Subtext and Discourse | Art World Podcast

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World podcast is brought to you by AIPAD and The Photography Show.

AIPAD represents fine art photography galleries around the world and is proud to present the 2025 edition of its flagship event, The Photography Show. The fair will showcase photography from the earliest processes to cutting-edge contemporary work that pushes the boundaries of the medium, from April 23 – 27 at The Park Avenue Armory in New York City.

Go to www.aipad.com/show for more information and to plan your visit.

The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) encourages public support of fine art photography through education and communication by enhancing the confidence of the public in responsible photography collecting.

First organized in 1979, AIPAD and its current members span the globe with members in North and South America, Australia, Europe and Asia. AIPAD has become a unifying force in the field of photography and is dedicated to creating and maintaining high standards in the business of exhibiting, buying and selling photographs as art.

- AIPAD official website https://www.aipad.com/

Lee Marks (Lee Marks Fine Art) was a founding member of AIPAD and was President from 1991 until 1995.

Established in 1981, LMFA represents a small stable of international photographers and presents bi-monthly, online exhibitions by theme or represented artists. She also advises collectors on other photography acquisitions as well as insurance appraisals.

- Lee Marks Fine Art official website https://www.leemarksfineart.com/

Robert Klein (Robert Klein Gallery) was an early member of AIPAD and was President from 1995 until 2008.

Robert Klein Gallery was established in 1980 and maintains an extensive and ever-changing inventory of 19th-century, 20th-century, and contemporary fine art photography. During his tenure, Robert engineered the 2006 expansion of The AIPAD Photography Show New York to the Park Avenue Armory, firmly establishing it as one of the leading photographic fairs in the world.

- Robert Klein Gallery official website https://www.robertkleingallery.com/

Stephen Bulger (Stephen Bulger Gallery) served on the Board beginning in 2001 and became First Vice President in 2003. He was President from 2009 until 2012.

Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, opened in 1995, and offers an active exhibition schedule of 19th century, 20th century and contemporary international photographers. He has published numerous catalogues and books, and has curated over 120 exhibitions. Stephen is also co-founder and a member of the Board of CONTACT, Toronto's photography festival. He is a graduate of the School of Image Arts at Ryerson University, Toronto, where he was the founding Manager of the Ryerson Gallery. 

- Stephen Bulger Gallery official website https://www.bulgergallery.com/

Richard Moore (Richard Moore Photographs) served on the AIPAD Board of Directors for 12 years and was President from 2017 until 2021.

RICHARD MOORE PHOTOGRAPHS, founded in 2000, is a private dealer of photographs, primarily vintage works by 19th and 20th century American photographers. Specialties include California photography, The Photo-Secession, Group f/64, Dorothea Lange,  Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographers, Social Documentary photography and Photo-journalism.

- Richard Moore Photographs official website https://www.richardmoorephoto.com/

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 21. March 2025 between Perth (AU), Toronto (CA), Shelbyville, IL, Oakland, CA, and Boston, MA (US).

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World podcast is brought to you by AIPAD and The Photography Show.

AIPAD represents fine art photography galleries around the world and is proud to present the 2025 edition of its flagship event, The Photography Show. The fair will showcase photography from the earliest processes to cutting-edge contemporary work that pushes the boundaries of the medium, from April 23 – 27 at The Park Avenue Armory in New York City.

Go to www.aipad.com/show for more information and to plan your visit.

The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) encourages public support of fine art photography through education and communication by enhancing the confidence of the public in responsible photography collecting.

First organized in 1979, AIPAD and its current members span the globe with members in North and South America, Australia, Europe and Asia. AIPAD has become a unifying force in the field of photography and is dedicated to creating and maintaining high standards in the business of exhibiting, buying and selling photographs as art.

- AIPAD official website https://www.aipad.com/

Lydia Melamed Johnson is the Executive Director of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) and has been in this role since autumn 2023.

She first joined AIPAD in late 2021 in the role of Show Director for The Photography Show presented by AIPAD. Prior to this Lydia was in charge of Corporate Partnerships and the VIP Officer of Paris Photo New York. Earlier still she founded October Art Week while serving as Director of Robert Simon Fine Art in New York.

Lydia is also a member of the Board of the Art History Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

- Follow Lydia on Instgram https://www.instagram.com/lydiamelamedjohnson/

Martijn van Pieterson is the President of The Association of International Photography Art Dealers (AIPAD) and has been in this role since spring 2023.

He is the co-founder of IBASHO Gallery which he opened in 2015 together with his wife Annemarie Zethof. IBASHO means "a place where you can be yourself" in Japanese, and the gallery specialises in Japanese photography. The gallery has been an AIPAD member since 2018; Martijn joined the board in 2019 and the executive board in 2021.

Born in Holland and based in Belgium, Martijn is the first European President of AIPAD.

- IBASHO Gallery official website https://ibashogallery.com/

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 14. March 2025 between Perth (AU), Antwerp (BE), and New York City (US).

In 1925, 100 years ago, Anatol Josepho invented the first fully automated, coin-operated photobooth which he named the Photomaton.

Stationed on Broadway near Times Square in New York City, over 250,000 Americans used the photobooth in its first year, paying 25 cents and waiting patiently for eight minutes while their photo strips developed. A game-changer for the world of photography, the photobooth would become ubiquitous in cities around the world.

In the 1950s and 1960s, photobooths became a common feature at fairs, shopping centres and train stations and were loved by everyone from John Lennon and Yoko Ono to John and Jaqueline Kennedy and even employed by artist Andy Warhol for his now famous series of self-portraits.

Fast forward to 2025 and AUTOFOTO is marking the booth’s 100 year anniversary with a series of globally connected events, profiles and celebrations including major exhibitions and interventions across London, New York and Arles, projects with community groups, artists and designers, plus special events centered around their London and Barcelona based booths and in partnership with colleagues across the Globe.

- Official website: https://autofoto.org/

- The Real Selfie Project: https://www.instagram.com/therealselfieproject/

Rafael Hortala Vallve is the founder of AUTOFOTO, an analogue photobooth company based in London and Barcelona. AUTOFOTO have been rescuing and restoring original auto-photography machines for over a decade. Their restored machines can be found in locations across their two city bases. Their passion for analogue image making has led to a whole host of collaborations, workshops and events which bring a deeper enjoyment and understanding of analogue creative process. 

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 21. February 2025 between Perth (AU) and London (UK).

Felix Hoffmann is an image and cultural scholar and the inaugural Artistic Director of the Center for Photography and Lens-Based Media FOTO ARSENAL WIEN and the Director of FOTO WIEN.

From 2005 to 2022, he served as the Chief Curator of the exhibition space C/O Berlin, where he was responsible for exhibitions, programs, and strategy. He curated numerous international exhibitions, including Nan Goldin (2009), Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Lindbergh (2011), Gordon Parks (2014), Ren Hang and Elfie Semotan (2018), and William Eggleston (2023), as well as thematic exhibitions like Eerily Familiar: Images of Terror (2011), The Last Image: Photography and Death (2018), and Send me an Image: From Postcards to Social Media (2020). 

- Follow Felix on Instagram here --> https://www.instagram.com/felix_hoffmann__/

FOTO ARSENAL WIEN is Austria’s new center for photography and lens-based media. Since 2023 it has been responsible for the FOTO WIEN festival, and starting in 2025 it will be responsible for the Festival Vienna Digital Cultures with the Kunsthalle Wien.

Initiated as a media literacy center by the city of Vienna in fall 2022, FOTO ARSENAL WIEN explores all facets of photography. As a hub for photography and lens-based media in Austria, the institution brings together historical and international topics at the interface between analog and digital worlds as well as between static and moving pictures.

FOTO ARSENAL WIEN presents the full spectrum of the medium of photography in up to twelve exhibitions held annually in a one-thousand-square-meter exhibition space—a combination of young talents, still-to-be-discovered photographers, and internationally known artists.

- https://www.fotoarsenalwien.at/en/

FOTO WIEN is a member of the European Month of Photography (EMOP), a European collaborative project that currently includes photography festivals in Berlin, Brussels, Lisbon, and Luxemburg.

Once an insider event for Vienna’s lively photography scene, FOTO WIEN has become Austria’s largest festival of photographic images in over twenty years of collective commitment. It offers programs for a broad audience that is interested in art and contemporary events as well as a professional audience.

FOTO ARSENAL WIEN has been the organizer since 2023.

- https://www.fotowien.at/en/

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 7. March 2025 between Perth (AU) and Vienna (AT).

In this episode I am speaking with four members of the Berlin chapter of the Female Photoclub. A Germany wide professional association which aims to increase visibility of female photographers, advocates for equality in the industry, and raises awareness of issues such as pay inequality and lack of representation. 

In addition to the Female Photoclub, we’ll also be speaking about the group exhibition Invisible Lines: Reflexionen der Gegenwart, opening this Saturday 15th of March at the Alte Münze Berlin from 6:00pm, which showcases projects from 28 members of the Female Photoclub, and is included in the official program of the European Month of Photography Berlin.

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 9. March 2025 between Perth (AU) and Berlin (DE).

Under the title Invisible Lines – Reflexionen der Gegenwart 28 photographers from the Berlin Regional Group of the Female Photoclub explore the invisible boundaries of our society. In a time of growing conflicts and divisions, the photographs illuminate the subtle lines between closeness and distance, familiarity and otherness, community and isolation.

“Invisible Lines” establishes a dialogue between individual perspectives and larger social structures, calling for reflection on the fractures of our time and encouraging ways to overcome them.

- https://emop-berlin.eu/en/exhibition/invisible-lines/5624f791-8dd3-4d9d-8096-c29d75dc1bea/

The Female Photoclub was initiated in 2017 and has been a registered association since 2020 for professional photographers.

Currently, the club has around 500 members who are organised in nine cities and regions across Germany. The association’s goals are to increase the visibility of photographers, advocate for greater equality in the industry, and raise awareness of issues such as pay inequality and lack of representation.

- https://femalephotoclub.com/

EMOP Berlin is the largest biennial festival of photographic images in Germany.

Museums, exhibition institutions, memorial sites, archives, libraries, collections, cultural institutes, universities, art academies and other educational institutions, municipal and private galleries and project spaces from Berlin and Potsdam - together with the exhibiting artists - are the key players in this open festival format.

- https://emop-berlin.eu/

Natalia Carstens is a freelance photographer based in Berlin, specializing in architecture and art documentation. Her work primarily focuses on art and cultural institutions, where she combines her two passions. In her personal projects, she explores how architecture appears in the absence of people, particularly in cultural spaces like cinemas, clubs, and swimming pools. Her photographs capture these spaces in their unique aesthetics and atmosphere. She completed her photography training at Lette Verein and holds a degree in Art History and Cultural Studies from Humboldt University in Berlin. Since 2024, she has been a board member of the Female Photoclub and leads its Berlin regional group.

- https://www.nataliacarstens.com/

Catherine Lieser works with digital photography, with a focus on portraits. She was born in Essen in 1986, studied at the University of Television and Film in Munich and lives and works in Berlin. She is a part of the Female Photoclub and the Professional Association of Freelance Photographers and Film Designers. In her art projects she is dealing with the question of whether and how one can unlearn normative thinking and behavior, such as gender-specific categorisations. We as society are surrounded by an imagery that shape such thinking and behavior and her work is an attempt to create visual counter-narratives, that stand in contrast to the normative imagery.

- https://www.catherinelieser.com/

Chiara Dazi is an Italian documentary photographer with a passion for sports and the East; she is interested in how collective memories and borders influence identities and how individuals and communities deal with the notion of belonging and traditions. Born in the Italian Po' valley, she studied languages and graduated in communication sciences at the Università di Bologna with a thesis on the ‘nostalgia for the former GDR’. She worked as a photo editor in Paris, then graduated from the Berlin Ostkreuz school of photography. After artist residencies in Georgia, Kaliningrad and the Republic of Moldova, Chiara currently lives and works in Berlin.

- https://www.chiaradazi.com/

Victoria Kämpfe is a photographer and art director whose work explores themes of feminism, identity, and belonging. Born in Chemnitz, she started her professional creative career in Detroit, USA - an experience that shaped her artistic perspective and deepened her engagement with themes of attachment and rupture. Now based in Berlin, she works across photography, fashion, and music, drawing inspiration from (sub)-culture and politics. With a background in anthropology, she explores the unspoken and challenges conventional narratives of beauty and power, inviting a closer look at what we see and why we see it.

- https://victoriakaempfe.com/

Joanna Szproch is a Polish, Berlin-based visual artist and activist. Her practice blends photography as a performative and instrumental medium with archival materials, writing, and participatory projects. She explores female resilience through embodiment and conviviality. Committed to analogue processes, she creates art books, installations, and collaborative works that challenge societal norms and empower women. Her debut monograph Alltagsfantasie (2023) reflects her bold artistic vision.

See more of Joanna's work on her official website (https://joannaszproch.com/), follow her new instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/joanna.szproch/), and subscribe to her substack newsletter (https://joannaszproch.substack.com/).

Photo book video showing Alltagsfantasie on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/847340512

Michael Dooney: https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 19. February 2025 between Perth (AU) and Berlin (DE).

Portrait supplied by artist with Droste effect.

Enrico Stefanelli (b.1962, Lucca, Italy) is the founder and artistic director of Photolux Festival, the biennial of photography in Lucca, Italy. From 2010 to 2017, he worked as curator for the European Photo Exhibition Award (epea), a project sponsoring young photo talent, which developed as a collaboration between four European foundations, including the Körber Foundation in Germany.

He has been appointed as an expert for portfolio reviews at Les Rencontres d'Arles, CENTER, Santa Fe - Colorado, and Kaunas Festival in Lithuania. He has sat on the selection committee of the World Press Photo Foundation's Joop Swart Masterclass, the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and the Prix Piclet. As well as the international jury for Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation for Documentary Photography & Film.

He has also published various texts on photography in the international specialised press, and has curated exhibitions of renowned photographers such as Gianni Berengo Gardin and Stanley Greene. In addition to Tim Hetherington, Jan Saudek, Horst P. Horst, VII Agency, Nobuyoshy Araki, Boris Mikhailov and David Douglas Duncan.

Visit the official website of the Photolux Festival: https://www.photoluxfestival.it/en/

You can follow both the Photolux Festival - https://www.instagram.com/photoluxfest/ - and Enrico Stefanelli - https://www.instagram.com/enricostefanelli/ - on Instagram.

Michael Dooney: https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 23. January 2025 between Perth (AU) and Lucca (IT).

Portrait of Enrico Stefanelli taken by Michael Dooney on 10. July 2024 in Lucca, Italy.

Pilar Mata Dupont is a multi-award-winning Argentinean-Australian artist based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Her practice spans video, installation, performance, and photography. Using highly theatrical and cinematic methods, she uses allegory and narrative to reimagine/rework histories and classical texts and aims to create alternative readings that question the conditions of the construction of dominant narratives that shape history. 

In 2015 she won the Plymouth Contemporary Open in the United Kingdom, and a residency prize at the 19th Contemporary Art Festival Sesc Videobrasil in São Paulo, Brazil. She has shown work internationally in museums and galleries, including the Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul; Secession, Vienna; Pori Art Museum, Pori, Finland; Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart; and, as part of Rencontres Internationales film festival, the Gaîté Lyrique, Paris. In 2012, she was a recipient of a Mid-Career Fellowship from the Government of Western Australia.

In collaboration with Tarryn Gill, she participated in the Biennale of Sydney and won the Basil Sellers Art Prize in 2010. As part of multi-artform collective Hold Your Horses, she made work commissioned by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin in 2012.

Pilar's website with past projects and news about her practice: https://pilarmatadupont.com/

Updates and insights on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pilar_matadupont/

She is represented by MOORE CONTEMPORARY gallery in Perth, Australia: http://moorecontemporary.com/artists/pilar-mata-dupont/

Michael Dooney: https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 9. January 2025 in Perth, Australia.

Portrait by Joris van den Einden.

Pablo Giori is the co-founder and director of the Experimental Photo Festival, the Ágora, School of Experimentation, and the  International Photography Festivals Association (IPFA) in Barcelona.

His interest in experimental analogue photography was born out of his work as a documentarian, historian, and archivist with the estate of Pere Català (Valls, Alt Camp, 1889 – Barcelona, 1971). The Catalan photographer, publicist, and writer is most known for republican posters and propaganda during the Spanish Civil War. He also had contact with various avant-garde associations in Barcelona, and his work can be related to photographers such as Man Ray, Moholy-Nagy, Renger-Patzsch and Sougez, among others.

Pablo Giori holds a Bachelor's degree in Philology (National University of Tucumán), a master's degree in Cultural Studies (University of Girona), a master's degree in Strategic Communication (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) and a PhD in Contemporary History (Universitat de Girona). He has taken courses on Photographic archives management in the digital environment and on Preservation, conservation and digitization of photographic originals at the Institut d'Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya.

Pablo Giori's official website with information about his photography projects and academic work.

International Photography Festivals Association (IPFA)

Experimental Photo Festival Barcelona

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 3. February 2025 between Perth (AU) and Barcelona (ES).

Portrait supplied by Pablo Giori.

Jessa Fairbrother (b. London) is a British visual artist whose work spans stitch, photography, performance and drawing. The body is her main material.

She holds an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster (2010) and trained at drama school in London in the 1990s.  This laid the groundwork for her ongoing investigation of how art and audience collide.

The artist book of her work Conversations with my mother, is held in collections at Tate Britain, the V&A, London and The Museum of Fine Art, Houston.  Yale Centre for British Art and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery also hold pieces from this series. Her companion piece, Role Play (Woman with Cushion) is included in Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood – a Hayward Touring exhibition travelling the UK throughout 2024-2025 and included in the 2024 Thames and Hudson book of the same name by curator of the show, Hettie Judah.

She is a Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Trust scholar, training at the Royal School of Needlework in historical hand embroidery, which she incorporates into her photographic work. This is now embedded in her long-term multi-faceted project A Fencing Manual for Women, which has also been supported in it’s development by a DYCP grant from the Arts Council of England, The Oppenheim-John Downes Memorial Trust, Hosking Houses Trust, Gane Trust and GRAIN as well as private sponsors.

Jessa became an RWA Academician in 2023.

She works from her studio in Bristol, UK.

Jessa's official website.

Follow Jessa on Instagram.

Tate Papers: Severance: Jessa Fairbrother’s Conversations with My Mother 2016 - Jennifer Mundy

Michael Dooney

This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 27. October 2024 between Perth (AU) and Bristol (UK).

Portrait of Jessa Fairbrother by Trish Morrissey in the Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood exhibition at MAC in Birmingham.