TCF Ep. 655 - Tawyny Chatmon

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Arts, Visual Arts

4.8 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When photographer Tawny Chatmon creates a portrait, she is doing more than arranging light and subject—she is reconstructing history. Drawing from classical European painting traditions while centering contemporary Black subjects, her work reclaims visual space that has long excluded them. Through layered textures, gold leaf, and painterly surfaces, Tawny creates images that feel both timeless and urgently present. Her portraits challenge the conventions of representation, placing children and families within compositions that evoke Renaissance and Baroque aesthetics while subverting their historical omissions. Rather than treating her subjects as symbols, she honors their individuality, dignity, and complexity. The result is work that feels intimate yet monumental—a visual meditation on legacy, visibility, and the power of self-definition. Resources Tawny Chatmon https://www.tawnychatmon.com Altadena Photographers https://www.altadenaphotographers.org/ Workshops & Upcoming Education with Ibarionex Perello Timeline: Los Angeles A guided photographic exploration of Los Angeles that encourages participants to engage deeply with place, history, and personal narrative. https://lacphoto.org/events/timeline-los-angeles-with-ibarionex-perello/ Japan Spring Workshop 2026 An immersive photographic and cultural experience in Japan, focused on visual storytelling, observation, and creative growth. https://www.nobechicreative.com/ibarionex-perello-spring-workshop-2026-japan X-Pedition Hanoi A destination workshop centered on street photography, culture, and daily life in Hanoi, Vietnam. https://www.f8photographicworkshops.com/x-pedition-hanoi The Raw Society Raw Photo Fest An annual photography festival celebrating emerging and established photographers through exhibitions, talks, and community engagement. https://therawsociety.org/rawphotofest/ Support Ibarionex & The Candid Frame GoFundMe https://www.gofundme.com/f/perello-familys-journey-to-re-establish-our-life eBook Purchases https://www.ibarionex.net/ebooks Websites The Candid Frame PayPal Contribution Link https://www.paypal.com/donate?token=70VXjjF-1j_uhK8y0_nfvUK79_R1EWWuCTO2DX5ZOaTOR6yzhL6IgkthBiiitoipmDH23zLzPSIIlLhZ Sponsors Charcoal Book Club https://charcoalbookclub.com Frames Magazine https://readframes.com Education Resources Momenta Photographic Workshops https://momentaworkshops.com/workshops/ Candid Frame Resources The Candid Frame Newsletter & Substack Blog http://ibarionex.substack.com/welcome Support the work at The Candid Frame by contributing via PayPal: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?token=13Tg_YGwf58eSyhevNPHAJMlgVqhI4xqQff9jBJeGNGR7G3-GkcKVX6OuU-5ZXfLbUkRa0&country.x=US&locale.x=US You can follow Ibarionex on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ibarionex/?hl=en and Twitter/X https://twitter.com/Ibarionex?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Transcript

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0:00.0	What does it mean to be seen with reverence?
0:10.0	Photographer Tanya Chapman has built her practice around that question.
0:14.9	Through richly layered portraits, adorned with gold leaf, texture, and visual reference
0:20.1	to art history, she reclaims and
0:22.7	reimagines the representation of black children and families. Her work is both contemporary
0:28.9	and timeless, rooted in personal experience, but speaking to a much larger cultural history.
0:37.3	Drawing inspiration from Byzantine iconography,
0:40.3	Renaissance painting, and African diasporic traditions, Tani creates portraits that feel regal without
0:48.3	feeling distant. They are intimate, protective, intentional. As a mother, her work began as a way of honoring her own children.
0:58.1	It has since evolved into a broader meditation on identity, lineage, and the sacredness
1:04.5	of black life.
1:06.5	This is Ibarian X, and welcome back to the Candid Frame.
1:14.6	Altoni, welcome to The Candid Frame. It's a real honor and pleasure to have you on the show.
1:17.6	Thank you and thank you for having me.
1:20.6	I'm glad I got a chance to discover your work because it really is.
1:25.6	It's beautiful. it's moving it really
1:29.3	resonated with me not just as another photographer but just as a human being
1:33.4	taking a look at your work and seeing black and brown faces reflected so so
1:38.8	beautifully but in researching you and you were born in Japan to an army family, so you moved around a bit.
1:47.5	But one of the earliest experiences that I heard you talking about previously was going to museums
1:52.2	and castles and seeing, you know, these, these ornate portraits, especially the frames that
1:57.8	as a child really intrigued you.
	...

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