Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

"I can't take that (art) with me when I am gone, but I can certainly pass the message and leave behind how important art is as a tool to get better from trauma in life and just move forward." Tamara Torres is an Afro-Latina feminist artist and community activist based in Trenton, NJ. Tamara and I were going to record last year when her work was in the JKC Gallery, but she had to jet off to two more shows, one in Chicago and another in London before we had the chance. We recorded with, guest co-host and former guest, Ryann Casey in Trenton Hall, where the gallery is located, just days before the pandemic shut-down. Tamara, Ryann, and I talk a lot about who art belongs to and the class and race structure embedded in the art world including the academic art world. We also talk about the function of art as a form of expression to deal with injustice, trauma, and grief Tamara Torres is a Afro-Latina feminist international artist and community activist based out of Trenton, N.J. Growing up in Trenton, Torres survived obstacles such as homelessness, abuse, and discrimination. Her artwork has taken up the cause of social justice for abused, disadvantage, and disenfranchised women around the globe. Torres’ artwork has been exhibited in London, Edinburgh, Rome, Milan, New York City, and throughout New Jersey. Torres’ belief is, if she can change one person’s thinking through her artwork then she has done her job as an artist.. Trigger Warning: We don't get into the specifics of the abuse that Tamara faced growing up, but we do talk a little about her father's substance abuse and about Tamara moving forward from her trauma. https://www.tamaratorresart.com/ https://www.instagram.com/tamaratorresart/ This link will make sense after you listen to the show: https://news.artnet.com/exhibitions/women-in-abstract-expressionism-636611

"I can tell you stories upon stories about endless amounts of people who have come through from Roy DeCarava, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Frank, Larry Clark…all the icons of the fine art photo community…everybody…Helen Levitt and Mary Ellen Mark. Just amazing artists…my father's been in it from the beginning." Ross Kasovitz grew up around some of the most well known photographers and artists for all of his life. He is the son of Peter "Itzik" Kasovitz of K&M Camera. Ross and I talk about how he came to take over the business, how he helped transform it, and how he is working to get the business back up and running after the shut-down. Ross has some great insight into how the shut-down and social distancing will effect the downstream art businesses such as retailers, printers, and framers. We also talk about the impact on photo education and what happens with analog photography and the darkroom. Ross tells a few amazing stories from his family's relationships with some of K&M's legendary customers, including one very funny story about Joel Sternfeld. https://kmcamera.com/ Be sure to also checkout a new show by my friend and former co-host Kai McBride: Kai's Photo Topic with Ross Kasovitz and Jeff Hirsch https://lunacornua.com/camera-stores/

"My grandmother's family were all incarcerated at Minidoka, one of the WWII Japanese-American camps, and I just felt like there were few communities that stood up for them at that time and with the privilege that I have now, with being fourth generation American, I certainly can speak out on those issues that were pivotal to my own family." Emily Hanako Momohara was part of a panel talk at this year's SPE Conference titled 21st Century Family. She spoke about her work, Fruits of Labor: A Legacy of Immigration and Agriculture, which draws a connection from her own great-grandparent's history on the pineapple plantations in Hawaii to the plight of today's immigrants and migrant workers. Emily also connects her work and activism to her grandmother's incarceration at Minidoka and, as Emily will say in the show, she went from being a quiet activist to a more vocal activist because of the direction this country has taken and that she is in a position to stand up and speak for others in a way that she would have wanted communities to stand up for her grandparents and great-grandparents in their time. Emily Hanako Momohara was born in Seattle, Washington where she grew up in a mixed race family. Her work centers around issues of heritage, multiculturalism, immigration and social justice. Emily has exhibited nationally, most notably at the Japanese American National Museum in a two-person show titled Sugar|Islands. She has been a visiting artist at several residency programs including the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Headlands Center for the Arts, Fine Arts Work Center and Red Gate Gallery Beijing. In 2015, her work was included in the Chongqing Photography and Video Biennial. Emily has created socially driven billboards for For Freedoms and United Photo Industries. She lives and works in Cincinnati where she is an Associate Professor of Art at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and heads the photography major. https://ehmomohara.com/ https://www.instagram.com/ehmomohara/

"There is suddenly, in some ways, a whole new branch, a whole new subject for photography…How will notions of isolation, loneliness, communication…be addressed photographically and are those photographic subjects? " Roula Seikaly and I recorded at the SPE Conference in Houston just before everything began to be cancelled and public places were shut down. I called Roula to start the show because of all of the changes since we recorded, so there is a phone conversation at the start to check-in and then the original recording follows. Roula has been involved as a writer and curator with so many great organizations that you know and love such as Humble Arts Foundation, Hyperallergic, and Saint Lucy. We talk about her show, Portraits Without People at Axis Gallery, which was cut short by the pandemic and we talk a lot about teaching, photo history, the exhibition on cliché, Tropes Gone Wild, up now on the Humble Arts site, the community at SPE, and many more things. Roula Seikaly is the Senior Editor at Humble Arts Foundation and a writer and independent curator based in Berkley California. Her writing is featured on platforms including Aperture, Saint Lucy, Strange Fire Collective, Temporary Art Review, and SF Camerawork. She has curated exhibitions at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, Triple Base Gallery, and SOMArts. Her curatorial practice addresses contemporary photography and new media, social justice efforts in contemporary art and exhibition making. She regularly contributes to print and online platforms including Hyperallergic, Photograph, BOMB, and KQED Arts. Cover Photo Credit: Preston Gannaway - Watermelons 2013 included in Portraits Without People show at Axis Gallery. https://www.prestongannaway.com/ https://www.instagram.com/redcurlsriot/ https://www.facebook.com/roula.seikaly http://axisgallery.org/home/exhibitions/portraits-without-people-juried-by-roula-seikaly/ https://www.artpractical.com/event/the-future-of-ap-art-practical-art-publishing/ http://hafny.org/ https://linktr.ee/humble

"I say that as a person who shifted from being an artist/activist to someone who has really taken the activism part of my practice and my life and put it front and center." John Freyer is an artist, activist, and Professor of Cross Disciplinary Media at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. We met up at the Society of Photographic Education conference in Houston shortly after his panel talk titled, We Want Our Pictures Back, with Arthur Fields, Graham MacIndoe, and John. They discussed their journeys through recovery and how that impacted their photographic practices, including the depiction of people with substance use disorder and the issues of consent. John Freyer is an artist, author and educator based in Richmond Virginia. His projects include All My Life for Sale, Big Boy, Live IKEA, Free Ice Water, and Free Hot Coffee Freyer is an Associate Professor of Cross Disciplinary Media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Freyer’s practice engages accidental audiences in galleries, museums, and public spaces. He explores the role of everyday, personal objects in our lives – as commodities, fetishes, and totems and investigates how the circulation of objects and stories enrich social ties between individuals and groups. He earned his B.A. from Hamilton College and M.A. & M.F.A. from the University of Iowa. His work has been reviewed in The New Yorker, The Sunday London Times, Artforum, Print Magazine and NBC’s The Today Show. Freyer is a Fulbright Scholar, a Macdowell Colony Fellow and was an Artist in Residence at Light Work and the Fannon Center, Doha, Qatar. Freyer has brought his social practice projects – Free Ice Water and Free Hot Coffee to the TEDx stage, has exhibited at Mixed Greens Gallery in New York, the Liverpool Biennial Fringe in Liverpool, UK and was a 2018 Tate Exchange Associate at Tate Modern, London. https://www.johnfreyer.com/ https://www.instagram.com/john.d.freyer/ https://www.instagram.com/recoveryroast/ https://www.instagram.com/fotofika2020/

Matthew Leifheit | Ocean Meets the Bay "I think people are increasingly asked to choose many paths at once, so my professional practice class has been retitled, How to Become a Self-Cleaning Oven. " Matt Leifheit is a photographer, magazine editor, book editor, and publisher. He is the founder of Matte Editions which produces Matte Magazine and a growing number photo books, including Slow Morpheus by my guest co-host and friend of the show, Rachel Stern. Matt, Rachel, and I talk about Matt's latest work and future book about Fire Island which is deeply connected to gay history and culture in the United States. Matt describes this place as one in transition both physically, due to tidal changes, and culturally, because a geographically dedicated location for sexual expression is not as needed as it once was. We also talk about Matt's ideas about commitment to work and what it take to be an artist and Rachel and Matt talk about creating their new artist manifesto. https://www.matthewleifheit.com/ http://matteeditions.com/ https://www.instagram.com/mattelife/ https://www.instagram.com/matte.editions/ This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

"When I would come up from Virginia I would go there and I would take pictures and I would be like, okay if I take a picture then he'll live until next time." Paolo Morales and I met to record at SVA during his short break from teaching at Hollins University in Roanoke Virginia. We talk about what it has been like for a New York City kid to relocate to Virginia to keep working and talk about his most recently exhibited work, The Blind Leading the Blind and Memphis Tulips, which deal with dislocation, isolation, and gentrification. We also discuss Paolo's take on his identity as an Asian American and a photographer as revealed through his work. Paolo Morales is a photographer who was born and raised in New York City and currently lives in Virginia. Exhibitions include Hamiltonian Gallery, The George Washington University, New York Asian Film Festival, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, and Capital One Bank Headquarters, among others. Residencies include Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Blue Mountain Center, and Philadelphia Photo Arts Center. He received an MFA in photography from Rhode Island School of Design and is Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Hollins University. https://www.paolomorales.com/ https://www.instagram.com/paolojmorales/ This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

"I saw the sun coming over the east, over the landscape and the farmlands and I saw this hot air balloon that was coming up, this bright red…extremely saturated red hot air balloon…and behind it was sun lighting it up from behind…I looked over at my dad and he just kept driving… " John Sanderson is a large format film photographer based in New York City. He is probably best known for his portrait-like series of mid-century diesel locomotives and his series entitled Railroad Landscapes. I met John at the reception for the Rust Belt Biennial at the Sordoni Gallery in PA. That is where I became aware of his latest work, Carbon County and the beautiful portfolio box that he published with Zatara Press. We talk a lot about this work and how it started with a residency at a ranch and finished with John going back to be the ranch photographer with his wife and their new twin boys. https://www.john-sanderson.com/ https://www.instagram.com/johnsandersonphotographer/ https://www.facebook.com/john.sanderson.nyc https://twitter.com/Largeformateer This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

"Photography has been a really healing practice for me and a spiritual practice in terms of just going out and making work." Andrew Cenci is a photographer based in Louisville Kentucky. He was visiting New York last year to see the Winogrand show. Andrew works full time in marketing but he has immersed himself in and has become part of the photo community of Louisville. He is mostly self-taught and I wanted to talk to him about creating his life in photography in a smaller community of artists. We talk about the opportunities he has found in foundations and grants and the work he published in Huck Magazine on the Kentucky Derby. Andrew started out in college sports radio and then came to Louisville to study Theology, both of which still influence his work today. https://www.andrewcenci.com/ https://www.instagram.com/andrew_cenci/ https://twitter.com/Andrew_Cenci This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

"I think we are going to need these pictures in 10 years because everybody's talking about what happened in Egypt, but no one is talking to us about what happened to us after we were kicked out of our own country." Amr Alfiky is an Egyptian award-winning documentary photographer and filmmaker based in New York City. He was studying medicine when the Egyptian revolution began. Working as a medic during the uprising, Amr was accused of aiding the enemy and served time in prison on several occasions. He was not allowed to complete his degree in medicine and had to flee Egypt and leave his family in order to avoid more prison time. During this transition from Egypt to the United States, Amr began using his phone to document his life and that work became a visual diary that was published by the New York Times Lens Blog in 2016. Since then Amr has participated in many workshops and internships in the photojournalism world and has done work for many of the major news outlets. Amr’s work documenting the Muslim American experience in the U.S. has been featured in The New York Times, Reuters, TIME, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Huffington Post and other major international publications. He is currently a frequent contributor to The New York Times and Reuters. Photo © Amr Alfiky https://www.amralfiky.com/ https://www.facebook.com/amr.alfiky https://twitter.com/alfiky_amr This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB