JOHN BAER: THE EXTRAORDINARY ORDINARY / A MEMOIR IN PHOTOGRAPHS 1945–1954

Andrew Baer and Megan Moynihan join Michael Chovan-Dalton to celebrate the release of John Baer: The Extraordinary Ordinary / A Memoir in Photographs 1945-1954, A Paper Cinema Edition, published by the John Baer Archive. This is, true to its title, an extraordinary collection of the never before published life work of John Baer, Andrew Baer's father. It's also a conversation about how wonderful a collaboration can be between family and professionals such as famed designer Yolanda Cuomo and her team, Alexa Dilworth and Jonno Rattman, Steve Smith at RISD, and Eric Luden at Digital Silver Imaging, who all believe in the work.

https://www.johnbaerarchive.com

https://www.instagram.com/johnbaerarchive/

https://www.instagram.com/yolandacuomodesign/

JOHN BAER (1920-1994)

In 1945, while serving in the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion, John Baer acquired a Leica camera from a captured German soldier. His first photographs were of his fellow soldiers, weary from war.

Soon after the war John and his wife Louise moved to New York City, rented an apartment in the East Village, and connected with a community of artists and writers.

In 1950 they journeyed to France and spent the next year living in Montpellier and traveling throughout Postwar Europe. John’s photographs capture a world struggling to understand itself following years of war and political realignment.

In 1951 John and Louise returned to New York and their apartment in the East Village. John walked the streets, taking pictures that provide glimpses of ordinary people in the unguarded moments of their lives—at work, at rest, at play. He developed negatives and made prints in a make-shift darkroom in the bathroom of their fifth floor walk-up.

Sometime in the mid-1950s, John stowed his photographic life away. After his death, in 1994, his son Andrew found boxes containing thousands of negatives and prints from between 1945 and 1954. For 27 years the boxes moved whenever Andrew did. Finally, in 2021, Andrew and his wife Megan Moynihan dove into the boxes to see what stories they held. Stories of Europe emerging from the darkness of war. Stories of New York City brimming with the optimism of the early 1950s. Stories of a generation and stories of John Baer, seen through the lens of his Leica.

This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club - Begin Building your dream photobook library today at:

https://charcoalbookclub.com

2026 Chico Attendees Series

Photographer Katerina Kouzmitcheva joins Michael Chovan-Dalton from the 2026 Chico Review to talk about her work, Butter Melts at 36.6°C, which weaves together political, social, and psychological ideas that create a portrait of her life and the lives of the people she encounters.

https://katerinakouzmitcheva.com

https://www.instagram.com/katerina_kouzmitcheva/

Katerina Kouzmitcheva is a Polish photographer of Belarusian origin based in Wrocław, Poland. Working at the intersection of documentary and art photography, she explores how visible and invisible boundaries—geographical, ideological, and psychological—shape individual lives and collective attitudes. Her work focuses on migration, systems of control, memory, gender, and identity, while also turning inward—to vulnerability, femininity, and the emotional experience of loss—moving between the personal and the political.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Law, graduated from the Academy of Documentary and Art Photography “Fotografika” in St. Petersburg, and earned both her Master’s and PhD degrees in Fine Arts from the Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. She is currently continuing her studies at the Institute of Creative Photography in Opava, Czech Republic.

She is a winner of international photography competitions including TIFA, BIFA, and the Urbanautica Institute Awards, and a recipient of the Gaude Polonia scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Katerina is a member of the international photojournalist collective Women Photograph. Her work has been exhibited in Arles, as well as in Brazil, Japan, Estonia, Hungary, and Poland. Her photography has been featured in publications including British Journal of Photography, Bird in Flight, Monovisions, and Dodho, among others.

This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club

Begin Building your dream photobook library today at

https://charcoalbookclub.com

The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry.

https://chicoreview.com

https://www.charcoalworkshops.com

2026 Chico Attendees Series

Photographer, educator, and editor, Andrea Birnbaum joins Michael Chovan-Dalton from the 2026 Chico Review to talk about her work and limited edition book, Spilt Milk.

"Spilt Milk is about family, memory, and what is handed down through generations. I am using family photographs and other items to construct images, exploring how certain behaviors have affected the family dynamic. Through this project, I am re-evaluating my personal history and altering my perspective with the newly acquired knowledge."

https://www.andreabirnbaum.com

https://www.andreabirnbaum.com/books/spilt-milk-limited-edition

https://www.instagram.com/andreabirnbaumphoto

Andrea Birnbaum is a social documentary photographer and educator. Her work as a freelance photographer spans many genres, including editorial, corporate, non-profit and portraiture for more than twenty years. She holds an MFA in Media Arts from Maine Media College in Rockport, Maine.

Recent exhibitions include:

2025 Family, Community and Belonging, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

2024 Re-examining the Family Tree, Photographic Nights of Selma, Selma, Alabama

2021 Once Upon a Time, Griffin Museum of Photography, Boston, MA

2021 Memory, juried by Fran Forman, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC

2021 A Woman’s View, juried by Elinor Carucci, SE Center for Photography, Greenville, SC

2021 Julia Margaret Cameron and Pollux Exhibitio, FotoNostrum, Barcelona, Spain

2020 You Can Always See The Sun, Photographic Nights of Selma, Selma, Alabama

This podcast is sponsored by the Charcoal Book Club

Begin Building your dream photobook library today at

https://charcoalbookclub.com

The Chico Review is the country’s premier Photobook Retreat. Organized by Charcoal Book Club, The Chico Review takes place over six nights at Chico Hot Springs Resort, near Livingston Montana. Applicants will spend the week with over twenty of the most influential and creative photographers, book makers, gallerists, museum curators, and photobook publishers in the industry.

https://chicoreview.com

https://www.charcoalworkshops.com