PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf - Photography Podcast

Sasha Wolf is an insightful and engaging interviewer. I eagerly await every new episode. The ability to dive deep into the motivation, inspiration, history, and inner thoughts of Sasha’s guest makes for fascinating discussions. I’m almost always moved by the conversation, whether the subject is a well-known photographer or a new, rising talent. What Sasha does is truly reveal the humanity of her guests, allowing the listener to feel a sense of connection. I’ve learned so much over the years from these conversations.

I miss Magic Hour. This feels like an hour+ of praise being exchanged back and forth, and griping about an “art world” that all participants seem to very much be a part of. When the work is talked about it feels superficial. I adore the work of the photographers featured, and I appreciate the hard work that likely goes into making this show, so I write this out of a plea for greater depth. For instance, the latest episode with Curran feels like 10 minutes is discussed about making a color photograph black and white. Having heard Curran’s incredible writing, I know he can talk deeply and meaningfully about his work, but I think in this case the interviewer didn’t have the questions to go there, or deeper than he is able to in his own writing, if that makes sense.

I just stumbled upon this podcast and so glad that I did! Finally… a real message for photographers and the art of photography. I will listen to past content and continue to listen. Thank you!

I know that everyone on this show is deeply familiar with the world of critiques and so I hope they don’t mind it being applied here. I’ll start by noting that getting photographers to talk is sort of a tall order in many circumstances. They are usually better at pictures, after all. But still, this is a podcast that operates from a niche corner within a niche corner of the art world. What I mean is that most guests seem to be largely of the same milieu - which is small even in the small photography world. It more feels like a buddy buddy sessions with the interviewer fawning over guests more often than not - seemingly afraid to offer any critical analysis and instead just a lot of admiration all the time. And I really love the work of a lot of these photographers, so I get it. But still, as interviews they leave me wanting - through no fault of the artists usually. The host also seems to have a strange bias towards film pictures - and has repeatedly cited photographers as shooting certain formats (with the seeming insinuation if this deepens the inherent value) only to be corrected by the photographers themselves. They even express admiration at pictures seemingly because they are on film when they end up being on digital, and given the discussion I can’t help but perceive a disappointment, and a concealing of the fact that they don’t think the picture has the same value (there’s one episode in particular that I remember here where this is the case). There are other apparent biases, mostly in the guest selection - very few younger artists, very few (if any?) non-coastal artists - check out certain book publishers or high cost “reviews” getaways hosted by a few big names and you’ll see largely the same people on this podcast. It just…it could be a lot better, it could be more curious. The photo world needs something better than the same tight knit group. They make good work - well some. I still do not understand the adoration of some. But that’s art. As it is, this is still probably the best photography podcast out there at the moment. I’m afraid that doesn’t feel like it means it’s great.