Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

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 lif...

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...

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...

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 accompa...

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...

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/por...

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...

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 share...

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...

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 w...

Daniel Power of PowerHouse Books and Yolanda Cuomo of Yolanda Cuomo Design join me for my 200th episode to talk about their famed collaborations including their latest, Larry Fink: Hands On / A Passionate Life of Looking (PowerHouse). This was a really fun and enlightening episode. It is filled with great history and great humor from two incredibly influential figures in photography who also happe...

Artist Shen Wei joins me to talk about his book, A Season Particular (TBW Books). We talk about Shen's mixing of body and flora as representative of his own cultural identity and exploration of desire and intimacy. Shen and I discuss the process of editing and making this book with Paul Schiek as well as what Shen had learned when he worked with Lesley A. Martin on his first monograph, Chinese Sen...

Reuben Radding | Heavenly Arms Photographer and educator, Reuben Radding, joins me to talk about his book, Heavenly Arms (Red Hook Editions). We cover the entire process of producing this book beginning with selecting and sequencing the photos, working with a publisher, crowdsourcing funds, and finally, how the process will impact Reuben's future work. http://www.reubenradding.com ||| https://www....

Here are the final recordings I made at the 2024 Chico Review with the wonderful attendees who come to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. I had the opportunity to spend a short amount of time with over 20 attendees. These conversations come from our first interactions for me and the guests with each other and I did not see the work before the recordings. That me...

Here are some of the recordings I made at the 2024 Chico Review with the wonderful attendees who come to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. I had the opportunity to spend a short amount of time with over 20 attendees. These conversations come from our first interactions for me and the guests with each other and I did not see the work before the recordings. That...

My guest today is photographer JF Bouchard. JF and I talk about his book, The New Cubans (powerHouse Books) and how he became aware of and how he approached photographing a lesser known subculture in Cuba that consists of younger Cubans who are non-conformist and more gender diverse. JF describes his goal towards collaborating in a way in which he is both working for himself but also, in a way, wo...

Here are some of the recordings I made at the 2024 Chico Review with the wonderful attendees who come to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. I had the opportunity to spend a short amount of time with over 20 attendees. These conversations come from our first interactions for me and the guests with each other and I did not see the work before the recordings. That...

Visual Artist and educator, Lydia Panas and I have a wonderful conversation about her work including her books, Falling from Grace (self published), The Mark of Abel (Kehrer Verlag), and Sleeping Beauty (MW Editions). We talk about her use of allegorical themes as a way of pushing back against them and we talk extensively about how she works with and connects with her models and how all her work h...

Abelardo Morell joins me to talk about his storied career and incredible passion for photography and art history. We talk about Flowers for Lisa, published by Abrams Books and Tent-Camera, published by Nazraeli Press, including the inspiration and the inventiveness of these works and the work that came before and after. Abe's work has long been fundamental to my teaching practice and his love of t...

Here are some of the recordings I made at the 2024 Chico Review with the wonderful attendees who come to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. I had the opportunity to spend a short amount of time with over 20 attendees. These conversations come from our first interactions for me and the guests with each other and I did not see the work before the recordings. That...

Photographer, publisher, designer, and coffee roaster, Clint Woodside joined me at the 2024 Chico Review to talk about Deadbeat Club Press  and his own photography. We talk about how he partners with artists to make work and books, how he thinks about publishing as a family business, and we talk extensively about his own photography. In particular, Clint and I discuss an ongoing series that touche...

Here are some of the recordings I made at the 2024 Chico Review with the wonderful attendees who come to Chico to share their work and their stories with incredible reviewers. I had the opportunity to spend a short amount of time with over 20 attendees. These conversations come from our first interactions for me and the guests with each other and I did not see the work before the recordings. That...

I visited Mark Alice Durant at his home in Maryland to talk about his book, Summer of the White Fox, and After, published by Saint Lucy Books. We talk about how Mark came to photography and why he started his own publishing imprint. Summer of the White Fox, and After is a memoir and a monograph, with a touch of history and philosophy weaved into the essay. It is a recounting of grief and loss that...

Tim Carpenter and I met up at the 2024 Chico Review to talk about his latest book Little, published by The Ice Plant.  We talk about how Little is the last in a trilogy of Tim’s books, Local Objects and Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road, both also published by The Ice Plant. Even though Tim was on PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf in 2023 to talk about To Photograph Is To Learn How To Die, and we do not take...

Photographer and Pediatrician, Greg Gulbransen joins me to talk about his book, Say Less, published by Gost Books.  Greg and I talk about how facing tragedy in his personal life and being a children’s doctor all lead to this exploration of gun violence. Greg is a unique guest in that he is both  a full-time working doctor and had great success with fashion photography. He approaches his medical wo...