Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

2026 Chico Attendees Series
Henry Comes-Pritchett, philosopher and photographer, speaks about photography as a tool to describe both memory as well as his vision of the future.
https://twodimensional.space
https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-comes-pritchett/

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

The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry.
https://chicoreview.com
https://www.charcoalworkshops.com

2026 Chico Attendees Series
Mark Woods, photographer and cinematographer, speaks about his love of the stand-alone image.
Mark Woods is a fine art black & white still photographer and commercial cinematographer raised in a California family deeply rooted in photography and film. His father operated a portrait studio in Hollywood, while his grandfather famously purchased and released the film Reefer Madness. Growing up surrounded by cameras, film, and darkrooms would later shape Woods’ lifelong visual career.

Woods discovered his passion for image-making while attending the University of California, Berkeley in 1968, where he studied Photo Ethnographic Anthropology. During his years at Berkeley, he became known for creating powerful street photography and formal documentary imagery. By the time he graduated in 1971, Woods had become the university’s preferred photographer for student activities, jazz festivals, and campus publications, often credited as Francis Woods.
After returning to Hollywood, Woods worked extensively in both still photography and motion picture production. He opened a still photography studio at Columbia Studios, producing advertising imagery before transitioning fully into cinematography. Over the course of a 30-year career, he shot and directed more than 1,000 commercials and 25 feature films, earning multiple industry awards for his work.
In addition to his commercial career, Woods taught advanced cinematography at several respected institutions, including California State University Northridge (CSUN), the American Film Institute (AFI), National University, and ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.
In 2004, Woods returned to his roots in analog black & white photography, building a traditional darkroom and focusing more deeply on fine art still imagery. His photographic series include Berkeley 1968–1973, W/O & Later (Hollywood Behind The Scenes ’73–’79), Pasadena’s Arroyo landscapes, early Chinese structures at the Huntington Gardens, floral portraits, and other still life works.
Working primarily with large format photography and traditional analog processes, Woods combines documentary realism with a strong pictorialist influence. His landscapes are created using natural light, while his still lifes are carefully illuminated using strobes, tungsten lighting, or available light depending on the subject and mood.
Today, Mark Woods continues to explore timeless photographic methods while preserving moments of history, atmosphere, and human experience through both still photography and cinematography.

https://www.markwoods.com
https://stills-that-move.myshopify.com

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

The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry.
https://chicoreview.com
https://www.charcoalworkshops.com

Photographer Michelle Arcila joined me at the JKC Gallery to discuss the process of making incredibly personal work that involves family and trauma and who that work might be for. We also talk about photographing your family, especially your children, and how to find the balance between exploring a painful narrative in the work while protecting those you are photographing from your past experiences.

https://www.michellearcila.net
https://www.instagram.com/michelle.arcila/

Michelle Arcila is a Costa Rican/American photographer living and working in Brooklyn, New York. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in 2002 with a BFA in photography. Her work primarily focuses on family lore, motherhood, bicultural identity, and ancestral trauma. Her photographs have been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally; they also appear in a number of private collections. In 2012, after the birth of her first daughter, she took a hiatus from commercial work. During that time she was able to really start exploring how the work she was creating related to not only her experience of growing up in the United States as a first generation American; which came with the feeling of not feeling from here and not feeling from there (“No soy de aquí, no soy de allá.”) and how that sentiment played into her role as a mother and perhaps how all of this combined has affected her mental health struggles.

She is the recipient of the Photowork 2025 Fellowship and was shortlisted for the PHMuseum 2025 Women’s Grant.

She currently divides her time between the Hudson Valley and Brooklyn, NY, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.

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

Susan Weiss speaks about Hello Susan and Black Tulip at the 2026 Chico Review

https://www.susanweissart.com/portfolio-3
https://www.instagram.com/susanweissart/

Susan Weiss works in the visual arts in many mediums, including photography, film, painting and drawing. Her work explores the issues of personal identity and the psycho-social landscape. She also teaches drawing and student artist portfolio preparation both live and in zoom consultation.

Susan's projects include the ongoing series Humanity in the Modern World, documenting humanitarian work in other countries, most recently the immigration story at the El Paso/Ciudad Juarez border with a Washington D.C, based NGO. Her short documentary films explore the experiences of womanhood,  have played on the festival circuit and won many awards. THE ORCHARD, seasonal photographs of a Vermont apple orchard, tell the story of hope and faith during the years of the pandemic.

Susan photographs with both digital and film cameras depending on the project, including Mamiya 7II, Leica M9P and Leica M10, Polaroid SX70 and 680,  Iphone 17 Pro Max, and plastic toy cameras.
“Exploring and photographing the human condition is the major theme in my work. I attempt to connect with people and photograph their lives to document what makes them unique as individuals. The stories are personal but they become my stories as I photograph and interpret through the lens of my camera, and their lives become my art. It is this attraction to lives that are unique and with a sense of vulnerability that drives my work.”

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

2026 Chico Attendees Series
Jordan Monloire speaks about Sweet Tarts and her reasons for coming to the Chico Review
Jordan Monloire is a photographer + book maker living in the pnw, usa.
Presently doing time in the dark room and shooting only a fraction of sites worth seeing. She predominantly focuses on gonzo style black and white, post-documentative portraiture. The core of her practice is her "fruits basket"—the act of capturing the realities of her experience and maintaining the ability to collect and share. You’ll find most of her work in silver gelatin fibre prints, with periodic appearances inlaid in installations and handmade zines
When I was 19 a man stopped me on a city bus in Seattle, he wound up gifting me my first analog camera. This exchange is what introduced me to making pictures.
I currently live in Seattle Washington, working on my forthcoming book titled Sweet Tarts.
https://jordanmonloire.com
https://www.instagram.com/alphag3rl

The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry.
https://chicoreview.com
https://www.charcoalworkshops.com
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This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club
Begin Building your dream photobook library today at
https://charcoalbookclub.com