and University of Chicago. Her 2017 monograph, Paint & Polish: Visual Economy and Visual Culture from the West Side (Onomatopee, Eindhoven Netherlands). Paint & Polish was reviewed in Bust.com, New City, Nails Magazine and the Creators Vice Magazine. Artists' talks have been given at PS1, The Fashion Institute of Technology, Kansas City Art Institute, Elmhurst Art Museum, The Arts Incubator at University of Chicago and Oxbow School of Painting. In 2021, Cooper founded Vanity Tintype, a commercial tintype studio in Philadelphia, through which she has done cultural commissions from The African American Museum of Philadelphia and Monument lab. Lily Madeleine Colman is a film-based photographer and educator from Philadelphia, PA. She makes work about womanhood, inheritance, and specifically how certain items and feelings are passed down between generations of women. Lily was featured in the 2021 International Juried Exhibition at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ, where she was awarded First Prize and a Solo Exhibition. Her solo exhibition, The Knots on the Underside of the Carpet, ran from April 22 - June 4, 2022, at the CCA. Lily graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with her MFA in 2020, as well as a Certificate in Collegiate Teaching in Art and Design. She has always loved photography, education, and photo books, and wanted to make them accessible to everyone. In 2025 Lily took on the initiative to start her own publishing non-profit, FRAME/SEQUENCE, through fiscal sponsorship with CultureWorks of Philadelphia. FRAME/SEQUENCE is a quarterly print periodical spotlighting underrepresented and emerging photographers, writers, artists, and communities across Philadelphia and Greater Pennsylvania — connecting art, story, and place in a uniquely intimate and enduring form. Lily also currently works as an adjunct photography professor at Mercer County Community College, Rowan University, and Rowan College at Burlington County. She has also taught at The College of New Jersey, and Union County Community College, all located in New Jersey.
49 min
Lily Colman speaks about her show, She, Archivist, at the JKC Gallery and her new periodical, Frame/Sequence. She, Archivist is a project about womanhood, inheritance, and specifically how certain items and feelings are passed down between generations of women. The focus is on matrilineal inheritance through perceived rituals in Judaism, and the questioning of certain beliefs passed down. Using traditional film-based and alternative photographic processes and utilizing collage with domestic materials, Colman attempts to reconstruct her identity through her family’s matrimonial history as well as her own experience with an abusive marriage and subsequent divorce. https://www.lilycolman.com https://www.frame-sequence.com Lily was featured in the 2021 International Juried Exhibition at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ, where she was awarded First Prize and a Solo Exhibition. Her solo exhibition, The Knots on the Underside of the Carpet, ran from April 22 – June 4, 2022, at the CCA. Lily graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with her MFA in 2020, as well as a Certificate in Collegiate Teaching in Art and Design. She has always loved photography, education, and photo books, and wanted to make them accessible to everyone. Frame/Sequence is a photobook periodical that blends personal storytelling with fine art photography. We currently publish bi-anually with the aim of becoming quarterly. We invite writers and photo-based artists—especially from Philadelphia and the surrounding region—to share authentic, lived experiences. Each edition, based around a theme, curates these narratives and striking visual work. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com
58 min
Leonard Marcus joins us to talk about his show Click! Photographers Make Picture Books at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Visionary photographer-illustrators from Edward Steichen and William Wegman to Dare Wright, Mo Willems, Tana Hoban, Charles R. Smith Jr, and Walter Wick have long trained their camera eye with young people in mind. Their work reveals the hidden beauty of our everyday surroundings, makes the fantastic seem real in artfully choreographed collages and staged photos, and documents the amazing diversity of life on our planet. Eighty archival photo prints and a selection of rare children’s books from the 1890s onward put this vibrant, under-explored strand of children’s book art into eye-opening sharp focus. Curated by Leonard S. Marcus. https://leonardmarcus.com https://carlemuseum.org This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Leonard’s pathfinding writings and exhibitions have earned him acclaim as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on children’s books and the people who create them. He is the author of more than 25 award-winning biographies, histories, interview collections, and inside looks at the making of children’s literature’s enduring classics. His reviews and commentary have been featured in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, The Horn Book, and on numerous radio and television programs including Good Morning America, All Things Considered, PBS NewsHour, BBC Radio 4, CBC As It Happens, Beijing Television, and Radio New Zealand, among others. A founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Leonard curated the New York Public Library’s landmark exhibition The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter, as well as a long roster of touring exhibitions highlighting the art of Golden Books, Alice and Martin Provensen, Leonard Weisgard, Bernard Waber, Jules Feiffer, Garth Williams, and others. He has served as a consultant to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, National Book Foundation, Bank Street College of Education, American Writers Museum, Bard Graduate Center, National Book Council (Singapore), Lamsa Media (UAE), and Trust Bridge Media (China). In 2007, the Bank Street College of Education awarded Leonard an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. In 2019, Leonard became the first American to win the Shanghai-based Chen Bochui Foundation International Children’s Literature Award for “special contributions to the development of Chinese children’s literature.” His literary archive is now in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. Leonard teaches at New York University and the School of Visual Arts, and speaks to audiences throughout the US and around the world. Born in Mount Vernon, New York and educated at Yale and the Iowa Graduate Writers’ Workshop, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.
52 min
'Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture', the first book by Ivan McClellan, offers an inside look at Black cowboy culture across the United States in the 21st century, creating a bridge between present and past through sports, community, and love of the land. In 2015, photographer Ivan McClellan attended the Roy LeBlanc Invitational in Oklahoma, the country’s longest-running Black rodeo, at the invitation of Charles Perry, director and producer of The Black Cowboy. Over the next decade, McClellan embarked on a journey across the nation, crafting a multi-layered look at contemporary Black rodeo culture for the new book, 'Eight Seconds'. Whether photographing teen cowgirl sensation Kortnee Solomon at her family’s Texas stables, capturing bull riding champion Ouncie Mitchell in action, or kicking it with the Compton Cowboys at their Los Angeles ranch, McClellan chronicles the extraordinary athletes who keep the magic and majesty of the “Old West” alive with high-octane displays of courage, strength, and skill. The book’s title refers to the sport of bull riding — athletes must stay on a bull for eight seconds while it bucks and the more hectic the ride, the higher they score. 'Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture' is edited by Miss Rosen and includes a foreword by Charles Sampson, the first African American cowboy to win a world championship in professional rodeo. Slideshow Starts around 12:52 https://eightsecs.com https://8secondsstore.com/product/eight-seconds/ https://www.instagram.com/damiani_books/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Ivan McClellan (b. 1982, Kansas City, KS) is a photojournalist and designer based in Philadelphia, PA. His work reveals marginalized aspects of black culture and challenges broad assumptions and myths about racial identity in America.
52 min
Marshall To is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on photography, painting and illustrations. He grew up uniquely in a Taoist family in a small town called Red Deer which created a unique integration of western landscape and eastern beliefs. He moved to Vancouver where he currently resides working as a Chef - growing up in a Chinese immigrant household food was integral to the culture and more importantly a language used to communicate. Unsatisfied with just cooking Marshall began taking pictures of food and quickly began photographing and styling for local magazines and websites then off to an endeavor to seek even more with photography and art. His first monograph, Blank Notes, is a book that combines that unique integration of western and immediate landscapes with eastern rituals and belief. https://marshalljamesto.com https://www.instagram.com/marshalljamesto https://charcoalbookclub.com/collections/recent-books/products/blank-notes?variant=42002660819031 This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com
57 min
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.com https://bsky.app/profile/kaimcbride.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com
1 hr 5 min
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.com Disparate 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 Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com The Real Photo Show is hosted and produced by Michael Chovan-Dalton The JKC Gallery Artist Talks are hosted and produced by: Real Photo Show/Michael Chovan-Dalton, Julia Colonna, and Dani Paglione.
40 min
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, American 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.