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PhotoWork Foundation

Audrey Sands

Photography Historian and Curator Audrey Sands joins PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf to discuss her book, Lisette Model: The Jazz Pictures (Eakins Press Foundation). Drawing on years of research, Sands presents Lisette Model’s rarely seen archive of photographs of 1950s jazz legends, including Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Percy Heath, Miles Davis, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Sands and Wolf discuss the rise of fine art photography as a collectible medium in the latter half of the 20th century, the role of museums and institutions in shaping the narrative of photographic history, and the role of the historian in editing and interpreting an artist’s work posthumously.

Eli Durst

Photographer and educator Eli Durst joins PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf to discuss his photobooks, artistic practice, and the evolving definition of documentary photography. Durst reflects on what it means to push and rethink documentary work today, from image-making to long-term engagement with subjects and place.
Drawing on his experience working with Joel Meyerowitz, Durst also shares how he learned to build a sustainable life as an artist, balancing creative work with family. He discusses the role of mentorship, ongoing learning, and how collaboration with publishers and editors can reshape a project through new perspectives on sequencing and editing.
The conversation also explores the importance of community in documentary practice, and how embedding within a community is often central to the work, sometimes even more than the act of photographing itself.

Mitch Epstein

Photographer, director, and producer Mitch Epstein joins PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf to discuss his storied career in photography, environmental activism, and artistic influences. From early inspiration by Garry Winogrand to guidance from John Szarkowski, Epstein reflects on how he evolved into a research-driven, project-based photographer focused on environmental issues.

He also discusses his work in film as a production designer and co-producer on Mississippi Masala (1991) and Salaam Bombay! (1988), and shares insights on privilege, longevity, and sustaining a life in photography.

Announcing the 2026 PhotoWork Senior Fellows

The PhotoWork Foundation is thrilled to announce the 2026 PhotoWork Senior Fellows. Beginning in May, three exceptional artists will embark on six-month mentorships to develop their first photobook projects. Each Fellow receives a $10,000 grant, a dedicated mentor, and guidance from leading voices in the photobook publishing world.

Jess T. Dugan & Charlotte Cotton

Photographer Jess T. Dugan and writer Charlotte Cotton join PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf to discuss their 2 volume book, Love Pictures, published by Radius Books. Developed through their friendship and an ongoing dialogue between Dugan and Cotton, Love Pictures explores key themes shaping Dugan’s photographic practice, including gender and identity, family and politics, writing and language, the photobook as object, and the dynamics of exhibition spaces. These conversations expand outward to include voices from their broader creative communities, featuring contributors such as Dawoud Bey, Kelli Connell, and Dorothy Moss. In this episode, Jess, Charlotte, and Sasha discuss how this project evolved from an intimate exchange into a comprehensive survey of Dugan’s work.

Ed Templeton

Photographer and artist Ed Templeton joins PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf to reflect on his evolution from professional skateboarder to photographer and painter, and how early influences like Nan Goldin and Larry Clark shaped his approach to documenting his own life. Templeton discusses his photobook Wires Crossed (Aperture), an intimate look at skate culture from an insider’s perspective, and his collaborative process with editor Lesley A. Martin. The conversation looks into Templeton’s hybrid analog and digital workflow and concludes with the development of Contemporary Suburbium (Nazraeli Press), an accordion style book, made in collaboration with his wife, photographer Deanna Templeton, highlighting his ongoing engagement with the photobook and everyday subject matter.

Curran Hatleberg

Photographer and educator Curran Hatleberg returns to PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf to discuss his latest monograph, Blood Green (TBW Books).
Hatleberg reflects on how the photobook emerged from images left out of his earlier publication, River’s Dream, and how revisiting those omissions opened a new way of thinking about editing, continuity, and the evolving life of a body of work.
He speaks about the ethics at the center of his practice, an engagement with people grounded in mutual curiosity and respect, and the role of presence, both with and without the camera. Now balancing his life as an artist, partner, and father, Hatleberg considers how time reshapes practice. The episode concludes with a meditation on art making as a form of self-portraiture, a record of who we were at a given moment.

Ocean Vuong

Ocean Vuong, poet, essayist, novelist, educator, and photographer, joins PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf for an in-depth conversation about his solo photography exhibition Sống and the accompanying photobook, presented at CPW. In this episode, Vuong reflects on storytelling across mediums, creative practice, and the discipline behind writing and photography. Drawing from his life experience, he speaks candidly about process, vulnerability, and the courage required to share work publicly. This episode offers grounded insight for artists who question their creative voice or the value of presenting their work.