Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

From June 2020, My conversation with Martin Bough on his life and work. Martin Bough 1927-2021

Had some trouble getting it all together for this week.

Artist and educator, Anita Allyn and I talk about the origins of her photography and installation work and we talk about our shared experiences of teaching in Mercer County, New Jersey. Anita is the Coordinator and Professor of Photography and Video at The College of New Jersey.   https://www.anita-allyn.com https://www.instagram.com/anita_allyn/   This episode is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Cl...

No show today. Traveling with the family.

**Lecturer and Photographer, Tom Leininger and I talk about his shift from the world of photojournalism to the world of art education which has been a mix of full time and part time work, including being one of many voices in a large program at the University of North Texas to becoming the primary voice in a small program at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. We also talk about the challenges to...

Julianna Foster is an artist and assistant professor and interim Program Director of Photography at the University of the Arts. We have a fantastic conversation about teaching and her latest work, Geographical Lore which looks at the changing environment through sculptural images. Geographical Lore was just included in Four Degrees: Eco-Anxiety and Climate Change Presented by Strange Fire Collecti...

Brendan Bannon is a photographer and teacher based between New York and Nairobi, Kenya. We talk about the work his students are showing at the JKC Gallery as part of The Mark and the Memory show curated by Ryann Casey. The work comes from a workshop taught by Brendan and Julian Chinana called Odyssey that is offered to combat veterans to help them process their experiences through the use of the c...

Elinor Carucci and I talk about her book Midlife, an autobiographical exploration of life, ageing, mortality, and the challenges women face as they get older to not become invisible. We talk about the hard work and stresses involved with making personal and commercial work, raising children, and teaching. Elinor talks about her mentors, and the ways in which she has changed as an educator and how...

Cary and I reminisce a bit about our different experiences in the textbook world and the changes that occurred in the publishing and stock photography world that came about almost simultaneously with the introduction of digital photography in the classroom. We talk about Cary's own photography, his desire to promote work from those underrepresented in the photo world, and we talk about the kind of...

Heather Palecek is an artist who uses historical photographic processes in experimental ways to explore our relationship with nature. She is also a high school photo teacher. We talk about her last show at the JKC Gallery and I ask her about teaching at the high school level and the importance of mentors. https://heatherpalecek.squarespace.com   This episode is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club,...

This episode is the first in a series dedicated to talking about teaching art while still having some personal success as an artist. Everyone in this series will be asked Who were your teachers or mentors How do you balance teaching and making Who do you see getting hired today as teachers Where does art rank in importance in your school Who are the students that you serve What’s your favorite tea...

Today's guest is Gulnara Samoilova and we talk about her book, Women Street Photographers published by Prestel Publishing. An amazing collection of work that showcases 100 contemporary women street photographers working around the world. We also talk about how the aftermath of photographing 9/11and editing work for the Associated Press after 9/11 caused Gulnara to think about what she wanted or ne...

"I wish I had more time for my child, I wish I had more time for my work, I wish I had more time for the Humid…" Irina Rozovsky and I talk about her work being included in MOMA's New Photography 2020, her new book, In Plain Air, running workshops at The Humid, and just life in general during Covid. Irina Rozovsky (born in Moscow, raised in the US), makes photographs of people and places,...

"Forget about stunts, owning my story was the bravest thing I ever did." Hannah Kozak is a photographer and a Hollywood stuntwoman. When Hannah was 9 her mother left the family for a man who turned out to be abusive towards her mother. Hannah witnessed this abuse and it eventually lead to Hannah's mother being hospitalized with permanent brain damage. Hannah's book, He Threw the Last Pun...

"In a way the book is almost a valentine to a group of pictures and also a group of people…a community of people who have been engaged in redefining photography." Stephen Frailey and I talk about his new book, Looking at Photography published by Damiani Books, an homage to John Szarkowski's Looking at Photographs. While it uses Szarkowski's format, it is very much Stephen's own ideas abo...

"In classes it was always, oh the road represents ultimate freedom, exuberance, the American dream…I just kept thinking, wait a minute, this doesn't line up for me." For nearly a century, the American road trip has been closely associated with the American dream. The open road is where millions of Americans freely set out to explore the country’s beauty, epic landscapes, and diversity of...

"I'll go and hold their hand with my hand by following their cursor with my cursor."   David Alpert is an artist and curator living and working in Kansas City. His curatorial work involves interaction, connection, and collaboration with others. His work is performative and driven by a desire to bring people together. The pandemic has been a unique challenge to David who is currently in t...

"Like shooting in black and white it really is just trying to find a way to see all these tones of gray and to not see things so stark as good and bad or life and death…"   Jesse Lenz and I talk about his first monograph, The Locusts. It is a gorgeous book that explores childhood wonder and discovery, beauty and terror, and memory and imagination, as well as the notions of what is family...

Episode Notes "What this project looks to do is go well beyond that with more nuance and more authentic voices from the community that is being reported on." -Finbarr O'Reilly   I have two amazing guests for today's show Finbarr O'Reilly and Bernadette Vivuya. This show coincides with the release of the book and multimedia online collaboration, Congo in Conversation by Finbarr O'Reilly....

Michael Kamber and Cynthia Rivera of the Bronx Documentary Center call in to talk about several events coming up at the BDC for this short series pre-election episode. Here are the events you should support or attend if you can. https://www.bronxdoc.org 6TH ANNUAL PHOTO AUCTION BENEFIT VIRTUAL CELEBRATION THURSDAY OCT 22, 2020 | 7PM The Bronx Documentary Center (BDC) is proud to present our 6th An...

Eric Kunsman and I talk about his work, Fake News Archive Project: A Historical Archive of the Donald J. Trump Presidency. Eric is looking for people interested in the next election, and any archive enthusiasts, to search through his screen captured collection of news headlines from the past almost four years and to highlight, through your own social media, the stories that were impactful to you b...

"Really my favorite thing about photography is walking around with my camera…If I could do only one kind of work for the rest of my life, I think that would unquestionably be what I would want to do."   Sasha Rudensky is an artist and an educator. She is currently the Program Director and an Associate Professor of Art at Weslyan University. She studied Studio Art and Russian Literature at Weslyan...

"I was thinking about that lately…as far as black photographers in general, will it always be a counter-narrative…" Duquann Sweeney is a photographer and a community organizer in Jersey City, NJ. He is a founder of The Royal Men Foundation which provides mentoring services, health and educational workshops, and works with the county courts to provide alternative sentencing for people accused of mi...

"When the green comes in, the grass comes back first, and then the smaller shrubs. It's always this sort of hopeful space…I always feel that nature reminds us that after trauma there's regeneration." Deborah Jack is a multimedia artist. Her current work deals with trans-cultural existence, memory, the effects of colonialism and mythology through re-memory. Deborah was born in the Netherlands and g...

"There's a small neighborhood that's called Wilbur Section…It's known for crime, gang activity, drug usage, murders, unsolved homicide, and this is where I am from and this is what formed and shaped me…I want to give something back to my community. I want people to acknowledge themselves and know that they are beautiful." Habiyb Ali Shu'Aib is a Trenton, NJ based photographer who has been photogra...