Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton

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.

'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.

Marshall To is a multidisciplinary artist focusing on photography, painting and illustrations. He grew up uniquely in a Taoist family in a small town called Red Deer which created a unique integration of western landscape and eastern beliefs.

He moved to Vancouver where he currently resides working as a Chef -  growing up in a Chinese immigrant household food was integral to the culture and more importantly a language used to communicate. Unsatisfied with just cooking Marshall began taking pictures of food and quickly began photographing and styling for local magazines and websites then off to an endeavor to seek even more with photography and art.

His first monograph, Blank Notes, is a book that combines that unique integration of western and immediate landscapes with eastern rituals and belief.

https://marshalljamesto.com
https://www.instagram.com/marshalljamesto
https://charcoalbookclub.com/collections/recent-books/products/blank-notes?variant=42002660819031

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

Kai McBride is a photographer, teacher, musician, and maker who recently uprooted from Brooklyn to sunny Santa Fe, New Mexico. He spent ten years teaching photography and managing the photo facilities at Columbia University, his alma mater, where he received an MFA in 2008.

Born on the island of Kauai in 1972, by his 18th birthday Kai had lived in California, Oregon, Mississippi, Wisconsin, Texas, Oahu, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. He sharpened his powers of observation while adjusting to life between suburban ranch-style homes, cabins with no running water, and a twenty foot teepee in the field of a commune.

In 2021, Kai and Corn Wagon Thunder finished creating a small off-grid cabin on a mesa east of downtown Santa Fe which he named ATARAXIA. Solar power. Captured rainwater. Built with their own two hands. In 2025, they completed constructing a small art studio building on the property.
To make ends meet, he teaches photography classes online for StrudelmediaLive and can be found behind the counter at photo-eye santa fe three days a week.
https://kaimcbride.com
https://bsky.app/profile/kaimcbride.com

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

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.