Tim Carpenter and I met up at the 2024 Chico Review to talk about his latest book Little, published by The Ice Plant. We talk about how Little is the last in a trilogy of Tim’s books, Local Objects and Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road, both also published by The Ice Plant. Even though Tim was on PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf in 2023 to talk about To Photograph Is To Learn How To Die, and we do not take a deep dive into that work, we do end up having an amazing philisophical discussion about photography, his work, and his style of writing in that book.

https://www.timcarpenterphotography.com | https://www.instagram.com/timcarpenter | https://theiceplant.cc/product/little/

This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Tim Carpenter is a photographer, writer, and educator who works in Brooklyn and central Illinois. He is the author of several photobooks, among them “Little” (The Ice Plant); “A month of Sundays” (TIS books); “Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road” (The Ice Plant); “Local objects” (The Ice Plant); “township” (TIS/dumbsaint); “Bement grain” (TIS/dumbsaint); “Still feel gone” (Deadbeat Club Press); “The king of the birds” (TIS books); and “A house and a tree” (TIS books). Tim received an MFA in Photography from the Hartford Art School in 2012. He is a faculty member of the Penumbra Foundation Long Term Photobook Program and serves as a mentor in the Image Threads Mentorship Program. Tim’s book-length essay “To photograph is to learn how to die” was published by The Ice Plant in Fall 2022.

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Photographer and Pediatrician, Greg Gulbransen joins me to talk about his book, Say Less, published by Gost Books. Greg and I talk about how facing tragedy in his personal life and being a children’s doctor all lead to this exploration of gun violence. Greg is a unique guest in that he is both a full-time working doctor and had great success with fashion photography. He approaches his medical work and his documentary photo work with similar ideals and practice and we talk a good deal about that. Just a small trigger warning, the life-altering event Greg describes from his own tragedy and the story and descriptions of Malik, the paralyzed former gang leader from Greg’s book, are intense and have some graphic detail.

https://www.gulbransenphoto.com | https://www.instagram.com/greggulbransenpeds/ | https://gostbooks.com/products/say-less

This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

Over the course of three years, Greg Gulbransen photographed Malik, a set leader of the violent street gang, the Crips. Malik was shot and paralysed in 2018 by the bullet from a rival gang, and as a result his world now centres around his small Bronx apartment in New York, where he is cared for by his family and fellow gang members. Gulbransen, a practicing doctor, had been photographing in the Bronx during his spare time and had got to know some of the local kids. He began to notice a lot of young men in wheelchairs with spinal injuries and was professionally curious. He was told they had all been shot. He wanted to speak to someone in a wheelchair and was introduced to Malik through a fellow Crip.

Greg started out shooting fashion but transitioned over to documenting the lives of unique individuals with interesting stories. Greg loves meeting new people and tries to preserve their legacy with photography. Greg also enjoys the solace of cold weather wildlife. His images have been published in the New York Times, Daily Mail, ELLE, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Northwell Health, The Weather Channel, Spirit and Flesh, Grazia and Pandora to name a few. Some of Greg’s documentary work has been featured on the A & E Network’s History Channel.

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Shana Lopes, PhD, Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA, joins me to talk about how being a curator perfectly combined her love of photography and art history. We talk about working with both historical and contemporary artists and the questions that need to be answered in order to provide proper context for the work whether done posthumously or with a current artist. We mention some past, current, and upcoming show during our conversation and three of those shows are linked below.

https://www.instagram.com/lopesshana/ | https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/a-living-for-us-all/ | https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/zanele-muholi-eye-me/ | https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/constellations/

This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com | https://www.chicoreview.com/2025-coming-soon

Shana Lopes, PhD, is an Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMOMA. Born and raised in San Francisco, she has curated or co-curated exhibitions such as: Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, Sightlines: Photographs from the Collection, A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA, Sea Change, Zanele Muholi: Eye Me, and the upcoming 2024 SECA Art Award. Over the past fourteen years, she has gained curatorial experience at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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