Concept Aware®
Episodes
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Claire Rosen
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Birds of A Feather is a sumptuous book of striking portraits of wild, exotic and domesticated birds blended with a compelling exploration of art, natu...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Inbal Abergil
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Presence of Absence reveals the aftermath and human cost of conflict in image and text.For access to exclusive episode notes, explore our membersh...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Hannah Altman
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We Will Return To You reinterprets historical traditional oral storytelling and religious iconography into a choreographed contemporary form.For acces...
Welcome To Concept Aware®
14 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Here we host interviews with artists, curators, academics and writers to discuss concept development and the creative process. If you are a photograph...
April in Paris — Gallerist Julian Sander
07 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Julian Sander presents a humanist portrait of society in 619 silver gelatin portraits of 20th-century Germans photographed by his legendary great-gran...
April in Paris — Artist Caroline Mauxion
02 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Caroline Mauxion provides an immersive experience in her solo Paris Photo installation illuminating a Crip phenomenology through an autobiographical l...
April in Paris — Artist Éric Antoine
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Éric Antoine is a skateboarding self taught French painter and photographer exhibiting La Forme, a solo exhibition of luminous ambrotypes reflecting ...
April in Paris — Artist Evelyn Bencicova & Screennoise
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
I was stopped in my tracks by the groundbreaking work of Evelyn Bencicova in collaboration with graphic sound innovator Samson G. Balfour Smith being ...
International Women Photographers Series—I’m So Happy You Are Here
18 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A trailblazing book chronicling the fundamental and consequential contributions of Japanese women photographers.Mariko Takeuchi and Pauline Vermare di...
International Women Photographers Series—Linda Troeller: Sex Death Transcendence
11 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Linda Troeller’s self-portraits are compiled into a luscious tour de force of womanhood, identity and aging.Troeller utilizes her relationship with ...
International Women Photographers Series—Fast Forward: Anna Fox & Karen Knorr
04 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two intrepid photographers and professors discuss the myriad educational strategies they activate and lead to enhance and strengthen women’s presenc...
International Women Photographers Series—Camera Geologica
27 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography by Dr. Siobhan Angus is the lens through which we explore the multi-media artwork of Rosell Mese...
International Women Photographers Series—WOPHA, Women Photographers International Archive
25 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Unscripted conversations with Aldeide Delgado, co-founder and leader of Women Photographers International Archive, and recent WOPHA Research Fellow an...
International Women Photographers Series—Collaboration
20 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This seminal book, a compendium of image-based projects, illuminates the subtle evolution of ideas of photographic practice over time.This book offers...
International Women Photographers Series—Leica, Latin America Team
14 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This is an introduction to the Leica team in Mexico, Central, and South America, which is actively highlighting and amplifying the visual voices acros...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Danielle Ezzo
06 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Danielle Ezzo is a new media artist pioneering the lossy space of photography through a process of sourcing from the vast digitized open-access archiv...
Artist Talk: Paris Photo In The Rearview Mirror — 2023
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A decade of attending this fair has honed my ability to select from the staggering amount of concurrent offerings - astounding amounts of work, panel ...
J Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With David Campany
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
David Campany pays tribute to the multidisciplinarian artist Robert Cumming, known for his rigorous dedication to the aesthetic tonality of the B &...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Mary Virginia Swanson and Darius D. Himes
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This recent Radius release offers an expansive framework of the principles of publishing including the layered roles and responsibilities inherent wit...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Preston Gannaway
18 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode Notes Photojournalist Preston Gannaway won a Pulitzer Prize for her poetic photography documenting a New Hampshire family coping with a y...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Rehab Eldalil
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Photography is innovatively and collectively utilized to create a new narrative challenging the stigma and stereotypes of this indigenous community. T...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation With Barbara Peacock
27 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
American Bedroom: Reflections on the Nature of Life is a messy, energetic, playful and heart-stoppingly poignant romp into the intimate spaces of ordi...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Elizabeth Clark Libert
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Elizabeth Clark Libert's bold diaristic conversation with herself is a reckoning with a twenty years old sexual trauma and its impact on raising her s...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Anastasia Samoylova
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anastasia Samoylova furthers her exploration of place and the ability of photography to shape our perceptions of reality. Central to her investigation...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Morgan Ashcom
27 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Open enacts metaphor to make visible the layers of oppression experienced by Palestinian apartheid. Exposed documentary images and HTML-coded emails a...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Brea Souders
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Another Online Pervert creates a visual and text dialog between photos from Souders’ image archive and snippets of written copy from a two-year enga...
Artist Talk — Todd R. Forsgren
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Todd discusses, among other things:Working in archivesThinking in booksApproaches to appropriationRunning amokParameters for seq...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Toni Wilkinson & Susan Bright
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Tough Pleasures turns a bright light and witty lens on the conflicting dynamics of femininity and food—revealing appetite and desire. Susan Bright's...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Cai Quirk
16 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode Notes Cai Quirk deeply explores genderqueer self-portraiture in an original image creation and story formation orchestration. A phantasma...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Astrid Reischwitz
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Spin Club Stories is a mixed-media reintegration of history, environment, society and self in an interactive dialog spanning centuries. Reclaiming the...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Karni Arieli
02 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This book forms a collective reframing of the realities of motherhood beyond the mythologized patriarchal gaze. A global array of photographer mothers...
Artist Talk — Britland Tracy
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Britland discusses, among other things:Camera as mediatorGender constructsMale vulnerabilityStrong opinions, loosely heldHuman-i...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Peggy Levison Nolan
18 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Peggy discusses, among other things:How a camera transforms what we seeBeing addicted to filmSeeing inside the photographer's he...
Artist Talk — 10x10 Photobooks Reading Room at the Boston Athenaeum with Russet Lederman and Lauren Graves
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Russett and Lauren discuss, among other things:What constitutes a photobookThe evolution of the photobookGendered discrepancies ...
Artist Talk — Kristen Joy Emack
21 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Kristen discusses, among other things:The power of observationSpeaking through photosCommanding the frameLeaning towards iconogr...
Artist Talk — Jessica Todd Harper
14 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Jessica discusses, among other things:Mining family narrativesFocusing on what's in front of youWorking with lightThe influence ...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Binh Danh
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Three deeply researched long-term projects; Immortality: Remnants of the Vietnam and American War, One Week’s Dead, and National Parks are compiled ...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Diana Karklin
21 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Undo Motherhood is a boxed set of soft-covered trifold booklets titled after the predominant feelings identified by regretful mothers: anger, fear, is...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Vince Aletti
14 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Drawer is a visual autobiography of Aletti’s deep canon of inspiration, experience and multi-media obsessions collected over five decades. Creat...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Odette England, Jennifer Garza-Cuen and Susan Bright
09 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Jennifer and Odette discuss, among other things:CollaborationInherent trustBeing recklessBeing process drivenAllowing the materi...
Artist Talk — Paris Photo In Your Pocket
03 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Syb discusses, among other things:Gallery/Artist/ResourcesGallery:Casemore Gallery/ San Francisco/Chris Grunder Rolf Art/ B...
Artist Talk — Matt Johnston
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Matt discusses, among other things:Taking a fixed object to a fluid spaceAccessibilityReadabilityIntentionality as a central foc...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Rita Leistner
18 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Photographer and filmmaker, Rita Leistner, blends fine art with documentary in her intensely lit, unstaged, metaphorically-inspired environmental port...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Rania Matar
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Matar gracefully investigates womanhood, identity, and empowerment - across time and place. Poetic, soulful, and bold portraits capture the agency of ...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Holly Lynton
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Holly Lynton melds form, content, and meaning in her strikingly beautiful images, capturing the lives of those providing our sustenance, while protect...
Artist Talk — Toni Pepe
06 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Toni discusses, among other things:Unpacking seeingThe family photo albumPushing expectations of the image Text as a tippin...
Artist Talk — Hettie Judah
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Hettie discusses, among other things:Gender care gapGender pay gap Family as a trap for womenDomesticity and artNeed for su...
Artist Talk — Colleen Plumb
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Colleen discusses, among other things:Awakening to invisible justiceBodily autonomyAnimal spectatorshipA practice of attentionDi...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Yelena Yemchuk
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Yemchuk’s second monograph is a form of visual poetry. Her exceedingly tender portraits exude sensuality, emotion, and kinetic energy. Her controlle...
Artist Talk — Nancy Grace Horton & Scott Mullenberg
08 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Nancy and Scott discuss, among other things:Exploring what a photo can doThe importance of storyThe impact of presentation...
Artist Talk — Karen Haas
25 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Karen discusses, among other things:Falling in love with photography (and a photographer)ModernismMedia hierarchy moving towards...
Artist Talk — Mark Alice Durant
05 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Mark discusses, among other things:Performance art – specifically Men of the WorldImage gestures – the body as a sculptural ...
Artist Talk — Daniel Milnor
29 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Daniel discusses, among other things:Respect for straight photographyConceptual photography as the Wild WestThe 3 most important...
Artist Talk — Jason Langer
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Jason discusses, among other things:Photography as a tool to explore one’s interpretation of realityBeing private investigator...
Artist Talk — Jaina Cipriano
15 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Jaina discusses, among other things:Photographing what you can’t seeMaking space to document what you’re feelingMaking a mes...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with S. Billie Mandle
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Using a large format camera with available light, Mandle compiles 40 color images of confessionals within Catholic churches across America. In illumin...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Jim Dow and April M. Watson
27 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Over 60 black and white images, many previously unpublished, constitute this erudite book, Signs, a current exhibition and a recent acquisition to the...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Anastasia Samoylova and David Campany
07 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A palpable synergy permeates David Campany’s animated sequence of over 140 images and paintings in Anastasia Samoylova, Walker Evans Floridas. A pla...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Mona Kuhn
15 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Kuhn reimagines a love relationship referenced in the extensive Schindler archives to create a dreamscape of portraiture, still life and landscape of ...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Jess T. Dugan
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jess Dugan utilizes their skilled observation and keen awareness of the dynamics of portraiture to pose questions on love, loss, risk, trust and belon...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Michelle Dunn Marsh
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Seeing Being Seen is a synthesis of Dunn’s multi-decade career of leadership roles in design, publishing, arts administration and academia told in p...
J Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Lauren Walsh
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Dr. Lauren Walsh illuminates the complexity of visual journalism by highlighting the concerns and challenges of those who create, disseminat...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Ed Kashi
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Abandoned Moments is a book, an approach, a tool and a philosophy. Kashi reconsiders his deep and expansive photographic archive shot in 100 countries...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Teju Cole
19 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Golden Apple of the Sun animates the quotidian elements of Cole’s kitchen countertop in unposed meditations of color and form captured during a peri...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Tabitha Soren
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Using an 8x10 large format camera, an iPad, images sourced from internet searches, social media and text messages, Surface Tension animates our layere...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Rich-Joseph Facun
29 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Black Diamonds seamlessly blends typographic, street photography, portraiture, and pictorial landscapes into a lyrical composition honoring the people...
Got Punctum?Trailer
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
My education and professional experience is layered with multiple roles in seemingly unrelated fields, social work, fashion, design, and photography. ...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Sandi Haber Fifield
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Certainty of Nothing continues her intrepid investigation into the limits of the photographic medium. Her palpable agency and precise command beli...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Andy Grundberg
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Grundberg presents a personal reflection of his on-the-ground immersion in the world of contemporary art during the conceptual hayday of the NYC downt...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Geoff Dyer
13 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
See/Saw compiles observational musings on over 40 photographers plus reflections on the writings of Roland Barthes and John Berger. Erudite, entertain...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Brea Souders
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A master weaver intersecting the past with the future, Brea Souders constructs visual analogies that expose the layered intermediaries of communicatio...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Odette England
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A manual on female dairy cows provides a portal for Odette England to unearth the latent truths of her girlhood, formed in the deeply gendered communi...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Cig Harvey
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cig Harvey’s fourth monograph celebrates the sacred and the profane in lush, glossy, saturated color. In a hefty book of french-fold pages chronicle...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Stacy Mehrfar
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-media artist Stacy Mehrfar presents a collision of sensory experience in an actualization of the emotional terrain of migration. Portraits, land...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Jocelyn Lee
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In Sovereign, photographer Jocelyn Lee actualizes the democracy she sees between humans, nature and the animal world as she explores their cycles of f...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Renée Jacobs
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Renée Jacobs, a photojournalistic turned civil rights lawyer turned erotic documentarian, uses photography to explore her own sexuality and to ...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Mona Kuhn
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
By blending technique, process and intent Kuhn brings transcendent reflections to light by exploring shadows. Collaborating with her subjects, all ent...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Donna Ferrato
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Highly awarded for her vast humanitarian impact with over 500 global exhibitions, Ferrato is known for documenting the truth of domestic violence over...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Sonja Thomsen
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This tactile hand-bound book is anchored by text excerpts from overshadowed contributions of three female visionary artists whose theses and research ...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Misha Friedman
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Skilled at making invisible the visible, Friedman, sensitively documents the irony and ambivalence found in the parallel experience of exile. The prot...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with David Horton and Beatrice Lovely
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Boston-based documentary photographer, David Horton, and Swedish model and actress, Beatrice Lovely, share their serendipitous relationship and creati...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Pete Souza
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Chief Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza, shares specifics of his career-defining role documenting the Obama presidency. Through our candid...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Brian Bowen Smith
10 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Entertainment, fine art and fashion photographer BBS combined his boundless energy and expansive Instagram presence to turn an idea (initiated on a Zo...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Andrew Feiler
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Andrew Feiler’s visually compelling narrative documents the generational impact of a unique challenge grant program. Created by Julius Rosenwald and...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Mark Alice Durant
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Durant invites us into a fluid free fall with his intentionally sequenced interplay of history, ideas and first-hand knowledge in text and image. Incu...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with David Campany
20 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sandwiched between endpapers featuring the 1938 Photogram, Stars, by artist Alexander Rodchenko, 120 photographs by known and anonymous artists reflec...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Endia Beal
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
From her own experience of objectification and othering in corporate culture, Beal innovates entry points to spotlight the experience of ‘double con...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Michelle Bogre
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bogre honors the foundations of evidential aspects of photography to forge human connection and activate advocacy. She wrestles with the elasticity of...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Matt Eich
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Precision, observation, and reflection meet patience, serendipity and courage in this lyrical and poetic visual exploration of the fragile and threate...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Denis Defibaugh
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Defibaugh, alongside a selective team of scientists, historians, and anthropologists, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation, Nikon Cam...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Laurent B. Chevalier and Kris Graves
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Enough, is a visual tapestry delivering moving witness to the pain, beauty, resilience, outrage, wonder and verve radiating from the heart of Brooklyn...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Ben Brody
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Brody debunks lies and shatters delusions by confronting false narratives and simplistic notions of war. Revealed is the perpetuation of military-crea...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Adama Delphine Fawundu and Max Fields
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Vivian Keulards
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Confronting the societal and familial taboo of addiction, Keulards courageously shares her journey to understand the impact on her brother, herself an...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Stephen Frailey
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Utilizing the name and frame of John Szarkowskis’, Frailey highlights 100 photographers based on Susan Sontags’ premise that photography is an ins...
J. Sybylla Smith, In conversation with Kyle Meyer
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The result of a post college grant landed Meyer in Swaziland, now Eswatini, as a journalist exploring the reality of a country with the world’...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Mikael Owunna
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The result of a post college grant landed Meyer in Swaziland, now Eswatini, as a journalist exploring the reality of a country with the world’...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Lauren Walsh
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Walsh lays bare the issues which confront fair representation, including limitations caused by censorship, complacency, race and gender inequity. A co...
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with John Lehr
17 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Fran Forman
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Self described as a painter, with a digital palette made of images, Forman discusses her inspiration, and her background, that led her to create the i...