Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

"That's when I came to learn more about Graciela Iturbide, Tina Modotti, Lola Alvarez Bravo…that kicked in this interest or appetite in what else is going on in other places…" Verónica Sanchis Bencomo founded Foto-Féminas as a way to promote the work being done by female photographers working in Latin America and the Caribbean. It was while growing up in Venezuela and witnessing political turmoil that Verónica became acutely aware that the media could be a powerful tool for giving voice to those with little power or means to be heard. It was then through her photographic work with an NGO in Chile that cared for young burn victims, that Verónica became more interested in learning about female photographers who worked in Latin America. Links http://www.veronicasanchis.com/ https://foto-feminas.com/ https://foto-feminas.com/contact/ (click here to donate to the library or to submit your work proposal) https://www.instagram.com/veronicasanchis/ https://twitter.com/VeronicaSanchis https://www.facebook.com/FotoFeminas/ https://twitter.com/FotoFeminas Visit www.thephotoshow.org realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow

"If the bottom line isn't scaring you, you haven't thought of everything, and because of that we don't go after enough funding…" Jackie Battenfield is an artist and an entrepreneur, and that is a big part of the message she shares with her audience when she teaches professional practice at Columbia University and when she lectures at conferences. Her book, The Artist's Guide: How to Make a Living Doing What You Love, has been called a "tough-love" guide to pursuing a career in the visual arts. The title of the book is not entirely accurate though. As Jackie explains in the show, the book and her lectures are about taking care of the business side of art so that you can make your art without damaging your financial or personal life. Links: http://www.jackiebattenfield.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jackiebattenfield/ https://www.facebook.com/jackie.battenfield http://artistcareerguide.com/ https://www.amazon.com/Artists-Guide-Make-Living-Doing/dp/0306816520

"You know I had a meltdown and went to hang out in the desert for a couple weeks…came back…I talked to my brother and he's like, you say good things but you don't do anything good. You have all these ideas…your at 10,000 feet, nothing is on the ground for you…" Emile Askey was born in California to a Macedonian/Australian mother and an African American father. At a very young age his mother convinced the family to move from LA to Australia because, she was concerned with gangs in the public schools and as she put it to Emile, he wasn't black enough to go to public school and he wasn't white enough to go to private school. The constructs of race and identity are present in Emile's work but also in how Emile sees his work in relationship to the work of others. In particular, Emile believes his identity and personal experiences allows him to photograph where other historically important, mostly white, photographers have traveled and yet make photographs that others could not make because of who they were at the time and how people interacted with them. Links: http://www.emileaskey.com/ https://www.instagram.com/emileaskey/ http://lenscratch.com/2016/10/emile-askey/ https://www.aint-bad.com/article/2017/08/14/emile-askey/ Visit www.thephotoshow.org realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow

"I was a criminal, I lived that criminal lifestyle, and I really didn't give a crap about anybody's feelings…but something changed in me and photography…brought me closer to people." Donato DiCamillo has one of the more unique stories of how he got into photography. Afflicted with behavioral and anger issues, Donato was kicked out of high school and became fully immersed in a life of crime. In 2006 he was arrested by federal agents in an operation involving the Colombo crime family. It was while serving time in a federal prison and then in house arrest that Donato began to use the camera to help him reconnect with people and with himself. Links: https://www.donatodicamillo.com/ https://www.instagram.com/donato_dicamillo/ https://twitter.com/DonatoDiCamillo https://donatodicamillo.tumblr.com/ https://www.donatodicamillo.com/blog/ (Workshops) Visit www.thephotoshow.org realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow

"I literally went from, I wasn't able to say the words out loud…my mom is gay, to basically writing it in the Times and screaming it to the whole world." Gabriela Herman does something that is rare among photographers, she makes a living with her photography. Gabriela talks to Michael about some of her career milestones, including getting some photojournalism work through Craigslist. Her new book ,The Kids (The New Press), which explores the lives of kids who grew up with LGBTQ parents also allowed Gabriela to achieve some personal milestones as well with her own parents. This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Links: https://www.gabrielaherman.com/ https://www.facebook.com/gabherman https://www.instagram.com/gab/ https://twitter.com/gab https://thekids.gabrielaherman.com/ https://thenewpress.com/books/kids Visit www.thephotoshow.org We are realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow and on Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow Music by Giancarlo T. Roma and Kai McBride

"…and to me that is the irony in all of this…In the act of wanting to be alone, and disappearing, he actually became famous." Amani Willett's new book, The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer, pieces together the history and the mythology left behind of a mysterious hermit who moves away from society to the deep woods of New Hampshire in the late 1700's. Amani became interested in Plummer after realizing that his father had bought the same land, where Plummer had settled, also as an escape from modern life. Amani treats the historical and the folkloric complex nature of this work and the work he did photographing the remnants of the Underground Railroad as equally important. He embraces the ambiguity and rejects the reducing of stories to simple facts so that others feel comfortable with the work. We talk about how this embrace of ambiguity might be related to people wanting him to simplify his identify as black or white and how exploring Joseph Plummer was also exploring his relationship with his father. This episode sponsored by the School of Visual Arts MFA Photography, Video, & Related Media - Charles Traub, Chair. http://www.mfaphoto.sva.edu/ Links: http://amaniwillett.com/ https://www.instagram.com/amaniwillett/ https://twitter.com/amaniwillett https://www.overlapse.com/catalog/disappearance-joseph-plummer/ https://www.instagram.com/overlapse/ Visit www.thephotoshow.org We are realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow and on Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow Music by Giancarlo T. Roma and Kai McBride

"I remember saying, 'That, that's it, I almost died for that…it's a nothing photograph.' That's how I would have been remembered, he died to make a really nothing photograph. " John Trotter is a former photojournalist and conflict photographer who had photographed in dangerous hot spots like Mogadishu, but it would be on a simple assignment in Sacramento California where John would face his own life altering experience. thePhotoShow becomes theCyclingShow for the start of this episode as John and Kai go deep on biking and how it relates to photography and how biking gave start to John's life in photography. LINKS http://www.johntrotterphoto.com/ https://www.instagram.com/unamericain/ https://www.instagram.com/maps.images/ https://www.facebook.com/john.trotter.33 Visit www.thephotoshow.org We are realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow and on Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow Music by Giancarlo T. Roma and Kai McBride

"Photography is magic…it has incredible and really unparalleled power to represent and define people, communities, and individuals...kids see that and they want to do that and they want to be part of that." Former conflict photographer Michael Kamber founded the Bronx Documentary Center. The BDC is dedicated to providing free photographic education to Bronx middle and high schoolers, as well as education for adult Bronx photographers. Michael believes in the value of photography to educate and inform and he also believes that anyone willing to put in the work should have a place to learn the craft and share their work with their peers and that money should not be a barrier to learning. Opening the BDC was the fulfillment of an idea that he and his fellow photojournalist and friend, Tim Hetherington, had talked about and they had even picked the site before Hetherington was killed by artillery fire in Libya in 2011. The first show honored Hetherington's work. LINKS https://www.bronxdoc.org/ https://www.facebook.com/bronxdocumentary/ https://twitter.com/followbdc/ https://www.instagram.com/bronxdocumentarycenter/ https://www.facebook.com/mike.kamber Visit www.thephotoshow.org We are realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow and on Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow Music by Giancarlo T. Roma and Kai McBride

"It was about getting the opportunity as a woman to experience the beauty of my partner and also question beauty and how beauty is constructed and the language of beauty itself." Lissa Rivera and BJ Lillis talk about their collaboration on "Beautiful Boy." Lissa describes this work as a "…confession between friends." and that description reveals itself again and again as Lissa and BJ describe their evolving relationship that grows and changes with each photograph that Lissa makes of BJ. Our conversation takes us through the history and a contemporary look at the role of the artist and their muse. LINKS http://www.lissarivera.com/ https://www.instagram.com/lissa_rivera_/ https://www.facebook.com/lissa.rivera.39 http://www.museumofsex.com/ Visit www.thephotoshow.org We are realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow and on Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow Music by Giancarlo T. Roma and Kai McBride

"People know that there are black artists out there but it's just about why isn't that work included in the overall narrative…Let's know the history of photography and let's figure out how we can insert ourselves into that narrative." Aaron Turner started Photographers of Color so that when you are asked the question, "How many photographers of color do you know?" you would have no excuse for having a poor answer. Aaron is the Technical Director of Film & Electronic Arts at Bard College and an Adjunct Professor. We talk about growing up in West Memphis on the Arkansas/Tennessee border, his start in photojournalism, and his embrace of multi-discipline and conceptual work as a means to fully exploring his ideas on what black art is and what being a black artist is all about. LINKS http://www.aaronturnerphotography.com/ https://twitter.com/photogsofcolor https://www.instagram.com/aturn_arkdelta/ We are realphotoshow on Twitter/IG/FB Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/realphotoshow and on Instagram instagram.com/realphotoshow/ Like us on Facebook www.facebook.com/realphotoshow Music by Giancarlo T. Roma and Kai McBride