
Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton
Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton is a podcast about photographers and the related arts.
Latest episodes

Oct 28, 2021 • 44min
Elodie Mailliet Storm | CatchLight
Elodie Mailliet Storm is the CEO of CatchLight. Catchlight is a nonprofit media organization that discovers and develops visual storytellers through the practices of art, journalism, and social justice. Elodie and I talk about CatchLight's new California Visual News Desk which is an evolutionary next step in their goal of collaborating with local media outlets and areas that are in need of good visual storytelling partnerships. We also talk about the history of CatchLight and some of the stories currently being shown and how you can see them.
https://www.catchlight.io
------ 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.
www.charcoalbookclub.com -------
CatchLight is pleased to announce the creation of a statewide visual news desk in California, with the support of five philanthropic organizations: the Enlight Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, in partnership with PhotoWings, for a combined investment of over $2 million. The initiative directly addresses the decline of visual journalism across the United States, advances visual representation in local media, and serves critical community information needs.
CatchLight, a nonprofit media organization borrowing from the practices of art, journalism, and social justice, believes in the power of visual storytelling to foster a more nuanced and empathetic understanding of the world. It serves as a transformational force, urgently bringing resources and organizations together to support leaders in a thriving visual ecosystem. Its goal is to discover, develop, and amplify visual storytellers at all levels.
Yesica Prado and Felix Uribe- Care in the Time of Covid
https://www.catchlight.io/news/care-in-the-time-of-covid
Samantha Cabrera Friend - Garfield Park
https://www.catchlight.io/news/2021/9/28/btgcduvggbjsxemtcucj6l2r0q12dp
https://www.propublica.org/article/disinvested-how-government-and-private-industry-let-the-main-street-of-a-black-neighborhood-crumble

Oct 15, 2021 • 59min
Joseph Lawton | Looking out the Window
Joe and I talk about his life in photography and his long tenure teaching photography at Fordham University. His current show Being and There is now up at Aurelia Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
You can view the show at: https://www.aureliagallery.com/current-exhibition
http://www.josephlawton.com
https://www.instagram.com/joelawton_photography/
Joseph Lawton has taught photography at Fordham University for over thirty-five years, and served as the Director of the Visual Arts Department at Fordham, as well at Hunter College, Pratt Institute, and the School of Visual Arts. The recipient of the Light Works and the Southeast Center for Photography grants, his work has been published in the New York Times, and in Life and Time magazines, and is included in numerous public and private collections, including Bibliothèque Nationale. Exhibitions include PS1, Canton Museum, and OK Harris Gallery. A catalogue of his photographs from the New York State Fair is available through Light Works, Syracuse University, and his recent book, Plain Sight, was published by waal-boght press.

Sep 25, 2021 • 1h 5min
In Memory of Martin Bough
From June 2020, My conversation with Martin Bough on his life and work. Martin Bough 1927-2021

Sep 10, 2021 • 39sec
Flooding + Back to School = No episode this week.
Had some trouble getting it all together for this week.

Aug 28, 2021 • 56min
Anita Allyn | Teaching & Ecosystem
Artist and educator, Anita Allyn and I talk about the origins of her photography and installation work and we talk about our shared experiences of teaching in Mercer County, New Jersey. Anita is the Coordinator and Professor of Photography and Video at The College of New Jersey.
https://www.anita-allyn.com
https://www.instagram.com/anita_allyn/
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.
www.charcoalbookclub.com
Anita Allyn, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a Professor of Art at The College of New Jersey where she has taught since 1999. She has a MFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and a BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute. She was awarded a student scholarship to study in Aix-en-Provence, France and has studied abroad at Brighton Polytechnic, England.
Anita Allyn’s photography and installation works have been exhibited at such venues as The Tate Modern, London, National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, Russia, International Photography Biennial, Columbia, South America as well as local venues at the University of Pennsylvania, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, Art Institute of Boston, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her single channel video screenings have included The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, Pioneer Theater in New York, Director’s Lounge, Berlin Germany, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Elements Museum of Contemporary Art, Beijing, China, and the Israeli Center for the Arts.

Aug 13, 2021 • 29sec
Away with the Family
No show today. Traveling with the family.

Jul 30, 2021 • 0sec
Tom Leininger | Teaching & Sale Day
**Lecturer and Photographer, Tom Leininger and I talk about his shift from the world of photojournalism to the world of art education which has been a mix of full time and part time work, including being one of many voices in a large program at the University of North Texas to becoming the primary voice in a small program at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. We also talk about the challenges to finding time to photograph and stay engaged in the art world, especially with a full time job or over-booked adjunct work. **
https://tomleininger.net/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCnx3yB9XXVCeCdHZXE4LSg/featured
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.
www.charcoalbookclub.com
Tom Leininger is a photographer and educator based in Appleton, Wisconsin and teaching in the Department of Art at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. **
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He was born in California, raised in upstate New York, and educated in the Midwest. The bulk of his professional newspaper career was spent grinding it out every day at Indiana newspapers. His current photographic interests lie within contemporary suburban life and the abstract idea of home. **

Jul 16, 2021 • 57min
Julianna Foster | Teaching & Geographical Lore
Julianna Foster is an artist and assistant professor and interim Program Director of Photography at the University of the Arts. We have a fantastic conversation about teaching and her latest work, Geographical Lore which looks at the changing environment through sculptural images. Geographical Lore was just included in Four Degrees: Eco-Anxiety and Climate Change Presented by Strange Fire Collective & Humble Arts Foundation. Julianna was also a guest on the JKC Gallery's Third Thursdays talks. There's a link below if you want to hear more about her work.
https://juliannafoster.com/home.html
http://www.strangefirecollective.com/four-degrees-exhibition
Third Thursdays with guests Cengiz Yar & Julianna Foster
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.
www.charcoalbookclub.com
Julianna Foster is currently an assistant professor in the Photography program at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. She received a BFA in Design from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2001) and an MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking from the University of the Arts (2006).
Foster has been an artist in residence at the Philadelphia Photo Art Center, finalist at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists in Philadelphia, selected as a Community Supported Artist, a project organized by Grizzly Grizzly Gallery and self-published the book, lone hunter. Her work and two interviews with photographers was featured in the publication Constructed: The Contemporary History of the Constructed Image in Photography since 1990 published by Routledge. Other selected exhibitions include, The Truth in Disguise Geste Paris, France during Paris Photo, group exhibitions at Filter Photo in Chicago and Medium Photo in San Diego (2019/2020), 2020 COCA (Center of Contemporary Artist) finalist and 2020 San Francisco Bay International Photography Awards Silver Award Winner for her project, Geographical Lore.
Other projects/publications include work in magazines Conveyor, Proof, Cleaver, Good Game, and Shots Journal for Black and White Photography. She has exhibited work nationally and internationally, in private collections across the country and Foster has collaborated with various artists on projects that include creating artist multiples, artist books and series of photographs and video.

Jul 2, 2021 • 53min
Brendan Bannon | Teaching & Most Important Picture
Brendan Bannon is a photographer and teacher based between New York and Nairobi, Kenya. We talk about the work his students are showing at the JKC Gallery as part of The Mark and the Memory show curated by Ryann Casey. The work comes from a workshop taught by Brendan and Julian Chinana called Odyssey that is offered to combat veterans to help them process their experiences through the use of the camera. We talk about how Brendan suffered from depression while taking care of his mother who was suffering from MS and how photography helped him to stop time when he needed it to and also allowed him to re-engage with the world. We also talk about Brendan's many other projects working with refugee children, children with AIDS, and the many NGO's that he has worked with over the years.
https://www.mostimportantpicture.org
https://www.ginnyrosestewart.com
https://jkcgallery.online
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.
www.charcoalbookclub.com
Brendan Bannon is a photographer and teacher based between New York and Nairobi, Kenya.
Bannon's work has appeared in The New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, The Daily Telegraph, the Independent, the Guardian, Monocle Magazine, KWANI?, and other international publications.
His projects have been exhibited internationally at UN headquarters in New York, at Chautauqua Institution's VACI galleries, The Burchfield Penney Museum and the Quick Center for the Arts.
His educational projects include Daily Dispatches an innovative daily journalism and public art project made collaboratively with colleges in the USA. Dispatches featured a story a day from Nairobi beamed across the world, printed and shared in public space on American college campuses.
Another project, Do You See What I See? is an arts education initiative conducted through UNHCR for children in refugee camps, giving them voice and an opportunity to share stories through their own photography and writing.
Brendan Bannon's interest in photography was sparked by his mother, an amateur photographer with a darkroom in the bathroom, and his father, who placed him at age 10 in front of drawers of antique photographs and asked him to select the interesting ones for an exhibition on the history of photography.
During his 20's Bannon ran a house painting business and took care of his mother who had multiple sclerosis, an experience he credits with informing his approach to photography. "I don't shy away from difficult stories. The experience of taking care of my mother showed me clearly that behind every moment of perceived suffering there is a profound victory over circumstances. I look at people's lives as being full of meaningful relationships, striving against the odds and achieving small victories."
Bannon also works regularly for International NGOs including Medecins Sans Frontieres, UNHCR, UNICEF and CARE International.

Jun 4, 2021 • 48min
Elinor Carucci | Teaching & Midlife
Elinor Carucci and I talk about her book Midlife, an autobiographical exploration of life, ageing, mortality, and the challenges women face as they get older to not become invisible. We talk about the hard work and stresses involved with making personal and commercial work, raising children, and teaching. Elinor talks about her mentors, and the ways in which she has changed as an educator and how she learns from her students.
http://www.elinorcarucci.com
Born 1971 in Jerusalem, Israel, Elinor Carucci graduated in 1995 from Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design with a degree in photography, and moved to New York that same year. In a relatively short amount of time, her work has been included in an impressive amount of solo and group exhibitions worldwide, solo shows include Edwynn Houk gallery, Fifty One Fine Art Gallery, James Hyman and Gagosian Gallery, London among others and group show include The Museum of Modern Art New York and The Photographers' Gallery, London.
Her photographs are included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art New York, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Houston Museum of Fine Art, among others and her work appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Details, New York Magazine, W, Aperture, ARTnews and many more publications.
She was awarded the International Center of Photography Infinity Award for Young Photographer in 2001, The Guggenheim Fellowship in 2002 and NYFA in 2010. Carucci has published two monographs to date, Closer, Chronicle Books 2002 and Diary of a dancer, SteidlMack 2005 and MOTHER, Prestel 2013. In fall of 2019 Monacelli Press published her fourth monograph, Midlife.
Carucci teaches at the graduate program of Photography and Related Media at School of Visual Arts and is represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery.