PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf

• Sage Sohier - Episode 96

  In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, photographer and educator Sage Sohier joins Sasha to discuss a lifetime of extraordinary work, including her recently published books Passing Time and Americans Seen (Nazraeli Press), featuring photographs made primarily in the 1980s. They also delve into Witness to Beauty (Kehrer Verlag), an intimate and moving portrait of Sohier’s mother alongside her two daughters—a project that embraces aging and the passage of time. Throughout the conversation, Sage shares her enthusiasm and thoughtful insights on staying open to new ideas and equipment, as well as the value of revisiting older work with fresh eyes. https://sagesohier.com https://www.instagram.com/sagesohier/ Sage Sohier (b. 1954, Washington, D.C.) grew up in Virginia and received her BA from Harvard University in 1975. She is a Boston-based photographer who has published eight monographs, including “Americans Seen,” (Nazraeli Press 2017 and 2024), “Passing Time,” (2023), and “Witness to Beauty” (Kehrer 2017). She is the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships. Sohier’s work has been included in group shows at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the International Center of Photography, the Art Institute of Chicago, and in solo shows at Joseph Bellows Gallery, Robert Klein Gallery, Foley Gallery, Blue Sky Gallery, and The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. Her work is in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art, NY, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. She has taught photography at Harvard University and Wellesley College, and has done commissioned work for the George Gund Foundation in Cleveland, the Robert Rauschenberg Residency program in Captiva, FL, as well as editorial work for numerous publications

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• Dana Lixenberg | Episode 95

  In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, renowned photographer Dana Lixenberg discusses the power of portraiture and how editorial autonomy enabled her to safeguard the portrayal of individuals featured in her work within marginalized communities. Lixenberg shares the origins of Imperial Courts, her seminal project documenting life in the Los Angeles housing project of the same name, and the deep relationship of trust she built over more than two decades of work there. The conversation also explores her iconic portraits of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, as well as her poignant book project, The Last Days of Shishmaref, which captures the lives of an Indigenous community on a disappearing Alaskan island. https://grimmgallery.com/artists/42-dana-lixenberg/ https://www.instagram.com/danalixenberg Dana Lixenberg is known for her stripped-down portraits that revel in the elemental characteristics of her subjects. She uses a large-format field camera – a cumbersome tool, which necessitates what the artist refers to as a ‘slow dance’ between her and her subjects. The resulting portraits contain an enormous amount of detail and texture, and are as revelatory as a personal encounter. The power of the work arises from its intimacy, compositional rigor and, importantly, the absence of social stereotyping. Lixenberg has been predominantly active in the United States, and her thorough understanding of the country and its society seeps through palpably in her work.  Besides her extensive editorial practice, for which she photographed many cultural icons, she pursues long-term projects with a primary focus on marginalized communities. These projects include Jeffersonville, Indiana (2005), a collection of landscapes and portraits of a small town’s homeless population and The Last Days of Shishmaref (2008), which portrays an Inupiaq community on an eroding island off the coast of Alaska. Lixenberg’s most extensive body of work to date is Imperial Courts, 1993-2015 (2015), which she begun in the aftermath of the 1992 Rodney King riots. Spanning 22 years, the project tracks the changing shape of an underserved community in Watts, Los Angeles. In contrast to the often one dimensional, sensationalized media coverage of this neighborhood, Lixenberg employs a more subdued and collaborative photographic approach. Like her other projects, Imperial Courts consists of a series of photographs and a publication. Exploring other media for the first time, Lixenberg also included audio recordings and created a three-channel video installation. The project was awarded the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize in 2017 and continues to be exhibited internationally.

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• Justine Kurland | Marina Chao - Episode 94

  In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha welcomes two extraordinary guests: artist and curator Justine Kurland and Marina Chao, a curator at CPW. Together, they discuss their collaboration on The Rose, an exhibition that explores collage as a feminist form, strategy, and genealogy. Featuring works by over fifty contemporary artists and key figures from the 1960s and 1970s, the exhibition examines collage as both a means of world-building and a survival strategy in times of crisis. Sasha, Justine, and Marina delve into the layered responsibilities of artists and discuss the assumption that interpreting a straightforward photograph is inherently simpler than reading and interpreting conceptual art. https://www.justinekurland.com https://cpw.org/staff/ https://cpw.org/exhibition/the-rose/ Justine Kurland is an artist known for her utopian photographs of American landscapes and the fringe communities, both real and imagined, that inhabit them. Her early work comprises photographs, taken during many cross-country road trips, that counter the masculinist mythology of the American landscape, offering a radical female imaginary in its place. Her recent series of collages, SCUMB Manifesto, continues to make space for women by transforming books by canonized male photographers through destruction and reparation. Kurland’s work has been exhibited at museums and galleries in the United States and abroad. Her work is included in permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Carnegie Museum, Pennsylvania; Getty Museum, California; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, among others. She works with Higher Pictures in New York. Marina Chao has previously held curatorial positions at the International Center of Photography and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As assistant curator at ICP she organized the exhibition Multiply, Identify, Her (2018) and contributed to the publication Public, Private, Secret: On Photography and the Configuration of Self (Aperture and ICP, 2018). She was awarded a 2019 Curatorial Research Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for Seeing Meaning, a project exploring the intersections of image, language, and technology.

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• Harlan Bozeman - Episode 93

  In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha sits down with photographer Harlan Bozeman to discuss his artistic evolution—from the casual nature of street photography to the immersive, collaborative, and activist approach he brings to his ongoing documentary series, Out the E. They also explore his newer project, Failure to Appear, a more introspective and formally abstract investigation into memory and Black culture. Harlan is thoughtful, honest, and generous as he reflects on both the triumphs and challenges of his complex artistic practice. https://www.harlanbozeman.com/ https://www.instagram.com/harlanbozeman/ Harlan Bozeman is an artist based in Central Arkansas, whose work confronts the erasure of Black legacies and centers on how this exploration influences one’s personhood. He received his M.F.A at the University of Arkansas, his Bachelor’s in Journalism at DePaul University, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2023. Harlan is a 2024 Catch Light Global Fellow and is currently participating in the Magnum Foundation’s Counter Histories fellowship. Harlan Bozeman is Professor of Practice at Tulane University.

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• Jamel Shabazz - Episode 92

  In this episode of PhotoWork, host Sasha Wolf has a deeply moving conversation with renowned photographer Jamel Shabazz. They talk about his lifelong love for photography and how he uses it to make a social impact. Jamel opens up about how his life experiences have shaped his approach to art and hard work. The episode also covers his book, “A Time Before Crack,” and its importance to his community at the time. It's a heartfelt conversation that goes beyond just photography. Tune in to hear the insights and stories from a photographer passionate about making a difference. https://www.jamelshabazzphotographer.com ||| https://www.instagram.com/jamelshabazz/ Jamel Shabazz is best known for his iconic photographs of New York City during the 1980s. A documentary, fashion, and street photographer, he has authored 12 monographs and contributed to over three dozen other photography related books. His photographs have been exhibited worldwide and his work is housed within the permanent collections of The Whitney Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, The Fashion Institute of Technology, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Getty Museum. Over the years, Shabazz has instructed young students at the Studio Museum in Harlem’s “Expanding the Walls” project, The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture “Teen Curator’s” program, and the Bronx Museum’s “Teen Council.” He is also the 2018 recipient of the Gordon Parks award for excellence in the arts and humanitarianism and the 2022 awardee of the Gordon Parks Foundation/Steidl book prize. Jamel is also a member of the photo collective Kamoinge, and a board member of En Foco, another photo collective. His goal as an artist is to contribute to the preservation of world history and culture.

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