PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, publisher, and teacher, Peter Kayafas, discuss his process of following his camera to move through and explore the world. Peter and Sasha also talk about the different ways in which Peter has found professional satisfaction outside of making photographs and how that has allowed him to continue his work free of the pressures and demands of the art world. Be sure to listen all the way through to the end for a bonus conversation between Sasha and Peter about how Sasha got started as a dealer and the pivotal role Peter played in that origin story. https://peterkayafas.com   Peter Kayafas is a photographer, publisher, curator and teacher who lives in New York City where he is the Director of the Eakins Press Foundation. He is a Guggenheim Fellow (2019), and his photographs have been widely exhibited, and are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; The New York Public Library; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the New Orleans Museum of Art; and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. He has taught photography at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn since 2000 and is Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Corporation of Yaddo. He has published four monographs of his photographs—The Merry Cemetery of Sapanta (2007); O Public Road! Photographs of America (2009); Totems (2012)—and The Way West (2020) with an essay by Rick Bass.   “Kayafas manages to pack a lot of history — of photography and, implicitly, of America’s real and imagined images of itself — into each of his photos. For some viewers, these pictures may merely offer an abbreviated, reportorial glimpse of what a once-fabled region looks like today. For others, they may allude to a more expansive, Whitmanesque concept of America as a big, diverse place that is also a big, diverse, national family. In doing so, the vision and spirit of Kayafas’s broad body of work, of which The Way West represents only a small sampling, may even begin to point a way home.” —Edward M. Gomez, Hyperallergic, May 24, 2014   “Kayafas is an artist who keeps his strength in check.… [His photographs are] as initially unassuming as they are ultimately powerful. Kayafas’s pictures are rich in knowledge…. Candid is just the beginning.” —Boston Phoenix, March, 2005   “His pictures are crisp and direct, and the best of them vibrate with understated graphic tension.” —The New Yorker, March, 2005   “Kayafas’s images have a timeless quality. They’re simple and spare, yet quietly overpowering with their evocation of a history on a scale beyond that of individual human lives.” —Mark Feeney, The Boston Globe, January 2012 Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha returns as the guest of the show to talk about the behind the scenes, goings-on at Sasha Wolf Projects. Michael asks about her decision to represent two new artists and why they are in a slightly different category than her other artists. Sasha discusses some of the projects she is currently most focused on and Michael inquires as to whether or not the state of art sales during Covid is returning to normal. https://sashawolf.com Use code PHOTOWORK30 to get 30% off your book purchases at aperture.org/shop. Discounted books may be excluded. Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

Mark Steinmetz, an acclaimed photographer with works in major institutions and a Yale MFA graduate, shares insights into his artistic journey. He reflects on his time with Garry Winogrand in Los Angeles, revealing how their relationship shaped his approach. Steinmetz discusses the evolution of his photographic projects, touching on the influences of cinema and fellow artists. The dialogue also highlights the interplay of confidence in building connections with subjects, and the importance of personal fulfillment in artistic representation.

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, curator, and writer, Jon Feinstein discuss the evolution of Humble Arts Foundation, the organization he co founded with Amani Olu, and how Humble represents Jon’s strong desire to democratize the art world and create opportunities for more people. Jon and Sasha also talk about some of the recent events in Jon’s personal life that has made his own work more urgent and emotional. They also reminisce about the first time they met and mutual affection abounds.  http://www.jonfeinstein.com About Jon Feinstein: Jon Feinstein divides his time between making photographs, writing about photographs, curating photographs, and raising his daughter.   Since 2019, he has been directing content/marketing strategy for The Luupe, a new platform connecting women photographers with big brands to change the still-backward narrative.  In his spare time, he runs Humble Arts Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting up and coming art photography. He works with photographers on collaborative interviews to make their photos shine. Feinstein has curated over 50 exhibitions online and IRL, sometimes with curatorial heroes like Lumi Tan, Charlotte Cotton, Natalia Sacasa, Roula Seikaly, and Mickalene Thomas, landing press in HyperAllergic, Aperture, FeatureShoot, The New York Times and The New Yorker.  Feinstein won the 2019 Blue Sky curatorial prize with Roula Seikaly, and also recently, curated his first museum show at The Ogden Museum in New Orleans.  His writing on photography has appeared in VICE, Slate, Daylight, Aperture, Adobe, Hyperallergic, Photograph, and Time, and his weekly stories and interviews on Humble's blog have helped get photographers press, representation, and sell their work.  His own photographs have been featured in Vice, Booooooooom, Paper Journal, Business Insider, Bon Appetit, Lenscratch, and (strangely) Fox News (no regrets). Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

For the 15th episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, Zora J Murff have a conversation about the myriad of discriminatory practices embedded in the art world that have worked to exclude artists of color and how the current push for inclusion leads one to wonder if newly created opportunities are really here to stay. Zora discusses how the pandemic has lead to new ways of engaging students and looking at their work and how we should hold on to much of what we have learned during this time. http://www.zora-murff.com Zora J Murff is an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas. He received his MFA from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln and holds a BS in Psychology from Iowa State University. Merging his educational experiences, Murff uses his practice to highlight intersections between various social systems and art. He has published books with Aint-Bad Editions (PULLED FROM PUBLISHER) and Kris Graves Projects. His most recent monograph, At No Point In Between (Dais Books), was selected as the winner of the Independently Published category of the Lucie Foundation Photo Book Awards. Murff is also a Co-Curator of Strange Fire Collective, a group of interdisciplinary artists, writers, and curators working to construct and promote an archive of artwork created by diverse makers. Murff is represented by Webber Gallery, London. In 2020 Aperture and Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York, with the generous support of 7|G Foundation, announced Murff as the inaugural winner of the Next Step Award. Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, Kristine Potter discuss the various choices Kristine made that lead to her studying with and working for Mark Steinmetz and Philip-Lorca diCorcia, both significant relationships to her artistic practice, and the ways in which her eventual move to Nashville, Tennessee afforded her room to breath, leading to increased creativity. Kristine discusses her Dark Waters project and its connection to the Murder Ballads of the region and her penchant for subverting gender expectations in her work.  http://www.kristinepotter.com Kristine Potter 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. 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 Georgia Museum of Art, 601 Artspace, Swiss Camera Museum, and Foundation Vevey. Potter is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Middle Tennessee State University.  Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer, Doug DuBois talk about the influence photographers Larry Sultan and Jim Goldberg had on Doug’s artistic development while he was in grad school in San Francisco.  Doug discusses his long term project, My Last Day at Seventeen and the complex, always evolving, responsibility he feels for how the teenage subjects, now adults, were represented. Doug’s openness, honestly and good humor bring warmth and breadth to this conversation. http://dougdubois.com https://aperture.org/books/my-last-day-at-seventeen/?post_type=product&p=12198/ Doug DuBois’ photographs are in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in NY, SFMOMA in San Francisco, J. Paul Getty Museum and LACAMA in Los Angeles, The Museum of Fine Art in Houston, the Library of Congress in Washington DC and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He has received fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, The National Endowment for the Arts, SITE Santa Fe, Light Works and The John Gutmann Foundation. Doug DuBois has exhibited at The J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; The Aperture Foundation, The Museum of Modern Art and Higher Pictures in New York; SITE, Santa Fe; New Langton Arts in San Francisco; PARCO Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, Museo D’arte Contemporanea in Rome, Italy and The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Crawford Art Gallery and the Gallery of Photography in Ireland. He has published two monographs with the Aperture Foundation, My last day at Seventeen (2015), All the Days and Nights (2009); exhibition catalogues including Where We Live: Photographs from the Berman Collection (2007) with the J. Paul Getty Museum, The Pleasures and Terrors of Domestic Comfort (1991) with the Museum of Modern Art; as well as features in Double Take, The Picture Project, The Friends of Photography, and in magazines including The New York Times, Time, Details, GQ, The Telegraph and Financial Times of London, Monopol in Berlin and Outlook Magazine in Beijing. Doug DuBois received his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and is an associate professor at Syracuse University and on the faculty at the Hartford Art School’s International Limited Residency MFA program in photography. Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

The Missing Guest On this mini, no guest episode, Sasha and Michael joke around about their missing guest, try to confirm that Michael is indeed who he says he is, since Sasha has not actually seen him in a year, and share the photography books they are both currently reading. Sasha also advises listeners to preview the work of their next guest, Doug DuBois. Books mentioned in this episode: Migrant Mother, Migrant Gender - Sally Stein https://mackbooks.co.uk/products/migrant-mother-migrant-gender-sally-stein?_pos=1&_sid=62776877e&_ss=r On Photographs - David Campany https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/photographs Seeing Deeply - Dawoud Bey https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/dawoud-bey The Locusts - Jesse Lenz https://charcoalpress.com/shop/the-locusts A Parallel Road - Amani Willett https://www.overlapse.com/catalog/a-parallel-road/ Find out more at https://photowork.pinecast.co

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and photographer / filmmaker, Gillian Laub, talk about the patience needed to let a certain type of project take shape.  Gillian discusses her HBO Documentary, Southern Rites, and explains why still photography alone was not enough to tell that story, and she reveals the importance of trusting her editor in the book making process and making hard cuts to beloved images. This is an incredibly warm and cozy talk between two old friends who share lots of thoughts and feelings with one another and, of course,  the listeners.  http://www.gillianlaub.com http://www.southernritesproject.com Gillian Laub (b.1975, Chappaqua, New York) is a photographer and filmmaker based in New York. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in comparative literature before studying photography at the International Center of Photography, where her love of visual storytelling and family narratives began. Laub spent over a decade working in Georgia exploring issues of lingering racism in the American South. This work became Laub’s first feature length, directed and produced, documentary film, Southern Rites that premiered on HBO.  Her monograph, Southern Rites (Damiani, 2015) and travelling exhibition by the same title came out in conjunction with the film and are being used for an educational outreach campaign, in schools and institutions across the country. Southern Rites was named one of the best photo books by TIME, Smithsonian, Vogue, LensCulture, and American Photo. It was also nominated for a Lucie award and Humanitas award. Laub recently recieved the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was honored as a NYSCA/NYFA Photography Fellow in 2019. Laub has been interviewed on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, Good Morning America, Times Talks and numerous others.  Laub contributes to many publications including TIME , The New York Times Magazine and Vanity Fair. Laub’s work has been widely collected and exhibited, and is included in the collects of the Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Terrana Collection, Boston; Jewish Museum. New York; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC (now American University Museum Collection in Washington, DC), and a wide range of corporate and private collections.

Episode Notes For our 10th episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Michael plays host while Sasha answers some of the burning questions that our listeners have been sitting on for 9 episodes.  Below we have linked to some of the resources that we mention in this episode. Thank you to everyone who submitted questions and feel free to keep them coming through our DM on Instagram. DM your questions here: https://www.instagram.com/sashawolfprojects/ https://www.instagram.com/realphotoshow Here are some links to resources mentioned in the show: Kris Graves Projects https://www.krisgravesprojects.com TBW Books https://tbwbooks.com TIS Books https://www.tisbooks.pub Paris Photo https://www.parisphoto-newyork.com/en-gb.html Society for Photographic Education https://www.spenational.org Lenscratch http://lenscratch.com