PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and Michael travelled to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, GA to speak with Keough Family Curator of Photography​, Gregory Harris and photographer, Rahim Fortune about the amazing show, A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845, up through January 14, 2024. Greg talks about how he and Sarah Kennel --curator of Photography at Virginia Museum of Art-- collaborated on the curation of the exhibition, some of the history behind the work, and the practical and curatorial decisions needed in order to narrow down the breadth of work made in the south from 1845 to today. Rahim shares his process of writing the afterword to the exhibition catalog, with Dr. Shakira Smith, published by Aperture, and shares his response to the work in the show along with its historical significance to the history of Black photographers in the American South. https://high.org/exhibition/a-long-arc/ https://aperture.org/books/a-long-arc-photography-and-the-american-south/ https://high.org/person/gregory-harris/ https://www.rahimfortune.com Rahim Fortune uses photography to ask fundamental questions about American identity. Focusing on the narratives of individual families and communities, he explores shifting geographies of migration and resettlement, and the way that these histories are written on the landscapes of Texas and the American South. Rahim has published two books of his photographs. His work has been featured in exhibitions worldwide and is included in many permanent collections, including those of the High Museum in Atlanta GA, The LUMA Arles, Nelson Atkins Museum and The Boston Museum of Fine Art. “Fortune’s calm and striking photographs provide a compelling glimpse into the daily rhythms of the community, revealing its deep humanity and dignity, at a time when his own personal pain resonated with the experience of the nation. But his images also capture the pain, tensions and relentless everyday reality that have influenced the lives of these people. His portraits are so grippingly engaging because he finds the necessary balance between thoughtful compassion and hard truth.” - Collector Daily Gregory J. Harris is the High Museum of Art’s Donald and Marilyn Keough Family Curator of Photography. He is a specialist in contemporary photography with a particular interest in documentary practice. Since joining the Museum in 2016, Harris has curated over a dozen exhibitions including Mark Steinmetz: Terminus (2018), Paul Graham: The Whiteness of the Whale (2017), and Amy Elkins: Black is the Day, Black is the Night (2017). For the Museum’s 2018 collection reinstallation, he surveyed a broad sweep of the history of photography through prints from the High’s holdings in Look Again: 45 Years of Collecting Photography. His collaborative projects have included Way Out There: The Art of Southern Backroads (2019), a joint exhibition with the High’s folk and self-taught art department. Harris was previously the Assistant Curator at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, where he curated exhibitions including Sonja Thomsen: Glowing Wavelengths in Between (2015), The Sochi Project: An Atlas of War and Tourism in the Caucasus (2014), and Studio Malick: Portraits from Mali (2012). He also organized and authored catalogues for the exhibitions We Shall: Photographs by Paul D’Amato (2013), Matt Siber: Idol Structures (2015), and Liminal Infrastructure (2015). Harris also held curatorial positions at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he organized the exhibitions In the Vernacular (2010) and Of National Interest (2008). His essay “Photographs Still and Unfolding” was published in Telling Tales: Contemporary Narrative Photography (McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, 2016). Harris has contributed essays to monographs by Amy Elkins, Matthew Brandt, Jill Frank, and Mark Steinmetz. He earned a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago and an MA in art history from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha is joined by photographer John Gossage to discuss John’s long and storied life in photography. John talks at length about his encounters, both positive and negative, with some of photography's towering historical figures from Lisette Model to Edward Steichen. John discusses the origins of his renowned work, The Pond, and how getting the book published was a real challenge. http://stephendaitergallery.com/artists/john-gossage/ John Gossage (1946- ) born in Staten Island, New York is an artist who has, more than most contemporary photographers, become noted for his intellectually engaging, subversive and well-crafted artist books and other publications. In them the artist utilizes under-recognized elements of the urban environment: unused and abandoned patches of land; refuse and detritus; barbed wire; graffiti and the like, to explore themes as disparate as surveillance, memory and the relationship between architecture and power. “ Gossage is always about the luxuriance of what goes unnoticed, what goes unseen until his pictures call your attention to it,” wrote Gus Blaisdell in The Romance Industry, ( Nazraeli Press, 2001). Gossage photographs that which has just occurred, from markings on a wall to a table after a meal, to remind us that we may have already forgotten it happened or that we were there. By asking us look at what we have misplaced or abandoned he brings us face to face with the present as it becomes history. Throughout the 1980s Berlin became Gossage’s overriding focus. Berlin, with its Wall, and unwanted histories – both forgotten and remembered – became the place where Gossage first explored the ideas that have come to symbolize his very personalized style of photographic storytelling. BERLIN IN THE TIME OF THE WALL was published by Loosestrife Editions in 2004.In 2010, Aperture re-issued and updated The Pond, a groundbreaking visual meditation on Thoreau’s stay at Walden Pond. This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, Lois Conner talk about the importance of being prepared for and understanding the history of a place before setting out to photograph while at the same time letting go of what you think you know. Lois talks about some of her most important teachers and mentors, from Helen Levitt to Richard Benson, and how they helped shape her process and practice. And, of course, they discuss Lois's dedication to large format from 8x10 to 7x17! https://www.loisconner.net Lois Conner has been based in New York City since 1971, working for the United Nations through 1984. She was awarded a Bachelor in Fine Arts (photography) from the Pratt Institute and a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Art. Conner has received numerous grants, exhibits widely, and features in many publications. She was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Award for Artists (2020) and the Rosenkranz Foundation Fellowship for Photography (2019). She is currently part of the inaugural exhibition at the renovated Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the traveling exhibition Civilization, The Way We Live Now at the National Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. She has also had many solo shows in Asia and United States. Her work has been featured in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography. Her recent books include: Lotus, Trees and the Jiangnan Landscape, Hangzhou, 2019; A Long View, Shanghai Center of Photography, 2018; Lotus Leaves, Wairarapa Academy, New Zealand, 2018. Survey books from 2019 include Civilization, The Way We Live Now by William Ewing and Keeper of the Hearth, Picturing Roland Barthes's Unseen Photograph by Odette England, both are catalogues for traveling exhibitions. Conner has been teaching photography for over thirty-five years, including over a decade at the Yale University School of Art. Other venues include Princeton University, Sarah Lawrence College, Cooper Union, Bard College, Stanford University, the New School and the School of Visual Arts. She taught at The China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, China, and is currently a visiting artist at Fordham University. This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this short non-episode episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha, Taylor, and Michael announce the PhotoWork Fellowship! The PhotoWork Fellowship serves early career photographers in developing a body of work and refining their visual voice and their creative process through the guided mentorship of a select group of established photographers working within the post-documentary tradition. Selected Fellows will receive: Monthly one-on-one mentoring with a dedicated Mentor. $1,000 USD stipend to aid in the production of their work. $2,000 USD value of in-kind photographic services with picturehouse + the small darkroom. One-hour, individual, post-production mentoring session with experts from picturehouse + the small darkroom. Online exhibition on PhotoWork Foundation website of work produced during Fellowship. Dedicated PhotoWork Podcast episode with Sasha Wolf in conversation with Fellows & Mentors. Applications Open: September 15, 2023 *Ten short-list applicants will receive a portfolio review with an industry expert chosen by the PhotoWork Foundation. Short-list applicants’ application fees will be waived for the following Fellowship application period. Deadlines, details, and application are at: https://photowork.foundation/fellowship This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, John Divola discuss his observational process of working, his dedication to long term projects and his openness to exploring new ideas and technologies, even knowing that they may never truly develop. John is an icon of the conceptual art world and he shares his process openly and generously. http://www.divola.com https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/artists/john-divola Spanning over 40 years, John Divola’s work has consistently questioned the limits of photography, interweaving sculpture, installation, and performance to highlight the inherent tensions within the medium. Divola’s imagery often examines the Southern Californian landscape, including urban Los Angeles or the nearby ocean, mountains, and desert. Initially inspired by Minimalist and Conceptual work while in college, which he accessed predominantly through photographic reproductions, Divola was one of the first artists to highlight the role of photography in mediating our experience of the world and our surroundings. Born in Los Angeles in 1949, Divola earned an MFA from University of California, Los Angeles in 1974, where he studied under photographer Robert Heinecken. Since 1975 he has taught photography and art at numerous institutions including California Institute of the Arts (1978-1988), and since 1988 he has been a Professor of Art at the University of California, Riverside. Since 1975, Divola’s work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions in the United States, Japan, Europe, Mexico, and Australia, including Galerie Marquardt, Paris, 1990; Laura Bartlett Gallery, London 2012: Kunstverein Freiburg, Germany; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013; Wallspace Gallery New York, 2014; and Palm Springs Art Museum, 2019. His work can be found in numerous public collections including Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. Among Divola's Awards are Individual Artist Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts (1973, 1976, 1979, 1990), a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship (1986), a Fintridge Foundation Fellowship (1998), a City of Los Angeles Artist Grant (1999) and a California Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship (1998). This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer and educator, Andrew Moore take a deep dive into the history of Andrew's ever evolving processes and practices. Andrew talks about his varied influences from both the modern and post-modern art world movements. Sasha and Andrew also discuss how his photography kept moving him closer and closer to home culminating in work made in the Hudson Valley where he resides. LINKS HERE https://www.andrewlmoore.com https://www.yanceyrichardson.com/artists/andrew-moore American photographer Andrew Moore (born 1957) is widely acclaimed for his photographic series, usually taken over many years, which record the effect of time on the natural and built landscape. These series include work made in Cuba, Russia, Bosnia, Times Square, Detroit, The Great Plains, and most recently, the American South. Moore’s photographs are held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Library of Congress amongst many other institutions. He has received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 2014, and has as well been award grants by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the J M Kaplan Fund. His most recent book, Blue Alabama, with a preface by Imani Perry and story by Madison Smartt Bell was released in the fall of 2019. His previous work on the lands and people along the 100th Meridian in the US, called Dirt Meridian, has a preface by Kent Haruf and was exhibited at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha. An earlier book, the bestselling Detroit Disassembled, included an essay by the late Poet Laureate Philip Levine, and an exhibition of the same title opened at the Akron Museum of Art before also traveling to the Queens Museum of Art, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, and the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. Moore’s other books include: Inside Havana (2002), Governors Island (2004) and Russia, Beyond Utopia (2005) and Cuba (2012). Additionally, his photographs have appeared in Art in America, Artnews, The Bitter Southerner, Harpers, National Geographic, New York Review of Books, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, TIME, Vogue and Wired. Moore produced and photographed "How to Draw a Bunny," a pop art mystery feature film on the artist Ray Johnson. The movie premiered at the 2002 Sundance Festival, where it won a Special Jury prize. Mr. Moore was a lecturer on photography in the Visual Arts Program at Princeton University from 2001 to 2010. Presently he teaches a graduate seminar in the MFA Photography Video and Related Media program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, we rewind to episode 6 where Sasha and photographer, Todd Hido, have a wide-ranging conversation about Todd's roles as an artist and an educator. Todd shares his ideas about how students should follow the John Cage rule and “ Find a place you trust and try trusting it for a while”, and how, as a student himself, he had to push back against a critique to make his work less subjective! Todd and Sasha find common ground through cinematic influences and the desire for hope as a motivator to keep working. There is much to love and learn from in this episode as Hido is extremely generous with his hard won wisdom. http://www.toddhido.com Todd Hido is a San Francisco Bay Area-based artist whose work has been featured in Artforum, The New York Times Magazine, Eyemazing, Wired, Elephant, FOAM, and Vanity Fair. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Getty, the Whitney Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the de Young Museum, the Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as in many other public and private collections. Most notably, Pier 24 Photography holds the archive of all his published works. He has over a dozen published books; his most recent monograph titled Excerpts from Silver Meadows was released in 2013, along with an innovative B-Sides Box Set designed to function as a companion piece to his award-winning monograph. Aperture has published his mid-career survey entitled Intimate Distance: Twenty-Five Years of Photographs, a Chronological Album in October of 2016. His latest book, Bright Black World, was released by Nazraeli Press in 2019. In addition to Hido being an artist, he is also a collector and over the last 25 years has created one of the most notable photobook collections. His library was featured in Bibliomania: The World’s Most Interesting Private Libraries in 2018 by Random House. This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

Writer Rebecca Bengal and photographer Kristine Potter discuss the integration of fiction in a photo book. Rebecca talks about her new book, 'Strange Hours,' while Kristine shares her book, 'Dark Waters.' They explore the collaboration process in creating a book and reflect on hometown histories and visual storytelling through photos.

For part 1 of this 2 part episode, returning guest, photographer Kristine Potter, and first time guest, writer Rebecca Bengal, talk to Sasha about how they each started down their career paths, the similarities in their upbringings and how their early interest in music influenced the way they think about visual art. Sasha and Kristine discuss the history of "murder ballads" used to reference the casual violence against women in Kristine's new book, Dark Waters, published by Aperture which includes a short story by Rebecca. In part 2 of this episode, Sasha and Rebecca will talk about her short story and her new book, Strange Hours: Photography, Memory, and the Lives of Artists, also published by Aperture. http://www.kristinepotter.com https://aperture.org/books/coming-soon/kristine-potter-dark-waters/ https://www.rebeccabengal.net https://aperture.org/books/coming-soon/strange-hours-photography-memory-and-the-lives-of-artists/ Kristine Potter (1977) is an artist based in Nashville, Tennessee, whose work explores masculine archetypes, the American landscape, and cultural tendencies toward mythologizing the past. Her first monograph Manifest was published by TBW Books in 2018. Her second monograph Dark Waters is being published by Aperture in the summer of 2023. Potter was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2018 and was awarded the Grand Prix Image Vevey for 2019-2020. Potter’s work is in numerous public and private collections including that of The High Museum of Art, The Georgia Museum of Art, the Swiss Camera Museum, and Foundation Vevey. Potter is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography at Middle Tennessee State University. Rebecca Bengal is a writer of fiction, essays, and documentary journalism about art, literature, film, music, and the environment. A regular contributor to Aperture, her writing has been published by the Paris Review, Vogue, Vanity Fair, the New York Times, Oxford American, Southwest Review, the Believer, the Guardian, and the Criterion Collection, among many others. She has contributed stories and essays to books by Carolyn Drake, Justine Kurland, Kristine Potter, Paul Graham, Danny Lyon, and Charles Portis. A MacDowell fellow in fiction and a former editor at American Short Fiction, DoubleTake, and Vogue, she holds an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers in Austin. Originally from western North Carolina, Bengal lives in Brooklyn. This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer and publisher Matt Eich discuss the intricate play between personal work and universality, the importance of varied artistic inspiration, and the deep understanding and responsibility needed when working with communities as an outsider. Matt also expresses the necessity of having trusted voices help in the editing process. https://www.matteichphoto.com https://www.littleoakpress.com Matt Eich is a photographic essayist working on long-form projects related to memory, family, community, and the American condition. Matt’s work has received numerous grants and recognitions, including PDN’s 30 Emerging Photographers to Watch, the Joop Swart Masterclass, the F25 Award for Concerned Photography, POYi’s Community Awareness Award, an Aaron Siskind Fellowship, a VMFA Fellowship and two Getty Images Grants for Editorial Photography. His work has been exhibited in 20 solo shows, in addition to numerous festivals and group exhibitions. Matt’s prints and books are held in the permanent collections of The Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, The New York Public Library, Chrysler Museum of Art, Ogden Museum of Art, and others. Matt was an Artist-in-Residence at Light Work in 2013, and at a Robert Rauschenberg Residency in 2019. Eich holds a BS in photojournalism from Ohio University and an MFA in Photography from Hartford Art School’s International Limited-Residency Program. He is the author of four monographs, Carry Me Ohio (Sturm & Drang, 2016), I Love You, I'm Leaving (Ceiba Editions, 2017), Sin & Salvation in Baptist Town (Sturm & Drang, 2018) and The Seven Cities (Sturm & Drang, 2020). He has one forthcoming monograph scheduled for Fall 2023. Eich self-publishes under the imprint Little Oak Press and resides in Virginia. This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com