Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

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 accompanying book published by Aperture. The show opens in September and the book is scheduled for November. https://alejandrocartagena.com — https://www.instagram.com/alexcartagenamex/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Alejandro Cartagena, Mexican (b. 1977, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. His projects employ landscape and portraiture as a means to examine social, urban, and environmental issues. Cartagena’s work has been exhibited internationally in more than 50 group and individual exhibitions in spaces including the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and the CCCB in Barcelona, and his work is in the collections of several museums including the San Francisco MOMA, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, The MFAH in Houston, the Portland Museum of Art, The West Collection, the Coppel collection, the FEMSA Collection, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the George Eastman House and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and among others. Cartagena has received several awards including the international Photolucida Critical Mass Book Award, the Street Photography Award in London Photo Festival, the Lente Latino Award in Chile, the Premio IILA-FotoGrafia Award in Rome and the Salon de la Fotografia of Fototeca de Nuevo Leon in Mexico among others. He has been named an International Discoveries of the FotoFest festival, a FOAM magazine TALENT and an Emerging photographer of PDN magazine. He has also been a finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Award and has been nominated for the Santa Fe Photography Prize, the Prix Pictet Prize, the Photoespaña Descubrimientos Award and the FOAM Paul Huff Award. His work has been published internationally in magazines and newspapers such as Newsweek, Nowness, Domus, the Financial Times, The New York Times, Le Monde, Stern, PDN, The New Yorker, and Wallpaper among others.

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 number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. https://chicoreview.com -- 03:10 - Ryder Collins https://rydercollins.com https://www.instagram.com/streetphotographyisdead/ 11:35 - Carey MacArthur https://www.careymacarthurstudio.com https://www.instagram.com/careymacarthur 19:30 - Richard Dachtera https://www.richdachtera.com https://www.instagram.com/richdachtera 26:50 - David Bowman https://www.bowmanstudio.com https://www.instagram.com/bowman.studio/ 37:24 - Andrew Owen https://andrewowen.tv https://www.instagram.com/andrewowen/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Daniel Arnold, a street photographer with a knack for capturing life’s raw moments, shares how photography transformed his career and personal connections after leaving a writing job at Nickelodeon. He delves into his journey from Milwaukee to New York, the emotional depth of street photography, and the balance between artistic integrity and commercial demands. Arnold also reflects on the importance of human interaction in his work and the complexities of vulnerability in art, showcasing the unique storytelling power behind every shot.

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 Chico Hot Springs resort so there may be a number of different ambient sounds across the recordings. The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Sixty-four applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry. https://chicoreview.com 02:00 - Joe Reynolds https://joereynoldsphotographs.com 09:55 - Darby Routtenberg https://www.instagram.com/jointheclubsandwich/ |||| https://www.darbyrouttenberg.com 16:20 - William Stock https://www.instagram.com/stock_/ 27:30 - Shin Ono https://www.shinono.com |||| https://www.instagram.com/shin_ono/ 34:40 - Sean Stout https://www.seanfstout.com |||| https://www.instagram.com/seanfstout/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

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 shared how his early struggles with addiction and an unintentional photography grant helped him to refocus on his writing and clarify his relationship to photography. (Cover photo: Eric Ruby) https://www.instagram.com/bradzellar/ |||  https://coffeehousepress.org/products/till-the-wheels-fall-off This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com |||  https://www.chicoreview.com Brad Zellar has worked as a writer and editor for daily and weekly newspapers, as well as for regional and national magazines. A former senior editor at City Pages, The Rake, and Utne Reader, Zellar is also the author of Suburban World: The Norling Photos, Conductors of the Moving World, House of Coates, and Driftless. He has frequently collaborated with the photographer Alec Soth, and together they produced seven editions of The LBM Dispatch, chronicling American community life in the twenty-first century. Zellar’s work has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, Paris Review, Vice, Guernica, Aperture, and Russian Esquire. He spent fifteen years working in bookstores and was a co-owner of Rag & Bone Books in Minneapolis. He currently lives in Saint Paul.

Bryan Schutmaat, an accomplished photographer and co-founder of Trespasser, joins Agnieszka Sosnowska, a teacher and photographer from Iceland, for an enriching conversation. They delve into Agnieszka's journey from Poland to Iceland and her dual identity as an educator and artist. The pair discusses the nuances of publishing her monograph, FÖR, the importance of community in photography, and their experiences with editing color work. They also reflect on how personal stories shape their visual narratives and the significance of tangible books in a digital age.

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 will share how they came to know each other and why Jake wanted to publish Tabitha’s work. We will talk about the editing and sequencing of the book as well as some of the more traditional questions about how they both got to where they are. https://wychelm.press  |||    https://jakebenzinger.com   |||      https://www.tabithabarnard.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Tabitha Barnard was born in Freedom, New Hampshire in 1994. She is a photographer who grew up in rural Maine with three sisters. Growing up in a very Christian female-dominated family has had a huge influence on her work. Barnard works primarily in digital color photography exploring themes of femininity and religion. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art from Maine College of Art in the Spring of 2016 and a Master of Fine Art from Massachusetts College of Art in the Spring of 2021.  She has worked in both commercial studio settings, as a shooting assistant, and as the media technician for the photo department at the Maine College of Art. She currently works in Portland Maine, teaching at the Maine College of Art and the University of Southern Maine.  Jake Benzinger (he/him) is a photographer, book artist, and writer based in Rockland, Maine; he received his BFA in photography from Lesley University, College of Art and Design in Cambridge, MA. His work has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Haute Photographie Rotterdam, Center for Fine Art Photography, Glasgow Gallery of Photography, 82Parris, Panopticon Gallery, RIT City Space Gallery, and more. He has been featured by numerous platforms including GUP Magazine, Lensculture, Float Magazine, Lenscratch, Transference Magazine, and Fraction Magazine. His publications are held in collections at the National Gallery of Art, School of Visual Arts, SMFA at Tufts, and Griffin Museum of Photography, and his monograph, Like Dust Settling in a Dim-Lit Room (Or Starless Forest), was shortlisted for the 2023 Lucie Photobook Prize.

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 happen to be two great friends. Daniel and Yo talk about their own histories and achievements as well as the love and dedication that went into this last book they worked on with Larry Fink before he passed. https://powerhousebooks.com ||| https://yocuomo.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Founder and Publisher Daniel Power started powerHouse Books in 1995, and was joined by Craig Cohen in 1996. The early years had Power and Cohen tag-teaming on a few books at a time, raising the bar each season when, in 1998, powerHouse Books had its first best-seller, Women Before 10 A.M. by Véronique Vial. Power and Cohen followed up that success in 1999 with the critically-acclaimed cult monographs X-Ray, by François Nars, and Life is Paradise, by Francesco Clemente and Vincent Katz. In Fall 2006, powerHouse Books launched The POWERHOUSE Arena, a laboratory for creative thought: exhibitions, installations, presentations, displays, viewings, performances, readings, and retail therapy—all drawing upon photography and popular culture as sources of inspiration. Located at 28 Adams Street in the DUMBO section of Brooklyn, the 10,200–square foot marquis showroom and retail space is unlike any other in New York City, featuring a soaring 24-foot ceiling on the 5,000–square foot ground floor, and an equally impressive 5,000–square foot mezzanine, with over 175 feet of glass frontage, designed by esteemed architect David Howell Design. Attached by a central staircase is the Arena Skylounge, a 560 square-foot, mezzanine-level, multifunctional gallery, VIP lounge, and green room. These stunning spaces have hosted a series of landmark exhibitions and events, and are now available for private hire. Yolanda Cuomo is an experienced art director and avid educator. As Principal of Yolanda Cuomo Design, she provides the creative vision, direction, and passion behind all of the Studio’s work. Cuomo and her team work collaboratively with their clients, which include leading publishers, museums, authors, editors, artists, and photographers, to develop memorable and meaningful cultural and commercial projects. Cuomo’s recent projects include the design of two books with photographer Pete Souza OBAMA, An Intimate Portrait and SHADE, A Tale of Two Presidents, a seven hundred page book entitled An Anthology about Paolo Pellegrin curated by Germano Celant that accompanied an exhibition at the Maxxi Museum in Rome, Italy, a book about Bob Dylan called DYLAN BY SCHATZBERG and the book A Life In Pictures: Steve McCurry. Throughout 2013, Cuomo edited and designed a two-volume nine-hundred-page limited-edition box set, The Library of Julio Santo Domingo, which also included a special-edition iPad and private app celebrating this collection. In fall 2012, Cuomo co-authored with Norma Stevens the book New York at Night, a collection of photographs published by PowerHouse Books. In 2011, Cuomo’s studio designed the enormously successful Diane Arbus retrospective which was organized by the Jeu de Paume in Paris, and traveled internationally.

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 Sentiment (Charles Lane Press). We also talk about Shen's suggested assignment in The Photographer's Playbook (Aperture) which involves self-portraiture in a hotel room. https://shenwei.studio https://tbwbooks.com/products/a-season-particular This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com @charcoalbookclub Shen Wei is a Chinese-American artist based in New York City. He is known for his intimate self-portraiture and contemplative images of people and nature, highlighting the understated beauty of his surroundings. He also works in painting, sculpture, and video. Shen Wei’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of the City of New York, the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Power Station of Art in Shanghai, China, La Triennale di Milano in Italy, the North Carolina Museum of Art, and the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Aperture, ARTnews, Paris Review, ArtReview, Financial Times, and The Burlington Magazine. Shen Wei’s work is included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Getty Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Library of Congress, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum, the CAFA Art Museum, and the Ringling Museum of Art, among others. He holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and a BFA from Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

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.redhookeditions.com/books-1/heavenly-arms This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Reuben Radding is a photographer, teacher, writer, and musician based in New York City. His photographs are made from a mix of street wandering and discovered moments from his personal life, which intentionally provoke unanswerable questions in his viewers' minds. Since 2019 he has published 14 limited edition 'zines of his photographs, including the three-volume series Corona Diary. Radding’s first book of his photographs, Heavenly Arms, was published in October 2024 by Red Hook Editions. Radding's work has been exhibited internationally in galleries, and in publications like Hamburger Eyes, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, The Sun, The New Republic, Downbeat and many others. Radding is on faculty at the International Center of Photography, and since 2017 has been leading his own popular series of street photography workshops from his Brooklyn studio throughout the year. Radding has also been a guest speaker at New York University, The School of Creative and Performing Arts, Marble Hill Camera Club, and others, as well as having been a guest on many podcasts and vlogs. Reuben Radding has also had a long career as a bassist and composer, performing around the world and appearing on over 100 recordings. He graduated from Goddard College with an MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts in 2019.