Concept Aware®

Elizabeth Clark Libert's bold diaristic conversation with herself is a reckoning with a twenty years old sexual trauma and its impact on raising her school-age sons. Boy Crazy is a masterfully designed melange of self-portraits, environmental portraits, seasonal landscapes and family photos. Interspersed in a searingly honest staccato manner are intimate musings, email correspondence with her perp...

Anastasia Samoylova furthers her exploration of place and the ability of photography to shape our perceptions of reality. Central to her investigation is the geography of human relationships to our natural and man-made environments. Utilizing her masterful ability to collage in-camera, her flattened imagery provides us with a kaleidoscope of ideas surrounding globalization, historical heritage, an...

Open enacts metaphor to make visible the layers of oppression experienced by Palestinian apartheid. Exposed documentary images and HTML-coded emails are bookended with Arabic calligraphy and poetry. Delivered in a sealed cardboard film box, this soft-cover book utilizes photography as a tool to activate our imagination, reveal expansive truths and offer a revision of what hope and resilience look...

Another Online Pervert creates a visual and text dialog between photos from Souders’ image archive and snippets of written copy from a two-year engagement with an AI personality chatbot. Utilizing prompts from her childhood journals, an emotional call and response is created between human sense and sensibility and machine capability and capacity. Photographs, including a few family snapshots, weav...

In this conversation, Todd discusses, among other things: Working in archives Thinking in books Approaches to appropriation Running amok Parameters for sequencing  Perceived opposites Light leaks Colliding technologies Data corruption Observation & measurement Falsehoods & mystery Artist Resources/Inspiration Discovering Peary Land by Todd Forsgren Phase Faze 2001/2021 Driving Into th...

Tough Pleasures turns a bright light and witty lens on the conflicting dynamics of femininity and food—revealing appetite and desire. Susan Bright's astute and savory essay provides the perfect table setting for the environmental portraits that follow. Wilkinson masterfully interrupts the repetitive and limiting messaging of unattainable expectations and endless critique by putting power in the ha...

Episode Notes  Cai Quirk deeply explores genderqueer self-portraiture in an original image creation and story formation orchestration. A phantasmagorical world unfurls, as six evolutionary text and image sections weave a mythical interdependency of body, spirit and nature. The result is an invitation to regard all beings and their fluid becoming with a gracious welcoming of honor and respect....

Spin Club Stories is a mixed-media reintegration of history, environment, society and self in an interactive dialog spanning centuries. Reclaiming the artform and impact of women’s handiwork, Astrid assembles collages of images and textiles, perforated with hand embroidery. Sourced from family heirlooms, she figuratively empowers her ancestors—and ultimately herself—to transform the future. In thi...

This book forms a collective reframing of the realities of motherhood beyond the mythologized patriarchal gaze. A global array of photographer mothers document, with bold authenticity, the carrying and caring of a human—the feral and relentless shared space of heart-exploding wonder and joy—all seen and shared through the eyes of those who experience it.  In this conversation, Karni discusses...

In this conversation, Britland discusses, among other things: Camera as mediator Gender constructs Male vulnerability Strong opinions, loosely held Human-inflicted trauma Sensationalizing violence Working from a set of rules Creative kinship Serendipity Applied abstractions of visual allegory Interiority displayed

In this conversation, Peggy discusses, among other things: How a camera transforms what we see Being addicted to film Seeing inside the photographer's head Vastness of observation The intelligence (and swiftness) needed to respond to the presence observed The high jinx of black and white imagery The relationship between the image and time moving Teaching strengthens editing The rhythm of a book Lo...

In this conversation, Russett and Lauren discuss, among other things: What constitutes a photobook The evolution of the photobook Gendered discrepancies and the inequity of access and privilege A lack and/or ambiguity of attribution or authorship The personal and political visual voice of women The artist’s concept as a driving force Telling your own story The image as an agent for social change&n...

In this conversation, Kristen discusses, among other things: The power of observation Speaking through photos Commanding the frame Leaning towards iconography Intentionality A circular gaze Reciprocity in relationship with subjects Import of residencies and support of the Guggenheim Performative girl power The evolution of a series and the birthing of a book

In this conversation, Jessica discusses, among other things: Mining family narratives Focusing on what's in front of you Working with light The influence of teachers Wrestling with the materiality of now Transcending the ordinary Photojournalism vs art One ‘good’ photo a month Life fitting into photography Artist Resources/Inspiration Interior Exposure by Jessica Todd Harper and Sarah McNear The H...

Three deeply researched long-term projects; Immortality: Remnants of the Vietnam and American War, One Week’s Dead, and National Parks are compiled in a sumptuous two-volume slipcase. Hauntingly beautiful chlorophyll prints and daguerreotypes, printed with clarity and depth on dense black paper, animate a living history of war, refugee status, immigration and assimilation. Augmented by essays, poe...

Undo Motherhood is a boxed set of soft-covered trifold booklets titled after the predominant feelings identified by regretful mothers: anger, fear, isolation, exhaustion, guilt, resignation and acceptance. Karlkin’s investigation was driven by a single question: “If you knew then what you know now, would you have made a different choice?” Respectful, intimate imagery makes visible a continuum of a...

The Drawer is a visual autobiography of Aletti’s deep canon of inspiration, experience and multi-media obsessions collected over five decades. Created and captured in a single day, each collage is a flurry of free association. This book animates his refined sense of composition,  eclectic juxtaposition of image and text and chronicles the tectonic shifts of art and visual culture. In this con...

In this conversation, Jennifer and Odette discuss, among other things: Collaboration Inherent trust Being reckless Being process driven Allowing the material to speak for itself The social journey of a photograph Playing vs working Simplicity Growing understanding Undoneness Referenced in the episode Books by Odette England  Jennifer Garza-Cuen’s website Books by Susan Bright Photography and...

In this conversation, Syb discusses, among other things: Gallery/Artist/Resources Gallery: Casemore Gallery/ San Francisco/Chris Grunder  Rolf Art/ Buenos Aires, Argentina/Florencia Giordana Braun Julian Sander Gallery/Cologne, Germany/Julian Sander  TOBE Gallery/Budapest, Hungary/Tomas Opitz and Bea Puskas Stephen Daiter Gallery/Chicago/ Lukas Deepest Darkest Gallery/Cape Town, South Af...

In this conversation, Matt discusses, among other things: Taking a fixed object to a fluid space Accessibility Readability Intentionality as a central focus The purpose of publishing is to make public Engaging the mobility of books Taxonomy of the photobook Establishing criticality standards Reader-centric vs. maker-centric books Sustainability Stewardship of the photobook Artist Resources/Inspira...

Photographer and filmmaker, Rita Leistner, blends fine art with documentary in her intensely lit, unstaged, metaphorically-inspired environmental portraits of the tree planters reforesting the cut blocks devastated by commercial logging.  In this conversation, Rita Leistner discusses, among other things: Uncanny use of light An innate sense of composition Feeling not with the heart or head —...

Matar gracefully investigates womanhood, identity, and empowerment - across time and place. Poetic, soulful, and bold portraits capture the agency of becoming, at the threshold of independence. Matar bridges differences in culture, religion, geography, and nationality, offering the connective experience of our shared humanity.  In this conversation, Rania discusses, among other things: Workin...

Holly Lynton melds form, content, and meaning in her strikingly beautiful images, capturing the lives of those providing our sustenance, while protecting our land. Lynton’s compositional framing, lush palette, textural tones, and transformative gestures craft a meditative beauty. Accompanying essays provide context for cultural contradictions, associations, and representations — speaking to the ro...

In this conversation, Toni discusses, among other things: Unpacking seeing The family photo album Pushing expectations of the image  Text as a tipping point Enticing touch Engaging viewers physically  Being driven by an idea Collective learning Cross-discipline experimentation Stick-to-it-ness Editing being crucial The impact of when birth and death left the home Sign-Up for Email Newsle...

In this conversation, Hettie discusses, among other things: Gender care gap Gender pay gap  Family as a trap for women Domesticity and art Need for subsidized, affordable childcare The time-consuming emotional labor of parenting most often falls on mothers Studio space & residency limitations Commercial gallery's inconsistent gender parity Art school’s ‘mother-sized’ holes  Female co...