MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media presents a dialogue and book signing with distinguished department chair and photographer, Charles Traub, as part of the Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton. Traub will be signing copies of his new book Taradiddle. RSVP here.

Twenty years ago, Charles H. Traub abandoned all pretense of trying to find specific themes and subjects in his photographic wanderings other than to make "taradiddles," embracing fully the digital image which is always questioned for its inherent potential for distortion. Ironically, the witty and sardonic juxtaposition of Traub's images are only a matter of framing his discoveries – here, there and everywhere.

This volume is a collection of trifles that become matters of remarkable social commentary when Traub photographs them: "For me, serendipity, coincidence and chance are more interesting than any preconceived construct of our human encounters." In over 100 images, Traub seems to have captured the common incongruities of a global society. Traub took these pictures in cities around the world: Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Rome, Tunis, Buenos Aires, Budapest, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Santo Domingo, to name a few places.

Traub will be in dialogue with Michael Chovan-Dalton, who created the Real Photo Show (also known as thePhotoShow) in 2015 as a platform to provide space and voice for and help build community among photographers. The podcast features artists with discussions about origins, influences, teaching, books, showing, tools, some technology and anything else that may come up in conversation.

Chovan-Dalton is a photographer and a photo professor at Mercer County Community College. He also runs the JKC Photo Gallery in Trenton, NJ, for Mercer.

Special Event

Charles Traub on Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton