My guest today is photographer JF Bouchard. JF and I talk about his book, The New Cubans (powerHouse Books) and how he became aware of and how he approached photographing a lesser known subculture in Cuba that consists of younger Cubans who are non-conformist and more gender diverse. JF describes his goal towards collaborating in a way in which he is both working for himself but also, in a way, working for the people in his photographs by providing them with social media content during the rist of social media in Cuba. We also talk about how the people he was working with were also migrating away from Cuba during a large migrant crisis.

https://www.jfbouchard.com -

This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club

Jean-François Bouchard has worked in lens-based visual art since 2003. He travels the world and seeks out people whose interests and lifestyles are out of the ordinary. He celebrates difference by focusing on marginalized, misunderstood, and often ostracized groups of people. Working at the intersection of documentary work and subjective cinematic conceptual storytelling, he aims to immerse viewers into the lives of his collaborators while sharing his own emotional journeys into these worlds. His practice blends photography, video installations, and occasionally found objects.

His work has been exhibited in galleries, museums, and festivals in Canada, the United States, and France. His projects have been shown at Arsenal Contemporary Art in New York, Montreal, and Toronto. His works are featured in a book published by The Magenta Foundation. Artnet selected the In Guns We Trust exhibition as a “Must-see show in NYC,” while ArtForum selected his Exile from Babylon exhibition as an “Editor’s Pick” in early 2023.