J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Morgan Ashcom
Episode #62, Summary
Morgan Ashcom is a master collaborator who uses the material object of a photobook to begin a conversation on complicity, agency and hope.
Episode Notes
Open enacts metaphor to make visible the layers of oppression experienced by Palestinian apartheid. Exposed documentary images and HTML-coded emails are bookended with Arabic calligraphy and poetry. Delivered in a sealed cardboard film box, this soft-cover book utilizes photography as a tool to activate our imagination, reveal expansive truths and offer a revision of what hope and resilience look like.
In this conversation, Morgan discusses, among other things:
The poetic capacity of an image
What makes a successful photo
Pivoting
Enacting metaphor
Chemistry & materiality
Experimenting & refining
Activating the medium
Shifting failure
Pointing towards possibility
Collaborative sequencing
Mythmaking
Challenging pretend knowledge
Sharing agency
Referenced in the episode
What the Living Carry by Morgan Ashcom
‘Salvaged Images of Palestinian Resistance’ — British Journal of Photography
Human Supporters Association (HSA)
Civil Imagination: A Political Ontology of Photography by Ariella Azoulay
The Civil Contract of Photography by Ariella Azoulay
Emergent Strategy by Adrienne Maree Brown
Society for Photographic Education