J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Jim Dow and April M. Watson
Episode #46, Summary
Jim Dow’s decade-long exploration of the built environment found on the backroads of America.
Episode Notes
Over 60 black and white images, many previously unpublished, constitute this erudite book, Signs, a current exhibition and a recent acquisition to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art. With candor and respect, Dow provides a living history of human spirit and ingenuity. Senior Curator April M. Watson’s essay, A Sense of Things in Time, places Dow’s 45-year contribution as photographer and professor within the lexicon of photography.
In this conversation, Jim Dow and April M. Watson discuss, among other things:
Art school as boot camp
How environment shapes us
Edgy idealism
The point of speculation
Recontextualizing one’s work
The importance of collaboration
Concern for your book audience
Consistently learning something new
A need for public intellectuals with a functional delivery system
Referenced in the episode
American Studies Jim Dow
Marking the Land Jim Down in North Dakota
Discovering the Vernacular Landscape John Brinckerhoff Jackson
Being Black in America is Exhausting Jonathan Capehart
American Photographs Walker Evans
The Danger of a Single Story Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Susan Sontag and Norman Mailer
The Elements of Value Eric Almquist
On Photography Susan Sontag
Sontag: Her Life and Work Benjamin Moser
The Burden of Representation; Essays on Photographies and Histories John Tagg
A Parallel Road Amani Willett. 2020.