I visited Mark Alice Durant at his home in Maryland to talk about his book, Summer of the White Fox, and After, published by Saint Lucy Books. We talk about how Mark came to photography and why he started his own publishing imprint. Summer of the White Fox, and After is a memoir and a monograph, with a touch of history and philosophy weaved into the essay. It is a recounting of grief and loss that enveloped Mark and his family through distinct events and all during the pandemic. It is also a story about experiencing love and care in ways that were, perhaps, unforseeable before all of the tragedies struck Mark’s family.

https://www.saintlucybooks.com/shop/p/summer-of-the-white-fox-and-after | https://www.instagram.com/saint_lucy_books/

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

Mark Alice Durant is a photographer whose photographs, installations, and performances have been presented internationally including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and Artist’s Space in New York. In 1991, he co-founded the performance duo ‘men of the world’ that for 10 years performed on the streets of Chicago, Toronto, Seattle, New York, Houston, San Francisco, and other cities. He has written extensively on the nexus of photography, performance and cultural phenomena with essays appearing in such journals as Art in America, Art on Paper, ArtUS, Art Journal, Afterimage, Dear Dave, Exposure, New Art Examiner, and PLUK. Durant is the editor of the online journal Saint Lucy which is devoted to writing about photography, contemporary art and the lovely people of Baltimore. He has contributed to numerous catalogs, monographs and anthologies including The Passionate Camera: Photography and Bodies of Desire, The Gothic, Jimmie Durham and Marco Breuer: Early Recordings. He is author of McDermott and McGough: A History of Photography, Robert Heinecken: A Material History and co-author of Vik Muniz: Seeing is Believing and Dressed for Thrills: 100 Years of Halloween Costume and Masquerade. In 2005, Durant co-curated and co-authored Blur of the Otherworldly: Contemporary Art, Technology and the Paranormal. Durant was co-curator of Some Assembly Required: Collage Culture in Post-War America in 2002 and in 2008, he curated Notes on Monumentality at the Baltimore Museum of Art. He has served on the faculties of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, UCLA, the University of New Mexico, Syracuse University, and the Milton Avery Graduate School for the Arts at Bard College. He has received grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fleishhacker Foundation, the Center for Creative Photography, the Illinois Arts Council, and the MacDowell Colony. Professor Durant received his B.F.A. from Massachusetts College of Art and M.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute.

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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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Photographer and educator, Harlan Bozeman and I recorded at Penumbra Foundation at the end of his residency there. Harlan is a 2024 Catchlight Global Fellow and we talk mostly about his work in Elaine, Arkansas that was recognized by Catchlight. The years of work that Harlan created and still creates in Elaine is now called “Out the E” and Harlan speaks extensively about how this town, its people, its history, and the photographs he’s made has impacted his life and his own identity. We also talk about Harlan’s family ties to the Wadmalaw Island and Gullah communities.

https://www.harlanbozeman.com/ | https://www.catchlight.io/news/visual-storytellers-awarded-2024-catchlight-global-fellowship | https://www.catchlight.io/about-the-global-fellowship

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

Harlan Bozeman is a lens-based artist whose research-driven practice has focused on confronting the erasure of Black culture and its histories, and investigating the legacies of slavery and its aftermath in the American South. His previous work explored the Gullah Sea Islands communities, specifically Wadmalaw Island where his family is from, and the narratives that serve to prolong their cultural significance.

A graduate of the University of Arkansas, Bozeman earned an MFA in Studio Art and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2023. Bozeman holds a BA in Journalism from DePaul University in Chicago. His work has been featured in The Atlantic, British Journal of Photography, Der Grief, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Bozeman is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

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Writer, Curator, and Director of Pier 24 Photography in San Francisco, Allie Haeusslein, joined me at the 2024 Chico Review and we discussed how writing about and curating photography became her passion and we talk specifically about the show, Stacy Mehrfar: The Moon Belongs to Everyone at Filter Photo, to highlight Allie's approach to curating and working with artists. We also talk about how Chris McCall invited her to be the Co-Director at Pier 24, and Allie reflects on her time at the famed institution, working with Chris McCall, and on the last show, Turning the Page, before Pier 24 closes its doors in 2025. And because we were at Chico, Allie shares some advice about following up with a good portfolio review experience.

https://www.alliehaeusslein.com | https://pier24.org | Mehrfar's show - https://www.alliehaeusslein.com/exhibitions/project-one-ephnc-8h3gb

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

Allie Haeusslein is the Director of Pier 24 Photography in San Francisco, the largest space dedicated to photography in North America. Her writing has appeared in publications such as Aperture, British Journal of Photography, ART21 Magazine, and Foam Magazine.

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Photographer, writer, and educator, Tom Griggs, and I met at AIPAD to talk about his book, A Creature Obeys a Creature That Wants, published by Mesaestándar. A Creature Obeys a Creature That Wants is an exploration of generational depression experienced through Tom’s paternal side of his family. It weaves together text and images from Tom with text and images from his father to tell a spiritually infused story of his family. We also talk about his newest book, El Inquilino, Mexico City, published by Kris Graves Projects which was revealed at AIPAD the very day we were there.

https://www.tomgriggs.net/books - https://www.krisgravesprojects.com/book/mexico-city-by-tom-griggs - https://www.instagram.com/griggstom/ - https://www.mesaestandar.com

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

Tom Griggs is a photographer, writer, and educator born in the United States and currently living between Medellín, Colombia and Mexico City. He has spent much of the last thirteen years teaching at the Universidad de Antioquia and at Fundación Universitaria Bellas Artes in Medellín, and at the ICP online. His last photobook, A Creature Obeys a Creature That Wants, was named one of the best photobooks of 2023 by Mark Power and Alec Soth.

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Continuing with my recordings at the 2024 Chico Review, Ben Brody joins me to talk about his two books, Attention Servicemember and 300m both published by Mass Books which was started by Ben and Peter van Agtmael. We talk about Ben’s experience as an Army photographer during the American war in Iraq and why he chose to be a civilian freelance photographer during the war in Afghanistan. Ben and I talk about how Attention Servicemember and 300m are part of his self-reckonining with his role in creating propaganda. We also talk about his work with The GroundTruth Project, an organization dedicated to local journalism in under covered communities. Note: Attention Servicemember was first published by Red Hook Editions.

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

https://www.photobrody.com - https://www.massbooks.co -

Ben Brody is an independent photographer, educator, and picture editor working on long-form projects related to the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their aftermath. He is the Director of Photography for The GroundTruth Project and Report for America, and a co-founder of Mass Books.

His first book, Attention Servicemember, was shortlisted for the 2019 Aperture - Paris Photo First Book Award and is now in its second edition.

Ben holds an MFA from Hartford Art School's International Low-Residency Photography program. He resides in western Massachusetts.

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