Subtext and Discourse | Art World Podcast

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/ [https://autofoto.org/] - AUTOFOTO London: https://www.instagram.com/autofoto.london/ [https://www.instagram.com/autofoto.london/] - AUTOFOTO Barcelona: https://www.instagram.com/autofoto.barcelona/ [https://www.instagram.com/autofoto.barcelona/] - The Real Selfie Project: https://www.instagram.com/therealselfieproject/ [https://www.instagram.com/therealselfieproject/] - Photo London Fair: https://photolondon.org/exhibitors/2024-2/autofoto/ [https://photolondon.org/exhibitors/2024-2/autofoto/] - International Photobooth Convention: https://www.autophoto.org/convention [https://www.autophoto.org/convention] - The Photographers' Gallery London: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/2025-photographers-gallery [https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/2025-photographers-gallery]   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 https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney [https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney] 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__/ [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/ [https://www.fotoarsenalwien.at/en/] - https://www.instagram.com/foto_arsenal_wien/ [https://www.instagram.com/foto_arsenal_wien/]   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/ [https://www.fotowien.at/en/] - https://www.instagram.com/foto_wien/ [https://www.instagram.com/foto_wien/]   Michael Dooney https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney [https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney] 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 https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney [https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney] This episode of Subtext & Discourse Art World Podcast was recorded on 9. March 2025 between Perth (AU) and Berlin (DE).   Invisible Lines - Reflexionen der Gegenwart 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/ [https://emop-berlin.eu/en/exhibition/invisible-lines/5624f791-8dd3-4d9d-8096-c29d75dc1bea/] - https://femalephotoclub.com/post/female-photoclub-berlin-invisible-lines-reflexionen-der-gegenwart-2025/ [https://femalephotoclub.com/post/female-photoclub-berlin-invisible-lines-reflexionen-der-gegenwart-2025/] The Female Photoclub The Female Photoclub [https://femalephotoclub.com] 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/ [https://femalephotoclub.com/] - https://www.instagram.com/femalephotoclub/ [https://www.instagram.com/femalephotoclub/] EMOP Berlin - The European Month of Photography 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/ [https://emop-berlin.eu/] - https://www.instagram.com/emopberlin/ [https://www.instagram.com/emopberlin/] Photographers who joined the conversation 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/ [https://www.nataliacarstens.com/] - https://www.instagram.com/natalia_carstens/ [https://www.instagram.com/natalia_carstens/] 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/ [https://www.catherinelieser.com/] - https://www.instagram.com/catherine_lieser/ [https://www.instagram.com/catherine_lieser/] 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/ [https://www.chiaradazi.com/] - https://www.instagram.com/frau_loesung [https://www.instagram.com/frau_loesung] 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/ [https://victoriakaempfe.com/] - https://www.instagram.com/victoriakaempfe/ [https://www.instagram.com/victoriakaempfe/]

Joanna Szproch [https://joannaszproch.com/] 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 [https://vimeo.com/847340512] (2023) reflects her bold artistic vision.   See more of Joanna's work on her official website (https://joannaszproch.com/ [https://joannaszproch.com/]), follow her new instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/joanna.szproch/ [https://www.instagram.com/joanna.szproch/]), and subscribe to her substack newsletter (https://joannaszproch.substack.com/ [https://joannaszproch.substack.com/]). Photo book video showing Alltagsfantasie on vimeo: https://vimeo.com/847340512 [https://vimeo.com/847340512]   Michael Dooney: https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney [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/ [https://www.photoluxfestival.it/en/] You can follow both the Photolux Festival - https://www.instagram.com/photoluxfest/ [https://www.instagram.com/photoluxfest/] - and Enrico Stefanelli - https://www.instagram.com/enricostefanelli/ [https://www.instagram.com/enricostefanelli/] - on Instagram.   Michael Dooney: https://beacons.ai/michaeldooney [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.