Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

In this half frame episode I catch up with Lissa Rivera and BJ Lillis (ep.51) to talk about their successes with the Beautiful Boy exhibition and how there is more work to come, but there was so much more to talk about as well. Lissa has just organized the first U.S. museum exhibition of Leonor Fini, the Argentinine-Italian surrealist artist, at the Museum of Sex and BJ is busy learning Dutch to help him translate his doctoral work on cultural and interethnic contact in the colonial Hudson valley. Lissa also makes a correction to something we spoke about in episode 51. Links: http://www.lissarivera.com/ https://www.museumofsex.com/ https://www.instagram.com/orkinpod/ https://www.instagram.com/lissa_rivera_/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

"Ended up going on a six month road trip from Toronto to Los Angeles…all through the south…living in a van…lived in that total for a year, but six months on the road for a photo trip" Katie Sadie started out as a fashion photographer but quickly realized she wanted more out of the work she was making. She sold off her studio equipment to pay for a 6 month road trip through the American South ending in Los Angeles. She traded studio backdrops for rolls of 120 film, bought a Pentax 6x7 off of Craigslist and purchased a van that she lived and traveled in for about a year. We also have a pretty intense conversation about a photo project she started with her mother who lives with schizophrenia. In just 3 years after restarting her photo career, Katie was a winner of the 2017 Magenta Foundation Emerging Photographer Competition, did a residency at a naturists colony, had that work published in True North Photo Journal, and more work published in Float Magazine, and Aint-Bad, and she was hired to document the production of holiday films for A&E/Lifetime. Katie was visiting New York to meet with photo editors when we recorded this show. Links https://www.katiesadie.com/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

In this half-frame episode I catch up with Dana Stirling from Float Magazine. Dana and her partner in life and business, Yoav Friedlander, were guests back on episode 49. Dana and I talk about the upcoming issue of Float entitled "Killing Time" and we talk about the rewards of promoting others and building a community while keeping in mind the need to carve out space to make your own work. We also talk about failure as an inherent part of making. http://www.danastirling.com/ https://www.floatmagazine.us/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

"I remember sitting in that art history class and loving it, but flipping through the textbook and not seeing myself in it. And so I was like, 'do black people not make art?' and I know they make art because I grew up in New York." Kayla Coleman is a Collector Relations Liaison for the Carrie Able Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. She is an art historian, educator, and writer based in New York City and specializes in Modern and Contemporary art by black artists in the United States and the Caribbean. Kayla and I talk about her experiences that lead her from a Virginia boarding school, to studying pre-med, and finally to pursuing art history and her master's degree thesis on Afro-Surrealism. We talk about her experience as a person of color in a mostly white Art History program, and we talk a lot about creating a gallery and a program space that is welcoming and involved with the community. Links: http://carrieablegallery.com/kayla/ https://www.instagram.com/kaylagcoleman/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

Charles Traub is my first guest for the new half-frame episodes where I catch up with previous guests on what they have been up to. Charles and I talk about his new book, Taradiddle. We also get into the collaborative effort required to publish a book. The book can be purchased here: https://www.damianieditore.com/en-US/product/675 or https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Traub-Taradiddle-David-Campany/dp/8862086210 Visit Real Photo Show at realphotoshow.com or IG/FB/Twitter @realphotoshow

"They are really poignant images and they really sort of resonated humanity, and because I didn't know the author, I didn't know the intent or anything, in some ways that allowed me to kind of engage with them. Because I didn't feel like I was being manipulated, I was in control their meaning in some ways." -Oliver Wasow "Since the election, the sort of two dominating emotions for me have been rage and tenderness…This range of photographs in Oliver's work…encompassed this sense." -Mark Alice Durant This episode comes from a live audience show at the Big Room in conjunction with the School of Visual Arts MFA Photo, Video, and Related Media Program and Saint Lucy Books. I sat down with Oliver Wasow and Mark Alice Durant of Saint Lucy to talk about Oliver's book, Friends, Enemies, and Strangers published by Saint Lucy Books. We talk about publishing books, the history of portraiture, the context of images, and how this project was a reaction to the ascendancy of the Trump family to the American presidency. 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

"This was all slow kind of going as well, an email here and there, and it wasn't until 2014 that Harold's health started to fail quite seriously…and Judith dropped me a line and said, 'if you are serious about doing this film, just fyi, let's get on with it.' So I did and that was where I had to kind of take a bit of a leap of faith. " Filmmaker, Andy Dunn stopped by to talk just hours before the premiere of his documentary, Last Stop Coney Island: The Life and Photography of Harold Feinstein at the DOC NYC festival. The first showing was sold out and second show had just been added. Andy and I talk about Feinstein, his career, his personal life, and his philosophy on life and being a photographer. We also talk about how turning down the Family of Man exhibition and leaving NYC affected his career and how the making of this documentary was affected by Feinstein's decline in health and his ultimate passing. This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ https://www.andydunnonline.com/ https://www.feinsteinfilm.com/ http://www.docnyc.net/film/last-stop-coney-island-the-life-and-photography-of-harold-feinstein/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB

"I think the first thing that happened, which is the big overarching theme of the book, was the missing Malaysian plane…and all the kind of mythology and conspiracy that followed it, and that led to a much bigger more personal theme, which is about Andrew, Tom's cousin, who also died in a plane crash." - Paul Kwiatkowski "The book is not a reflection on how we process grief, it is actually processing grief." - Tom Griggs Paul Kwiatkowski and Tom Griggs stop by SVA to talk about their new book, Ghost Guessed. We have a really wonderful conversation about collaboration and personal and public grief. Tom and Paul talk about the experience of making this book and how Tom's loss of his cousin in a plane crash, and Paul's loss of his grandmother to HIV, allowed them to work in partnership with each other to create this narrative about how we try to create order and reason while experiencing life and processing loss. 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 Links: http://www.fractionmagazine.com/ghost-guessed https://www.instagram.com/ghost_guessed/ http://www.tomgriggs.net/ https://www.instagram.com/griggstom/ https://twitter.com/uglyboy_paul

This episode was recorded with a live audience at the Noyes Arts Garage reception for the 2018 RAW exhibition that I juried. The episode is actually broken into three parts. The first two parts are at the show during the reception and first I speak with Saskia Schmidt, the Director of Education, and Michael Cagno, the Executive Director of the Noyes. In part two I speak with two of the three juror selected artists, Krista Svalbonas and Sherman Fleming, and in part three you will hear a phone conversation with Jessica Orlowicz because she could not attend the reception. The RAW reception was part of a First Friday at the Noyes Arts Garage so you will hear a lot of background activity during the recording. Special thanks to Saskia Schmidt, Michael Cagno, and Wendel White for this opportunity. Visit http://realphotoshow.com to see winning images. Jessica Orlowicz https://www.peachandport.com/ Krista Svalbonas http://www.kristasvalbonas.com/ Sherman Fleming https://www.shermanfleming.com/ Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow

"I left home because I was getting too comfortable. Comfortable with the type of work I was creating, comfortable around the people I had known for 29 years… " Lynsey Weatherspoon was in New York for Photoville after being named to the Lit List - 30 Image Makers To Watch by the Authortity Collective. Lynsey and I talk about leaving home and taking risks in order change your life and to pursue what you truly want to do. What you will learn about Lynsey is that she doesn't like to get too comfortable or complacent. She changed her home, she changed her profession, and she would start all over again if it seemed like the right time to do so. Lynsey and I also talk about some of her work on Negro League Players, the Gulla Geechee, and a series she did called the Last Cobbler. This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Links: http://www.lynseyweatherspoon.com/ https://www.facebook.com/lnweatherspoon https://www.instagram.com/lnweatherspoon/ https://twitter.com/lnweatherspoon Visit realphotoshow.com @realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB