J. Sybylla Smith, In Conversation with Michelle Dunn Marsh
Episode #42, Summary
Episode Summary
In her uniquely formatted book Michelle Dunn Marsh offers a personal history of photography through image and text.
Episode Notes
Seeing Being Seen is a synthesis of Dunn’s multi-decade career of leadership roles in design, publishing, arts administration and academia told in part through images by 36 photographers she has known, worked with or collected. A central theme is the ever-evolving journey of learning and understanding how we see. Included for co-publishers is a Primer on reading photographs, an accessible and portable teaching tool.
In this conversation, Michell Dunn Marsh discusses, among other things:
Ways of thinking about the history of photo
The myriad (and often unconscious) factors that influence and inform how we see
Matters of history and heritage
Dismantling associations and identifying assumption
Normailizing difference
The neuroscience of seeing
The alchemical and iterative process of visual problem-solving, aka design
Sequencing as a spiritual practice
Portraits as aspirational
Intergenerational dialog
Publishing options
Buying from publishers websites is a smart choice
When to guide and when to let go
Referenced in the episode
All Power (Black Panthers at 50) Exhibit
Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange (CIPX)
The Unconcerned Photographer by Charles Harbutt
Prague Winter: A Personal Story of remembrance and War, 1937-1948 by Madeleine Albright
Published by Minor Matters Books