Sasha Rudensky | Insider / Outsider - Ep.121

"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 University and received her MFA from Yale University. When Sasha was young her family left Russia, just as the Soviet Union was breaking apart. We talk about the duality and tension of her insider/outsider approach to photographing in Russia and Ukraine as well as her description of people and place through fact and fiction. We also talk about teaching in-person during the pandemic and we talk about a book that Sasha has been working on that combines multiple projects into one body work. Sasha also reveals the new title of this book which we expand upon at the end of the episode. I should also note that Sasha is represented by my podcast partner, Sasha Wolf.   Sasha Rudensky is a Russian-born artist whose work has been exhibited widely including Musee de l’Elysee in Lausanne, Switzerland; Fries Museum in Leewarden, Netherlands; Macro Testaccio Museum in Rome, Italy; ArtScience Museum in Singapore, and Danziger Projects in New York. In 2010 Sasha’s work was included in “reGeneration 2: Photographers of Tomorrow Today”, an international survey of emerging photographers. Her work is held in a number of public collections including Musee de l’Elysee, Yale Art Gallery, and Center of Creative Photography in Tuscon amongst others.   Sasha received her MFA from Yale University School of Art in 2008 and BA from Wesleyan University in 2001. She was the recipient of the Ward Cheney Memorial Award from Yale University, Mortimer-Hays Brandeis Traveling Fellowship, Leica/Jim Marshall Award, and Jessup Prize from Wesleyan University. In 2013 Sasha was awarded the Aaron Siskind Individual Fellowship grant. Her work has appeared in New York Times Magazine, Der Spiegel, Cicero Magazine, American Photo, PDN and others. She is an Assistant Professor of Art at Wesleyan University, where she is the head of the photography program.   http://www.sasharudensky.com/index.html https://sashawolf.com/artist/sasha-rudensky/