In this episode, I sit down with David Campany — curator, writer, editor, educator, and Creative Director of the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. We talk about how he brings all these roles together within one institution, and what it means to run a physical space with a simultaneously local and global audience.

David explains why photography, in his view, is a true moving target: it shifts culturally, technologically, and even emotionally as makers and viewers change over time. Photography therefore seems to be “always in crisis.” And that, he argues, is exactly where its vitality comes from without friction, the medium would lose its urgency, its relevance, and its energy.

We explore what a curator can add alongside a strong photographic voice: not to override the work, but to help it become better — as a sounding board, editor, and someone who can think in terms of space, rhythm, and experience. David shares how exhibitions are shaped through seemingly small decisions about light, wall color, sequencing, and especially scale — the difference between simply seeing a photograph and truly approaching it.

He also reflects on two unforgettable collaborations: one with Jeff Wall, where experience and precision become almost physical, and another that began with an unexpected Instagram message from a Polish photographer and resulted in a book David considers his strongest editorial work.

We end with a quietly unsettling conversation about portraiture and selfies: what does it really mean when someone appears to “look back” at us from a photograph, while in fact they were staring into the lens of a machine? A wide-ranging, thoughtful conversation about images, attention, and why photography keeps reinventing itself.

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Links to David Campany and the International Center of Photography