In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and Dr. Sarah Kennel, the Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography at the VMFA, discuss in detail the acquisition process at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They also delve into the collaborative efforts required to produce a large traveling exhibition, specifically A Long Arc: Photography and the American South since 1845, which is coming to the VMFA in October 2024. This episode reveals many of the inner workings of museum operations and helps to demystify the various processes through which artwork is acquired and shown.

https://vmfa.museum | https://www.instagram.com/sarah_kennel/

Dr. Sarah Kennel joined VMFA in 2021 as the inaugural Aaron Siskind Curator of Photography and Director of the Raysor Center for Works on Paper. A specialist in nineteenth and twentieth-century photography, Kennel has curated, published, and presented widely on topics ranging from nineteenth-century French photography and historic photographic processes to European modernism and understudied women photographers. She has written extensively on the relationship between painting and photography in nineteenth-century France and, more recently, Kennel has focused on photography in the American South.

This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha has an in-depth conversation with photographer Ahndraya Parlato about her book, "Who is Changed and Who is Dead," published by MACK. Ahndraya shares the life-altering events that inspired her to create this examination of motherhood, which is filled with both humor and grief. Sasha and Ahndraya discuss the book's use of text and image and how Ahndraya had to let go of preconceived notions of what a photo book should be. Ahndraya also gives us a wonderful sneak peek into her next body of work.

https://www.ahndrayaparlato.com/ | https://www.mackbooks.us/products/who-is-changed-and-who-is-dead-br-ahndraya-parlato?_pos=8&_sid=0db4ce9c9&_ss=r

Ahndraya Parlato has a BA from Bard College and an MFA from California College of the Arts. She has published three books, including: Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead, (Mack Books, 2021), A Spectacle and Nothing Strange, (Kehrer Verlag, 2016), East of the Sun, West of the Moon, (a collaboration with Gregory Halpern, Études Books, 2014). Additionally, Ahndraya has contributed texts to Double feature (St. Lucy Books, 2024), Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What Not to Shoot (Aperture, 2021), and The Photographer’s Playbook (Aperture, 2014). She has exhibited work at: Spazio Labo, in Bologna, Italy, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, The Aperture Foundation, New York, NY, and The Swiss Institute, Milan, Italy. Ahndraya has been awarded residencies at Light Work and The Visual Studies Workshop, grants from Light Work, the New York Foundation for the Arts and is a 2024 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. Her most recent project, TIME TO KILL is forthcoming from Mack Books. Ahndraya teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com

In the first-ever episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf recorded in front of an audience, Sasha and photographer Rahim Fortune gathered at picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom to discuss his new book, Hardtack, published by Loose Joints. Sasha and Rahim delve into the significance of collaboration, with Rahim emphasizing the various forms of collaboration involved at every stage of the book's creation. This includes the individuals Rahim photographed, the production team at picturehouse, and the editing process with Sarah Chaplin Espenon at Loose Joints.

https://www.rahimfortune.com | https://loosejoints.biz/collections/current-titles/products/hardtack

Rahim Fortune is a visual artist and educator from the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. He uses photography to ask fundamental questions about American identity. Focusing on the narratives of individual families and communities, he explores shifting geographies of migration and resettlement and the way that these histories are written on the landscapes of Texas and the American South. Fortune’s previous book, I Can’t Stand to See You Cry, was published by Loose Joints in 2021 and was the winner of the Rencontres d'Arles Louis Roederer Discovery Award 2022. His work has been featured in exhibitions worldwide and many permanent collections, including the High Museum in Atlanta, GA, LUMA Arles, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and The Boston Museum of Fine Art.

This podcast is sponsored by picturehouse + thesmalldarkroom. https://phtsdr.com