Photographer Katerina Kouzmitcheva joins Michael Chovan-Dalton from the 2026 Chico Review to talk about her work, Butter Melts at 36.6°C.
Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-DaltonShow Notes
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.
More from Real Photo Show with Michael Chovan-Dalton
Photographer, printer, filmmaker, and author, Neil Selkirk, joins Michael Chovan-Dalton to discuss his new book, Why Photographs (a book without photographs - Warbler Press). Why Photographs is a collection of essays, excerpts, introductions, and quotes by Selkirk, Berenice Abbott, Julian Barnes, Dorothea Lange, Sigfried Kracauer, Paul Graham, and so many more. It’s a book that is historical, philosophical, and humorous but most importantly, it reminds you of why you fell in love with photography and why we still look for meaning in the image. Neil Selkirk is also the only person authorized to print for the Diane Arbus estate and we discuss that as well.
2026 Chico Attendees Series