Today, Brian O’Neill sits down to talk about “The Grift.” This was a 2023 release by Immaterial Books, and so with the upcoming election and events occupying life in the United States, we thought it an important opportunity to sit down again and speak about the project with the author, Andrew Kochanowski. In this episode, Brian and Andrew cover the book itself and its concept, and so much more: from how Andrew got started on the project and how it unfolded, to how he composes a frame, to how he thinks about the longer-term trajectory of a self-directed documentary project.

The Grift is not a political book in the traditional sense. Instead, it takes a dispassionate look at a phenomenon enabled by conventional mass media, new digital channels, and informal word-of-mouth networks. It looks to actors playing their parts, but more broadly to mutual, bottomless need and dependence. Feasting off the spectacle, the speaker and the crowd crave one another. One will lie to the other, and both will lie to themselves. Who is grifting who?

Andrew Kochanowski is a photographer based outside Detroit, USA. Since 2007 his work has appeared in both solo and group exhibits in Detroit, London, Paris, Warsaw, Berlin, New York, Brighton (U.K), Cardiff, Milan, San Francisco, and elsewhere, at venues such as the London Street Photography Festival, Street Photo Milano, and the Miami Street Photography Festival. His essays, images, and interviews have been published in numerous publications, including Leica Blog, Metropolitan Detroit, Eyeshot Magazine, and others. He is a founding member of Burn My Eye, an international photography collective that has been operating since 2011.

Episode Links:

Buy The Grift: https://www.immaterialbooks.com/store/p/grift

Andrew’s website: http://akochanowski.net

Andrew’s Instagram: @andrew_kochanowski

The Grift Website: https://the-grift.com

Review of The Grift at The Photobook Journal: https://photobookjournal.com/2023/06/14/andrew-kochanowski-the-grift/

Jeff Jacobson’s work: https://www.washingtonpost.com/photography/2020/11/02/jeff-jacobson-life-photos/

Jeff Jacobson’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/My-Fellow-Americans-Photographs-1991-10-21/dp/B01HC12YBM

Burn My Eye: https://www.burnmyeye.org

Podcast hosted by Brian O’Neill: https://www.brianfoneill.net

Immaterial Books Newsletter: https://substack.com/@immaterialbooks

Music for Immaterial Voices by Wyoming Toad: https://wyomingtoad.bandcamp.com

Immaterial Voices is a production of Immaterial Books, an independent publisher of contemporary art and literature on photo media and its practice based in Champaign, Illinois.