TCF Ep. 656 - Stephanie Pommez

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Arts, Visual Arts

4.8 • 768 Ratings

🗓️ 16 March 2026

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When photographer Stephanie Pommez began documenting the lives of traditional midwives in the Amazon, she was drawn by a desire to understand how communities shape meaning through ritual, labor, and shared belief. Over several years, she traveled through river-dweller communities, photographing women who serve not only as caretakers and healers, but as guardians of local culture. What began as a documentary exploration of daily life gradually opened onto something more expansive—an encounter with the oral traditions and myths that run alongside the visible world. That long engagement evolved into The Enchanted Ones, a lyrical and haunting project inspired by the stories of the encantados—mythical shapeshifting beings said to inhabit the rivers and forests of the Amazon. Shot in 35mm black and white, the book moves beyond conventional documentary, embracing ambiguity, atmosphere, and the porous boundary between reality and imagination. Rather than illustrating folklore from a distance, Pommez creates a visual meditation on a culture where myth and daily life are inseparable. The result is a deeply evocative tribute to the Ribeirinho communities and the invisible threads of story, memory, and belief that connect them. Resources Stephanie Pommez https://www.stephaniepommez.com The Enchanted Ones https://www.stephaniepommez.com Altadena Photographers https://www.altadenaphotographers.org/ Workshops & Upcoming Education 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 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 X/Twitter https://twitter.com/Ibarionex?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Transcript

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0:00.0	Some photographers document the world as it is.
0:10.8	Others create a space where the world feels reimagined,
0:14.8	tender, layered, and filled with possibility.
0:18.6	Stephanie Pomez's work lives in that space. Her portraits are intimate and
0:24.4	theatrical at once. Rooted in collaboration, they often center young people navigating identity,
0:31.5	vulnerability, and transformation. Whether photographed in quiet interiors or carefully constructed environments,
0:39.3	or subjects feel present, not posed for spectacle, but invited into a shared act of storytelling.
0:47.4	Over the course of years, Stephanie has built bodies of work that blur the line between reality and imagination.
0:55.5	Her images are cinematic without losing authenticity.
0:59.3	They are gentle without being fragile.
1:02.7	They ask us to reconsider how we see youth, neurodivergence, difference, and belonging.
1:14.5	This is Ibarian X, and welcome back to the Candid Frame. Well, Stephanie, welcome to the show. It's really great to have you. Your project
1:24.6	is really beautiful and informative in many ways.
1:30.3	But it's been a project that you've been working on for a very long time.
1:35.3	And in doing my research, the people here, and if you can pronounce the name of the peoples that live along the Amazon,
1:43.3	because I think it's
1:44.2	Rivenieroz or something like that?
1:45.8	He means, which means that, yeah.
1:47.6	You said that, yeah.
1:48.6	Okay, your Portuguese is going to be better than my English since I'm time.
1:52.0	But tell me about your first sort of awareness of these people when you were growing up.
1:57.2	What did you hear about them, even way before you decided to become a photographer and document their lives?
	...

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