Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

Photographer and educator, Lara Shipley talks about her book, Desire Lines, published by Overlapse. Desire Lines combines imagery and text, both contemporary and historical, as a vehicle to have a thoughtful and contemplative discussion about immigration. It looks at  our current humanitarian crisis at the southern border and views it through the larger context of human migration and shifting borders. Lara and I also talk about her current collaboration with Antone Dolezal called The Naked Truth, a story about a Victorian Spa founded by a snake oil saleseman and which eerily resembles the disinformation media world that was particularly effective during Covid. https://www.larashipley.com https://www.overlapse.com/catalog/desire-lines/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. Lara Shipley is an American photographer. She exhibits in galleries across the United States, and her work has appeared in notable exhibitions at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, GuatePhoto international photography festival in Guatemala, the Benaki Museum in Greece and a recent solo exhibition at the international photography festival Cortona on the Move, in Italy. Her work is in collection institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (NYC), Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago), and the Nelson Atkins Museum for Art (Kansas City). Lara’s photographs have appeared in publications such as Harper’s Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, British Journal of Photography, Atlantic Monthly, Vice, and NPR. She received a MFA in photography from Arizona State University and a Bachelors of Photojournalism from the University of Missouri. She is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Michigan State University. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, director, designer, and composer, Umberto Nicoletti talks about his first monograph, Asylum, published by Rizzoli New York. Umberto uses his skills as a fashion and celebrity portrait photographer to share the experiences of members of LGBTQI+ refugee community and to portray them, not as victims, but as role models who have survived acts of violence and discrimination from the countries they left and the countries from which they requested asylum. https://www.asylum-thepr oject.com - https://www.umbertonicoletti.com - https://www.rizzoliusa.com/book/9788891835925 - https://youtu.be/PrpkwqC4ZmI (book trailer) This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. Born in Padua, Italy, Nicoletti graduated in the early 2000 at “I.S.I.A.” (Higher Institute for Artistic Industries, University of Urbino), and at the Fachhochschule in Augsburg (Germany). He attended the “Università dell’Immagine” (University of Image), the first course on the five senses in Milan created by Fabrizio Ferri. He began his professional career as assistant photographer and in 2005 he opened his own studio, Das Studio, which deals with photography, video, art installations, graphic design & creative direction. Umberto Nicoletti’s first photography fine-art book titled "Asylum" was released on May 16, 2023, published by Rizzoli New York. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Nigel Baldaccino is a multi-media artist and architect based in Malta. Michael and Nigel talk about his interest in architecture and how it influences his work. Nigel also discusses how his experience with anxiety disorder affects how he interacts with the world and makes art. Michael makes a lot of references to Nigels projects in this episode so you may want to check his website while listening. Also, be sure to watch Nigel's video on the Real Photo Show YouTube channel. https://nigelbaldacchino.com https://maltabiennale.art https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at  https://charcoalbookclub.com BIO Nigel Baldacchino [b. 1989] is an artist and design architect based in Malta. His artistic practice extends to various media, including photography, music production, video, text, and design of physical objects / spaces. His impetus towards taking photographs runs loose in theme, and is often fuelled instead by his own sporadic musings about the way one relates to the world around them through their presence in space and their perception of it. Past collective photographic exhibitions include Sense of Place [BOZAR, 2012], In Transit [NRW Forum in Dusseldorf / Stadskantoor / Leewarden, 2017], Transitions [Peinture Fraîche, 2020], BLINK [Valletta Contemporary 2021] & most recently the first show from the exhibition series ‘those eyes, these eyes, they fade’ [Valletta Contemporary 2022]. The latter is a project he initiated with Benedicte Blondeau & curator Anne Immelé. Prints of his photographs and work in video were acquired by the The Malta National-Community Art Museum in 2017 as part of their collection. His photography was also published on GUP Magazine’s first edition of ‘FRESH EYES’ (2020). In 2019 Nigel published Soon Out of Context (Unsolicited Press) featuring instances of his own poetry presented in dialogue with found images lifted from old publications, now in the public domain. In 2021 he published his first solo music release under his experimental ambient project ‘pool night’, with Belgian label Complex Holiday, titled Everything is Still Here. Baldacchino is currently part of the 2023 Long Term Photobook Program by Penumbra Foundation / Image Threads Collective & was recently appointed curator & lead exhibition designer for the first edition of maltabiennale.art. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer Emma Hardy and Michael talk about her first monograph, Permissions, published by Gost. Emma talks about recognizing how inauthentic family photos seemed to her even at a very early age. This desire for authenticity when photographing her children and her life has been a driving force in her personal work as well as a guiding principle in her commercial work.  Permissions,  is a tender document of motherhood and childhood, love and yearning, and leaving home. The images in the book are gathered and distilled from Hardy’s personal archive and span a period of 20-years. -Gost Books http://www.emmahardy.com This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Emma Hardy was born in London and studied Drama and French at Bristol University. She moved to Paris for four years working in the art world before returning to London to pursue a career in acting, but found herself better suited to life behind the camera. By this time, she was married, living in rural Suffolk, and raising her family of three young children. She has photographed for British Vogue, The Telegraph Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Fader, The New York Times, and Rolling Stone amongst others. Her first solo exhibition "Exceptional Youth" was displayed at the National Portrait Gallery, London in 2006 and 39 of her portaits are included in the gallery's collection. Hardy Continues her work as a portrait and documentary photographer for a wide range of publicaitons, returning to new phases of her family images whenever she can. -Gost Books Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Michael visits with photographer and educator, Stephen Hilger at his studio in Brooklyn to talk about his upcoming book, In the Alley, published by Purple Martin Press. Stephen was a guest on the show all the way back on episode 47 so we don’t spend a lot of time on his history but we do talk alot about the alleyways in Beverly Hills and the creative decisions that went into making this leporello book. Order Here: https://www.artbook.com/9780979776854.html http://www.stephenhilger.com Don’t forget to check out our bonus content: https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club where members receive signed copies of each monograph, guest curator notes, special edition prints, members-only pricing to our store, and first dibs on exclusive editions. @charcoalbookclub Stephen Hilger is a photographer whose work traces historical memory in the American urban and social landscape. His monograph, Back of Town (SPQR Editions, 2016), chronicles the disappearance of a neighborhood in New Orleans. BLVD, (ROMAN NVMERALS, 2017) presents visual motifs at the intersection of public and private spaces throughout Los Angeles. Hilger’s forthcoming book, In the Alley, (Purple Martin Press, 2023) is currently in production. Hilger has exhibited at venues including Acta International, Rome; Los Angeles Contemporary Art Exhibitions; Black Dragon Society, Los Angeles; Gallery Luisotti, Los Angeles; the Contemporary Art Center New Orleans; and Transmitter, Brooklyn. His photographs are in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art. Hilger's photographs have appeared in periodicals including New York Magazine and the New York Times. He has written about photography and contemporary art including for Aperture’s PhotoBook Review and BOMB. Hilger received his B.A. and M.F.A. degrees from Columbia University and was a fellow in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Independent Study Program. He teaches at Pratt Institute where he is an Associate Professor in the Photography Department. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer and Red Hook Editions partner, Igor Posner joins Michael for a discussion about his book, Cargó, published by Red Hook Editions. Igor is a self-taught photographer whose work explores the psychological impacts of migration and changing immigrant neighborhoods. Michael and Igor talk about how his projects come together and the way he needs to reinvent and change what he does in order to keep making work. https://igorposner.net https://www.redhookeditions.com/books-1/carg This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. Born in Leningrad (St. Petersburg). After the fall of the Soviet Union, Igor moved to California in the early 90s. He studied molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he first started to take pictures and experiment in the darkroom. Initial infatuation with picture-taking led Igor to explore the silent and haunting experience of walking after dark on the streets of Los Angeles and Tijuana. Collision of social and typical with personal and psychological, this first series of images “Nonesuch Records” savors the strange solitude of the enigmatic region between California and Mexico; amid the streets, bars, night shelter hotels, and disappearing night figures. After 14 years, Igor returned to St. Petersburg in 2006, taking up photography full time, which led to a book project entitled“Past Perfect Continuous”, published by Red Hook Editions in 2017. In 2022, Igor publishes his second monograph, entitled, “Cargó.” The book is a visual exloration of psychological aspects of migration and gradual disappearance of neighborhoods based on  immigrant communities in North America. At present, Igor is based in New York. In 2021, he joined Red Hook Editions, Brooklyn based independent publishing company, as a managing partner.  Igor’s work has been shown in North America, Europe, Russia, and Southeast Asia. He joined Prospekt Photographers agency as a full memebr in 2011.  Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, co-founder of Media NINJA, and CatchLight Fellow, Rafael Vilela talks to Michael about some of his amazing visual stories from Brazil. Rafael shares the story behind Invisible Gravediggers, the forgotten workers of the pandemic, and he talks about his current work, Forest Ruins, an ongoing project that addresses the role of cities in the climate crisis from the perspective of the Guarani Mbyá Indigenous people in the city of São Paulo. Forest Ruins is what brought Rafael to the CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit both as a CatchLight Fellow and recently as a panel speaker along with Anastasia Samoylova at the summit. https://www.catchlight.io/2023-visual-storytelling-summit https://rafaelvilela.visura.co Rafael Vilela is an independent Brazilian photographer currently reporting on climate and economic crisis in his country. He was one of the founders of Midia NINJA, an initiative that today has more than 8 million followers. His photographs are part of São Paulo’s Museum of Modern Art (MAM-SP) permanent collection. In 2014 he was invited by Magnum Photos to be one of the Brazilian photographers in the OffSide Brazil project to report on the World Cup. Rafael was also nominated for World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass in 2013, 2014 and 2015. He has collaborated on international publications such as The Washington Post, The Guardian, VICE, The Intercept and National Geographic. In 2020 he was selected by National Geographic's Emergency Fund for Journalists covering Covid-19 and his work with Covid Latam won the POYLatam and the FotoEvidence Book Award with World Press Photo. In 2022 Vilela was awarded the Catchlight Fellowship and the National Geographic Explorer grant. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. CATCHLIGHT VISUAL STORYTELLING SUMMIT 2023: THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE  April 29, 2023 - https://www.catchlight.io - Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco  The non-profit media organization CatchLight will hold its 2023 Visual Storytelling Summit on the theme “The Change We Want to See.” Organized with Elizabeth Krist, curator and formerly a longtime photo editor at National Geographic, the event will feature a portfolio review in the morning, followed by presenters and topics spanning artificial intelligence imagery, reporting on environmental issues, reproductive rights, racial justice, and how local journalists are holding power accountable at a time when trust in public institutions is at an all-time low. CatchLight Global and Local Fellows—including Rafael Vilela and Harika Maddala, among others—will discuss their projects along with artists, founders, technologists, and innovative creatives working at the nexus of art, media, journalism, technology, and social impact.    This year’s theme, “The Change We Want to See,” reflects the unique power of photography, visual journalism, and creative practices to drive social impact. “Images are instrumental to how we understand our world,” says Elodie Mailliet Storm, CEO of CatchLight. “Not only do they connect people emotionally to issues, they also promote deeper understanding, build trust, and spark action. I want the Summit to be a place where the global community of visual storytellers, media, and technology leaders can gather, share ideas, and push the field forward through partnership and innovation.”  Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Photographer, Anastasia Samoylova joins Michael to talk about the 2023 CatchLight Visual Storytelling Summit: The Change We Want to See. This year’s summit emphasizes the unique power of photography, visual journalism, and creative practices to drive social impact. Ana will be talking about her book, Floodzone published by Steidl along with photographer, Rafael Vilela. Their panel is titled Picturing New Frontiers: Environmental Storytelling. Ana and Michael talk about how Ana went from photography to Environmental Design, and back to photography and how her experiences growing up in Russian and living in Florida shapes her work and how she thinks about art and activism. RSVP for CatchLight Summit: https://airtable.com/shrz8sfXJWVrqciWX https://www.catchlight.io/2023-visual-storytelling-summit https://www.anasamoylova.com Anastasia Samoylova (b. 1984, USSR) is a Russian born American artist who moves between observational photography and studio practice. Her work explores notions of environmentalism, consumerism and the picturesque. Recent exhibitions include Fundación Mapfre; C/O Berlin; Eastman Museum; Chrysler Museum of Art; The Photographer's Gallery, London; Kunst Haus Wien; HistoryMiami Museum; and Museum of Fine Arts, Le Locle. In 2022 Samoylova was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. Her work is in the collections at the Perez Art Museum, Miami; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta and Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; among others. Published monographs include Image Cities (Fundación Mapfre / Hatje Cantz, 2023), Floridas (Steidl, 2022) and FloodZone (Steidl, 2019). This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com. CATCHLIGHT VISUAL STORYTELLING SUMMIT 2023: THE CHANGE WE WANT TO SEE April 29, 2023 - https://www.catchlight.io - Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco The non-profit media organization CatchLight will hold its 2023 Visual Storytelling Summit on the theme “The Change We Want to See.” Organized with Elizabeth Krist, curator and formerly a longtime photo editor at National Geographic, the event will feature a portfolio review in the morning, followed by presenters and topics spanning artificial intelligence imagery, reporting on environmental issues, reproductive rights, racial justice, and how local journalists are holding power accountable at a time when trust in public institutions is at an all-time low. CatchLight Global and Local Fellows—including Rafael Vilela and Harika Maddala, among others—will discuss their projects along with artists, founders, technologists, and innovative creatives working at the nexus of art, media, journalism, technology, and social impact. This year’s theme, “The Change We Want to See,” reflects the unique power of photography, visual journalism, and creative practices to drive social impact. “Images are instrumental to how we understand our world,” says Elodie Mailliet Storm, CEO of CatchLight. “Not only do they connect people emotionally to issues, they also promote deeper understanding, build trust, and spark action. I want the Summit to be a place where the global community of visual storytellers, media, and technology leaders can gather, share ideas, and push the field forward through partnership and innovation.” Speakers will include Jonas Bendiksen, Adrian Burrell, Pamela Chen, Hany Farid, Isadora Kosofsky, Lynn Johnson, Sarahbeth Maney, Anastasia Samoylova, Ashima Yadava, Alexey Yurenev. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Mixed-Media Artist, Shae Detar and Michael talk about her debut monograph, Another World published by Skeleton Key Press. They take a deep dive into Shae’s process from selecting locations, inviting women to be photographed, to hand painting the final images. Shae and Michael also talk about how the book is a celebration of the female nude as well as a personal introspective look at loss and recovery from a repressive religious experience. https://www.shaedetar.com https://shaedetar.myshopify.com/collections/all SHAE DETAR is an award winning and widely published American artist who merges painting and photography to surrealistic effect. Her easily recognized work has been exhibited internationally and featured in many publications including Vogue Italia, Vogue NL, Marie Claire, Interview, i-D, VICE, Dazed, Grazia, The New Yorker, ELLE UK, Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Forbes, NYLON, Teen Vogue, Fast Company, and Refinery29. Another World is her first monograph. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club. A monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. https://charcoalbookclub.com Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show

Alexandra Huddleston is a photographer, writer, and walking artist. Michael and Alexandra talk about her latest book, Traces of Time, walking the Jardins de l’Abbaye de la Cambre in summer, a hand-bound, limited edition artist’s book. Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and Bamako, Mali, her upbringing has led her to explore landscape and culture from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. Between 2009 and 2014, she walked thousands of kilometers on pilgrimage in Spain, France, and Japan, journeys that led to her current walking art practice. She has won a Fulbright Grant, and her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian and the British Library. https://www.alexandrahuddleston.com Bonus Content: https://www.youtube.com/@realphotoshow This episode is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club, a monthly subscription service for photobook enthusiasts. Working with the most respected names in contemporary photography, Charcoal selects and delivers essential photobooks to a worldwide community of collectors. Each month, members receive a signed, first-edition monograph and an exclusive print to add to their collections. Begin Building your dream photobook library today at Charcoalbookclub.com Alexandra Huddleston is a photographer, writer, and walking artist. Her most recent projects describe landscape as a space of dynamic change. It’s a vision gained by walking thousands of miles in the last two decades. Alexandra brings motion through time and space into her work, expressing what it’s like to be within an ever-changing landscape. Through this process, she has radically expanded how landscape is represented photographically. Alexandra’s research into the impact of walking on perceptions and depictions of landscape is conducted both independently and with the support of art organizations like Cow House Studios, Ireland and Cill Rialaig, Ireland. Between 2009 and 2014, she walked thousands of kilometres on pilgrimage in Spain, France, and Japan – solitary journeys that led to her current walking art practice. Most recently, she explored the Rurban landscape in the Netherlands during a masterclass at the Jan van Eyck Academie (2019) and photographed the project Traces of Time while an artist in resident at the Boghossian Foundation – Villa Empain (2021 Belgium). Alexandra presents her work to the public through her books, exhibitions, and lectures. Her books and prints are collected in archives around the world, including the British Library, Harvard University’s Hutchins Center Library, New York University’s Bobst Library, the Smithsonian Institution, and University of Cape Town’s Oppenheimer Library. As creative director and co-founder of the Kyoudai Press, Alexandra’s major publications include Lost Things (2012), 333 Saints: A Life of Scholarship in Timbuktu (2013), East or West (2014), Vertigo (2016), and Traces of Time (2022). Born in Freetown, Sierra Leone and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, and Bamako, Mali, her upbringing has led her to explore landscape and culture from an international and interdisciplinary perspective. In 2007, she won a Fulbright Grant to research and photograph traditional Islamic scholarship in Timbuktu, Mali. Alexandra holds a Masters of Letters in Fine Art Practice from the Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. She studied broadcast and print journalism (MS) at Columbia University, USA and fine art and East Asian studies (BA) at Stanford University, USA. Support Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/real-photo-show