PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf

• Nelson Chan - Episode 103

  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. https://www.nelsonchanphotography.com/ https://www.tisbooks.pub/ 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. 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. 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.

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• Tyler Mitchell - Episode 102

  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. https://www.tylermitchell.co https://www.tylermitchell.co/books/wish-this-was-real-book 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. 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. 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.

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• April Watson - Episode 101

  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. https://nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/american-prospects-and-landscape-photography-1839-to-today/ https://www.instagram.com/nama_photographs/ 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.

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• Episode 100

  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. Community: 11:20 Curran Hatleberg 16:27 Gillian Laub 19:06 Carolyn Drake Origins: 23:20 Keisha Scarville 31:37 Rahim Fortune 38:01 Shirin Neshat Editing: 45:36 Gregory Halpern 52:05 Todd Hido 56:02 Ron Jude https://photowork.foundation 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.

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• Mike Brodie - Episode 99

  In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, photographer Mike Brodie talks about his raw, intimate and powerful new book, Failing (Twin Palms). Growing up with a tough home life, Brodie found escape in the punk and BMX scenes before, at just 17, he began hopping freight trains and photographing the drifters and outcasts he met on the rails. Those images became A Period of Juvenile Prosperity (2013), a groundbreaking book that launched his career. After that early success, Brodie walked away from the art world to become a diesel mechanic. Now, age 40, with a son, he reunites with longtime collaborator Paul Schiek ( TBW Books) to publish Failing and reflects with Sasha on his journey, the challenges of early fame, and what it means to return to photography on his own terms. https://www.instagram.com/mikebrodie_thepolaroidkidd https://www.twinpalms.com/products/mike-brodie-failing Mike Brodie’s first monograph, A Period of Juvenile Prosperity touched down more than a decade ago, depicting his fellow rail-riders and drifters in a rebellious and wildfire pursuit of adventure and freedom. “Brodie leapt into the life of picture-making as if he was the first to do it,” Danny Lyon wrote about the book in Aperture. Next came Tones of Dirt and Bone, a collection of earlier SX-70 pictures Brodie made when photography first led him to hopping freights, when he was known as “The Polaroid Kidd.” And then Brodie seemed to disappear from the art world as suddenly and mysteriously as he’d first appeared. Maybe his vanishing was another myth. Maybe it was just a necessary retreat. “I was divorcing myself from all that,” he says. “I was growing up. I was pursuing this other life.” In Nashville he became a diesel mechanic. Fell in love. Moved across the country again. Got married. Bought land on the long dusty Winnemucca road Johnny Cash sang about. Started his own business. Built a house. Put down roots. And when that life exploded, the open road called again. Throughout almost all of it, his cameras were with him, and at last those pictures are coming to light.

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