<description>&lt;p&gt;In this episode of &lt;strong&gt;PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf&lt;/strong&gt;, &lt;strong&gt;Alejandro Cartagena&lt;/strong&gt; returns to discuss his mid-career solo exhibition &lt;em&gt;Ground Rules&lt;/em&gt; at &lt;strong&gt;San Francisco Museum of Modern Art&lt;/strong&gt;, along with the accompanying book published by &lt;strong&gt;Aperture&lt;/strong&gt;. Alejandro and Sasha dig into how both the exhibition and the book came together, from concept to execution. He also reflects on the lasting impact of his seminal project &lt;strong&gt;Carpoolers&lt;/strong&gt;, and how it shaped his thinking around photography, technology, and intent. The conversation expands to the broader cultural stakes of the medium, including Alejandro’s recent investigations into AI-generated imagery.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://alejandrocartagena.com/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://alejandrocartagena.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/alejandro-cartagena-ground-rules/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://www.sfmoma.org/exhibition/alejandro-cartagena-ground-rules/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://aperture.org/books/alejandro-cartagena-ground-rules/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://aperture.org/books/alejandro-cartagena-ground-rules/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Alejandro Cartagena, Mexican (b. 1977, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. His projects employ landscape and portraiture as a means to examine social, urban, and environmental issues. Cartagena’s work has been exhibited internationally in more than 50 group and individual exhibitions in spaces including the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris and the CCCB in Barcelona, and his work is in the collections of several museums including the San Francisco MOMA, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, The MFAH in Houston, the Portland Museum of Art, The West Collection, the Coppel collection, the FEMSA Collection, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the George Eastman House and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art and among others.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Alejandro is a self publisher and co-editor and has created several award wining titles including Insurrection Nation, Studio Cartagena 2021, Santa Barbara Save US, Skinnerboox, 2020, A Small Guide to Homeownership, The Velvet Cell 2020, We Love Our Employees, Gato Negro 2019, Santa Barbara Shame on US, Skinnerboox, 2017, A Guide to Infrastructure and Corruption, The velvet Cell, 2017, Rivers of Power, Newwer, 2016, Santa Barbara return Jobs to US, Skinnerboox, 2016, Headshots, Self-published, 2015, Before the War, Self-published, 2015, Carpoolers, Self-published with support of FONCA Grant, 2014, Suburbia Mexicana, Daylight/ Photolucida 2010. Some of his books are in the Yale University Library, the Tate Britain, and the 10×10 Photobooks/MFH Houston book collections among others.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Cartagena has received several awards including the international Photolucida Critical Mass Book Award, the Street Photography Award in London Photo Festival, the Lente Latino Award in Chile, the Premio IILA-FotoGrafia Award in Rome and the Salon de la Fotografia of Fototeca de Nuevo Leon in Mexico among others. He has been named an International Discoveries of the FotoFest festival, a FOAM magazine TALENT and an Emerging photographer of PDN magazine. He has also been a finalist for the Aperture Portfolio Award and has been nominated for the Santa Fe Photography Prize, the Prix Pictet Prize, the Photoespaña Descubrimientos Award and the FOAM Paul Huff Award. His work has been published internationally in magazines and newspapers such as Newsweek, Nowness, Domus, the Financial Times, The New York Times, Le Monde, Stern, PDN, The New Yorker, and Wallpaper, among others.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

A Photography Visual Arts Podcast

Alejandro Cartagena - Episode 104

<description>&lt;p&gt;In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha is joined by photographer, publisher, editor, and educator Nelson Chan. Together, they trace the winding path that led Nelson to his dream job as a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design. Along the way, Nelson reflects on the “guardian angels” who helped him stay the course, the openness that allowed unexpected opportunities to shape his trajectory, and the community of friends and collaborators who eventually inspired the founding of TIS Books. Sasha and Nelson also talk about the value of building connections, putting yourself out there, and treating your career as a marathon rather than a sprint.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.nelsonchanphotography.com/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://www.nelsonchanphotography.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.nelsonchanphotography.com/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://www.tisbooks.pub/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nelson Chan was born in New Jersey to immigrant parents from Hong Kong and Taiwan and has spent most of his life between the States and Hong Kong. Having grown up between two continents, this immigrant experience influences the majority of his work.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nelson received his BFA and MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and the Hartford Art School, respectively. He has been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions such as the Museum of Chinese in America, New York, NY; Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA; The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA; Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany; and 798 Space, Beijing, China. His books are collected in the institutional libraries of The MET, The Guggenheim, SEMOMA, The Whitney Museum, The Harry Ransom Center, and MoMA, among others.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Along with his own photographic work, book publishing and education are extensions of, what Nelson refers to as, an industrious studio practice. He is co-founder of TIS books, an independent art book publisher and was production manager at the Aperture Foundation from 2016-19. In 2025, Nelson was awarded tenure at California College of the Arts but ultimately left the Bay Area to teach at the Rhode Island School of Design as an associate professor of photography.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Nelson Chan - Episode 103

<description>&lt;p&gt;In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, artist, photographer, and filmmaker Tyler Mitchell joins Sasha to discuss his Aperture book, Wish This Was Real. Tyler speaks candidly about learning by doing, the value of taking risks, and the creative rewards that follow. He and Sasha also explore the central role of collaboration in his practice, particularly how that ethos shapes his approach to building tableaux.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tylermitchell.co/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://www.tylermitchell.co&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tylermitchell.co/books/wish-this-was-real-book" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://www.tylermitchell.co/books/wish-this-was-real-book&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tyler Mitchell (b. 1995, Atlanta, GA) is an artist, photographer, and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. He received a BFA in Film and Television from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2017. Mitchell’s work reimagines narratives of Black beauty and desire, embracing history while envisioning fictionalized moments of an aspirational future. His photographs and films present Black life through themes of play, empowerment, and self-determination.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mitchell’s work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Brooklyn Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and FOAM Fotografiemuseum, Amsterdam, among others.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He has presented exhibitions internationally, including The New Black Vanguard (Aperture Gallery, New York); I Can Make You Feel Good (FOAM, Amsterdam; ICP, New York); Chrysalis (Gagosian, London); Domestic Imaginaries (SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah); and Idyllic Space (High Museum of Art, Atlanta). His European touring exhibition, Wish This Was Real (C/O Berlin, 2024), brought together a decade of work exploring Black beauty, leisure, and imagination, traveling to Helsinki, Lausanne, and concluding at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris (2025–26). Mitchell’s photography has appeared in Aperture, Dazed, i-D, Vogue, Vanity Fair, WSJ, and Zeit Magazin, alongside collaborations with Gucci, Loewe, Ferragamo, and JW Anderson.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Tyler Mitchell - Episode 102

<description>&lt;p&gt;In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, April Watson, Senior Curator of Photography at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, joins Sasha to discuss her upcoming exhibition, American Prospects and Landscape Photography, 1839 to Today. The two dive into an insider’s conversation about how acquisitions—whether through donations or direct purchases—shape curatorial decisions. April speaks about the importance of honoring donor gifts through thoughtful exhibitions, and about working closely with museum education staff to shape exhibition language to engage audiences who may not have an art-historical background. She then turns the tables, inviting Sasha to share her perspective on the current state of the photographic art market and how it has evolved or devolved over time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/american-prospects-and-landscape-photography-1839-to-today/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/american-prospects-and-landscape-photography-1839-to-today/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.instagram.com/nama_photographs/" rel="nofollow"&gt;https://www.instagram.com/nama_photographs/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;April M. Watson is Senior Curator of Photography at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri. During her eighteen-year tenure at the museum, Watson has curated over 20 exhibitions that span the history of photography. These include: American Prospects and Landscape Photography, 1839 to the Present (forthcoming 2026); Strange and Familiar Places (2025);  Evelyn Hofer: Eyes on the City (2023, with the High Museum of Art); Jim Dow: Signs (2022);  Gordon Parks X Muhammad Ali: The Image of a Champion, 1966/1970 (2020, with the Gordon Parks Foundation); Eugene Richards: The Run-On of Time (2018, with the George Eastman Museum); Impressionist France: Visions of Nation from Le Gray to Monet (2013); and Heartland: The Photographs of Terry Evans (2012). Prior to the Nelson-Atkins, Watson held curatorial research positions at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson. She holds an MA in Art History from the University of New Mexico and a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Kansas. She is currently at work on a major exhibition for 2027 that  explores the relationship between early photography the antislavery movement. The exhibition will also feature major contemporary works inspired by this history.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

April Watson - Episode 101

<description>&lt;p&gt;In this 100th episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha and Michael celebrate with some of their favorite clips from the past 5 years. They also play some wonderful tributes from listeners and guests who submitted recordings to help celebrate this milestone for the show. Listed below are the inspiring clips from Sasha’s conversations with our amazing guests. Thank you to our listeners who wrote or sent in recordings and to all our listeners who have supported the show, and thank you to our guests who were so generous with their time and their stories.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Community&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;11:20 Curran Hatleberg&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;16:27 Gillian Laub&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;19:06 Carolyn Drake&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Origins&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;23:20 Keisha Scarville&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;31:37 Rahim Fortune&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;38:01 Shirin Neshat&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Editing&lt;/strong&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;45:36 Gregory Halpern&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;52:05 Todd Hido&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;56:02 Ron Jude&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;https://photowork.foundation&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The PhotoWork Foundation supports the development and education of post-documentary photographic artists and cultivates an audience for their work. Through a diverse program of outreach to individual artists and those who will be enriched by the results of their sustained efforts, the Foundation seeks to empower an aspect of photography that is often not commercially viable but is essential to the collective understanding of what it looks like to be living in society today. The PhotoWork Foundation believes that providing education, guidance, mentorship, and resources to early and mid-career photographers builds a connected community of artists that will collectively make important contributions to a common humanist perspective on our shared culture.&lt;/p&gt;</description>

Episode 100

PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf is a photography podcast produced by the PhotoWork Foundation, featuring in-depth interviews with photographers, curators, and publishers. Episodes explore photobooks, artistic practice, long-term projects, and fine art photography today.

Interviews with photographers, curators, and publishers on contemporary photography, photobooks, artistic practice, and the evolving landscape of fine art photography.

PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf - Photography Podcast

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