Ahndraya Parlato

About Episode 79

In this episode of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf, Sasha has an in-depth conversation with photographer Ahndraya Parlato about her book, ‘Who is Changed and Who is Dead,’ published by MACK. Ahndraya shares the life-altering events that inspired her to create this examination of motherhood, which is filled with both humor and grief. Sasha and Ahndraya discuss the book’s use of text and how Ahndraya had to let go of preconceived notions of what a photobook should be. Ahndraya also gives us a wonderful sneak peek into her next body of work.

About Ahndraya Parlato

Ahndraya Parlato has a BA from Bard College and an MFA from California College of the Arts. She has published three books, including: Who Is Changed and Who Is Dead, (Mack Books, 2021), A Spectacle and Nothing Strange, (Kehrer Verlag, 2016), East of the Sun, West of the Moon, (a collaboration with Gregory Halpern, Études Books, 2014). Additionally, Ahndraya has contributed texts to Double feature (St. Lucy Books, 2024), Photo No-Nos: Meditations on What Not to Shoot (Aperture, 2021), and The Photographer’s Playbook (Aperture, 2014). She has exhibited work at: Spazio Labo, in Bologna, Italy, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA, The Aperture Foundation, New York, NY, and The Swiss Institute, Milan, Italy. Ahndraya has been awarded residencies at Light Work and The Visual Studies Workshop, grants from Light Work, the New York Foundation for the Arts and is a 2024 Guggenheim Foundation Fellow. Her most recent project, TIME TO KILL is forthcoming from Mack Books. Ahndraya teaches at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

What advice do you have for emerging photographers / artists?

I always tell my students that in order to output, you have to input – meaning you have to look, watch, read and do. To this I would add, limit your time on Instagram and look at art objects in real life.

Is there an image by another photographer that stands out or has influenced you?

The first image that pops into my mind is Peter Hujar’s “Chloe Finch, 1981.” The image occupies a space where it is unclear whether the action is done for the photograph or simply being done. I don’t actually care which it is, but the result feels both playful and mysterious. I love that the young girl’s feet do not touch the ground, that her hands are like a magician in the midst of a trick, and thinking about what might happen when the ball bounces up or away.

While I love looking at photographs – how they teach us different ways of seeing, and how to construct, deconstruct, and subvert narratives -they’re not really where I draw inspiration from. Film and literature are more important to my practice. Generally, I gravitate towards works that reveal the tensions and disjunctions between interior and exterior experiences, and towards works in which what is not shown or said is just as important as what is. There are too many people to mention, but the films of Krzysztof Kieślowski, Igmar Bergman, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and the writings of Rachel Cusk, Anakana Schofield, and Sally Rooney come to mind.