Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

Michael Chovan-Dalton

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

  1. Lily Colman | She, Archivist

    4D AGO

    Lily Colman | She, Archivist

    Lily Colman speaks about her show, She, Archivist, at the JKC Gallery and her new periodical, Frame/Sequence. She, Archivist is a project about womanhood, inheritance, and specifically how certain items and feelings are passed down between generations of women. The focus is on matrilineal inheritance through perceived rituals in Judaism, and the questioning of certain beliefs passed down. Using traditional film-based and alternative photographic processes and utilizing collage with domestic materials, Colman attempts to reconstruct her identity through her family’s matrimonial history as well as her own experience with an abusive marriage and subsequent divorce. https://www.lilycolman.com https://www.frame-sequence.com Lily was featured in the 2021 International Juried Exhibition at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster, NJ, where she was awarded First Prize and a Solo Exhibition. Her solo exhibition, The Knots on the Underside of the Carpet, ran from April 22 – June 4, 2022, at the CCA. Lily graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with her MFA in 2020, as well as a Certificate in Collegiate Teaching in Art and Design. She has always loved photography, education, and photo books, and wanted to make them accessible to everyone. Frame/Sequence is a photobook periodical that blends personal storytelling with fine art photography. We currently publish bi-anually with the aim of becoming quarterly. We invite writers and photo-based artists—especially from Philadelphia and the surrounding region—to share authentic, lived experiences. Each edition, based around a theme, curates these narratives and striking visual work. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com

    50 min
  2. Leonard Marcus | Picture Books

    FEB 15

    Leonard Marcus | Picture Books

    Leonard Marcus joins us to talk about his show Click! Photographers Make Picture Books at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. Visionary photographer-illustrators from Edward Steichen and William Wegman to Dare Wright, Mo Willems, Tana Hoban, Charles R. Smith Jr, and Walter Wick have long trained their camera eye with young people in mind. Their work reveals the hidden beauty of our everyday surroundings, makes the fantastic seem real in artfully choreographed collages and staged photos, and documents the amazing diversity of life on our planet. Eighty archival photo prints and a selection of rare children’s books from the 1890s onward put this vibrant, under-explored strand of children’s book art into eye-opening sharp focus. Curated by Leonard S. Marcus.  https://leonardmarcus.com https://carlemuseum.org This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Leonard’s pathfinding writings and exhibitions have earned him acclaim as one of the world’s preeminent authorities on children’s books and the people who create them. He is the author of more than 25 award-winning biographies, histories, interview collections, and inside looks at the making of children’s literature’s enduring classics. His reviews and commentary have been featured in the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post, The Horn Book, and on numerous radio and television programs including Good Morning America, All Things Considered, PBS NewsHour, BBC Radio 4, CBC As It Happens, Beijing Television, and Radio New Zealand, among others. A founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, Leonard curated the New York Public Library’s landmark exhibition The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter, as well as a long roster of touring exhibitions highlighting the art of Golden Books, Alice and Martin Provensen, Leonard Weisgard, Bernard Waber, Jules Feiffer, Garth Williams, and others. He has served as a consultant to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, National Book Foundation, Bank Street College of Education, American Writers Museum, Bard Graduate Center, National Book Council (Singapore), Lamsa Media (UAE), and Trust Bridge Media (China). In 2007, the Bank Street College of Education awarded Leonard an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters. In 2019, Leonard became the first American to win the Shanghai-based Chen Bochui Foundation International Children’s Literature Award for “special contributions to the development of Chinese children’s literature.” His literary archive is now in the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University. Leonard teaches at New York University and the School of Visual Arts, and speaks to audiences throughout the US and around the world. Born in Mount Vernon, New York and educated at Yale and the Iowa Graduate Writers’ Workshop, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.

    59 min
  3. Ivan McClellan | Eight Seconds

    FEB 1

    Ivan McClellan | Eight Seconds

    'Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture', the first book by Ivan McClellan, offers an inside look at Black cowboy culture across the United States in the 21st century, creating a bridge between present and past through sports, community, and love of the land. In 2015, photographer Ivan McClellan attended the Roy LeBlanc Invitational in Oklahoma, the country’s longest-running Black rodeo, at the invitation of Charles Perry, director and producer of The Black Cowboy. Over the next decade, McClellan embarked on a journey across the nation, crafting a multi-layered look at contemporary Black rodeo culture for the new book, 'Eight Seconds'. Whether photographing teen cowgirl sensation Kortnee Solomon at her family’s Texas stables, capturing bull riding champion Ouncie Mitchell in action, or kicking it with the Compton Cowboys at their Los Angeles ranch, McClellan chronicles the extraordinary athletes who keep the magic and majesty of the “Old West” alive with high-octane displays of courage, strength, and skill. 

The book’s title refers to the sport of bull riding — athletes must stay on a bull for eight seconds while it bucks and the more hectic the ride, the higher they score.

'Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture' is edited by Miss Rosen and includes a foreword by Charles Sampson, the first African American cowboy to win a world championship in professional rodeo. Slideshow Starts around 12:52 https://eightsecs.com https://8secondsstore.com/product/eight-seconds/ https://www.instagram.com/damiani_books/ This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com Ivan McClellan (b. 1982, Kansas City, KS) is a photojournalist and designer based in Philadelphia, PA. His work reveals marginalized aspects of black culture and challenges broad assumptions and myths about racial identity in America.

    52 min
  4. Disparate Projects: Lisa Beard | Micah McCoy | Vann Thomas Powell

    12/14/2025

    Disparate Projects: Lisa Beard | Micah McCoy | Vann Thomas Powell

    Vann Thomas Powell, Lisa Beard, and Micah McCoy remotely joined Michael Chovan-Dalton and Dani Paglione at the JKC Gallery at Mercer County College to talk about their newly formed photography collective, Disparate Projects. We will also discuss the process of publishing their first book, Fractured by Christiaan Lopez-Miro. Vann Thomas Powell is a photographer, curator, and researcher. Vann received his MFA in Experimental and Documentary Art at Duke University (2023) and has been featured in solo exhibitions, books, and periodicals in the United States and abroad including The Independent (UK), Glitterati Editions (New York, NY). His books and works can be found in private and public collections including the Rubenstein Rare Books and Manuscripts Library (Duke University) and the Museum of Fine Art Special Collections (Tufts University). Vann is a Photolucida Critical Mass 2023 Top 200 Finalist. Lisa Beard is a photo-based artist, writer, teacher, and curator. Featured in national and international exhibitions, her work has appeared in group and solo shows, recently as a featured exhibitor for Head On Photo Festival in Sydney, AU. She has also been included in publications for The International Center of Photography, The Hand Magazine, Float Magazine, and Broad Magazine. She is a 2024 Klompching Fresh Finalist and Photolucida Critical Mass 2024 Top 200 Finalist. Lisa received her MFA in Media Arts from Maine Media College (2022). Micah McCoy is a photographer, curator, and poet based in Northwest Arkansas. He received his MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2022) and has exhibited work in solo and group exhibitions both in the United States and abroad. His work explores issues of religiosity, anxiety, and social detachment. Micah’s editorial photography has been featured in publications including NBC News, The New York Post, and others. https://disparateprojects.com Disparate Projects is an evolving collective and platform dedicated to the exploration of contemporary photography. Founded by Lisa Beard, Micah McCoy, and Vann Thomas Powell, we are committed to thoughtful photographic curation, engaging critical discussions in photographic theory, and nurturing collaborations with photographers of disparate approaches. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club Begin Building your dream photobook library today at https://charcoalbookclub.com The Real Photo Show is hosted and produced by Michael Chovan-Dalton The JKC Gallery Artist Talks are hosted and produced by: Real Photo Show/Michael Chovan-Dalton, Julia Colonna, and Dani Paglione.

    1h 6m
  5. Amani Willett | Invisible Sun

    11/26/2025

    Amani Willett | Invisible Sun

    Amani Willett is a Boston-based photographer whose practice is driven by conceptual ideas surrounding family, history, memory, and the social environment. Working primarily with the book form, his three monographs have been published to widespread critical acclaim. Disquiet (Damiani, 2013), The Disappearance of Joseph Plummer (Overlapse, 2017) and “A Parallel Road (Overlapse 2020)” were selected by Photo-Eye as “best books” of the year and have been highlighted in over 70 publications including ​Photograph Magazine, PDN,​ ​Hyperallergic, Lensculture, New York Magazine, The New York Times, 1000 Words, NPR, The British Journal of Photography, Collector Daily and Buzzfeed and recommended by ​Todd Hido,​ ​Elisabeth Biondi (former Visuals Editor of The New Yorker), Vince Aletti and Joerg Colberg (Conscientious), among others. https://www.amaniwillett.com/invisiblesunbook https://www.instagram.com/amaniwillett/ INVISIBLE SUN is a visual meditation on survival, transformation, and fragility by artist Amani Willett. The project traces the impact of childhood medical traumas and the ways they continue to reverberate through the present. Slideshow from book: https://youtu.be/dl5-nDcpfoc Confronting these early challenges amid new chronic health challenges, Willett turned to intensive therapies. Within this process he encountered vivid, unsettling memories, often of his younger self, that became a generative source for the work. This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book ClubBegin Building your dream photobook library today athttps://charcoalbookclub.com Amani’s photographs are also featured in the books​ American Geography (SF Moma/Radius Books, 2021), Bystander: A History of Street Photography (2017 edition, Laurence King Publishing), ​Street Photography Now​ (Thames and Hudson), ​New York: In Color​ (Abrams), and have been published widely in places including The Atlantic, A​merican Photography,​ Newsweek​,​ Harper’s,​ ​The Huffington Post, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine and The New York Review of Books​.​ His work resides in the collections of the Tate Modern, The Library of the Museum of Modern Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Sir Elton John Photography Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Oxford University, and Harvard University, among others.

    41 min
4.9
out of 5
39 Ratings

About

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

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