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Sybylla Smith, International Consultant to Fine Art Photographers, Galleries & Museums launched a new podcast_,_ Got Punctum?, a collection of deep dive conversations on creativity, photography and bookmaking in January 2022.
The Got Punctum podcast was a natural evolution of the Photobook Book Group that began on Zoom in March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic and immediately became a place of creative refuge that focused on creating community by sharing resources and challenges on creative practice and the book making process.
A podcast was always something in the back of Smith’s mind, having been an avid podcast listener for many years. As 2022 approached and with almost two years of interviews with photography luminaries behind her, Smith set out to reposition the online zoom meeting as a podcast. The photobook book group includes a Q & A with the live audience that is intentionally omitted from the podcast, as a special perk to the audience who has an opportunity to engage with the guest.
For the content, Smith chooses a photobook by a contemporary photographer that was published within the past year. She’s interested in subjects and perspectives that showcase a photographer’s ongoing evolution. She conducts unscripted conversations with her guests– photographers, curators and publishers. The episodes represent a diverse set of voices, ages, ethnicities, and genders; equalizing amplification across multiple identities.
Smith recently joked on an episode that she and her small team were like The Little Engine That Could, the iconic children’s book from the 1930s that values optimism and hard work with its repeating motto, “I think I can”.
With the help of two influential books, NPR’s Podcast Start Up Guide and The Power of Podcasting by Siobhan McHugh the team started learning the in’s and out’s of podcasting. With the help and encouragement of a friend who was working on his wife’s business podcast, they did a quick walk-through of the technicalities of podcast hosts, rss feeds, and podcast editing.
The Got Punctum? team decided to host their podcast on their existing Squarespace website and out-sourced the creation of intro and outro music to C.J. Hughes. They tried several podcast editing applications but instantly fell in love with Descript, whose transcription and “sound studio” functionality made editing simpler and perfect for their needs. For analytics, the team uses Blubrry.
The inspired podcast conversations blissfully continue to evolve and grow with a fantastic line-up for Spring 2022 and much in store for the Fall calendar.
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