The Expert Eye
Aimee Pflieger loves discovering connections between seemingly disparate subjects, and pulling at the threads that photography has woven through culture since its invention.
In this podcast, she talks about photographs she’s handled during her career (as well as ones she hopes to someday), drawing out the hidden stories behind the images and illuminating the hidden histories of photography.
- Update frequency
- every 28 days
- Average duration
- 33 minutes
- Episodes
- 34
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2025
Episode 14: A Talk with Lee Marks
Lee Marks, a photography dealer and consultant, heads Lee Marks Fine Art, established in New York City in 1981 and now located in Shelbyville, Indiana. Lee has served in many roles in the photograph…
Episode 13: The Witch Dance
In 1914, Mary Wigman created a dance that would shatter the rules about what dance was supposed to look like. A trio of images by Charlotte Rudolph of Wigman came through the Photography department …
Episode 12: Ansel Adams Detective
In this episode Aimee gives you the secret five-step process for looking at Ansel Adams prints, providing lots of detail on Adams’ signature (and unique) style, how to narrow down print dates, analyz…
Episode 11: Deborah Bell, Part II
In the second half of my interview with Deborah Bell, we talk about Deborah's experiences as a private dealer, auction house specialist, gallery owner, and educator.
Episode 10: Deborah Bell, Part I
After 13 years as a private dealer, Deborah Bell opened her first public gallery at 511 West 25th Street in Chelsea and remained there for 10 years (2001-2011). In 2011 Bell closed the gallery in ord…
Episode 9: If You Could Read My Mind, Love
What if you could send from your brain straight to a camera? In the 1960s, a man named Ted Serios and a psychiatrist named Dr. Jule Eisenbud set out to prove to the world that it could be done.
Episode 8: Diane Arbus, Steven Shainburg, and 'Fur.'
In this episode, Steven Shainberg, director of 'Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus' joins me to discuss hero worship, hairy actors, and make-believe.
Episode 7: Diane Arbus and the Monster Club
In this episode, I tell the story of how I got to research a very rare photograph by Diane Arbus that she took while on assignment for a magazine called Famous Monsters of Filmland. The photograph f…
Episode 6: The Devil's Paradise
A German Photographer named Albert Frisch was responsible for some of the first photographs taken in the Upper Amazon. Among those images are ones of a rubber tree and a man working with latex. Why…
Episode 5: The Monkey On Her Back
In 1939, LIFE photojournalist Hansel Mieth took a photograph that would haunt her for the rest of her life. That photograph was … of a monkey.
In this episode, Aimee talks about the time she handled…
Episode 4: Frozen in Time
At the height of Polar Mania, three Swedish explorers went on the search for the North Pole by hot air balloon. This episode tells the story of what happened when documentary photographs taken by the…
Episode 3: The New Woman
Aimee visits an intriguing exhibition at The Met and realizes that it is coincidentally connected to a print she catalogued for an upcoming auction by pioneering photographer Florence Henri.
Episode 2: Print Class/Bill Brandt
A 1933 image of rooftops by influential British photographer Bill Brandt comes across Aimee’s desk, and she tries to get to the bottom of how Brandt made this print using her mantra: Look, Touch, Thi…
Episode 1: Inferno Crisis
A photographic discovery by astronomer Sir John Herschel inadvertently influences the mad experimentation of playwright August Strindberg, leading to surprising results.