185 - Rich-Joseph Facun

A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

185 - Rich Joseph-Facun

Rich Joseph-Facun is a photographer of Indigenous Mexican and Filipino descent. His work aims to offer an authentic look into endangered, bygone, and fringe cultures—those transitions in time where places fade but people persist.

The exploration of place, community and cultural identity present themselves as a common denominator in both his life and photographic endeavors.

Before finding “home” in the Appalachian Foothills of southeast Ohio, Rich roamed the globe for 15 years working as a photojournalist. During that time he was sent on assignment to over a dozen countries, and for three of those years he was based in the United Arab Emirates.

His photography has been commissioned by various publications, including NPR, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian (UK), among others. Additionally, Rich’s work has been recognized by Photolucida’s Critical Mass, CNN, Juxtapoz, British Journal of Photography, The Washington Post and Pictures of the Year International.

In 2021 his first monograph Black Diamonds was released by Fall Line Press. The work is a visual exploration of the former coal mining boom towns of SE Ohio, Appalachia. Subsequently, it was highlighted by Charcoal Book Club as their “Book-Of-The-Month.” Black Diamonds is also part of the permanent collection at the Frederick and Kazuko Harris Fine Arts Library and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art’s Research Library.

Having successfully run a kickstarter campaign which met the target funding, Rich is currently in the process of producing his next monograph Little Cities, slated to be released in Autumn 2022 by Little Oak Press. The work examines how both Indigenous peoples and descendants of settler colonialists inhabited and utilized the land around them.

On episode 185, Rich discusses, among other things:

• Where he lives in Millfield, ohio
• Becoming a dad at 17
• His journey into photography
• Living in the UAE
• How he ended up living in rural Ohio
• The origins of the project Black Diamonds
• Being a person of colour in the U.S. during the Trump years
• Appalachia and its attendent photographic clichés
• His latest book Little Cities
• Why doing a book without people in it is ‘scary’.
• The Bubble - a possible 3rd part of a trilogy

“I was feeling great about the community. I was super excited about it, every day going out and making images. Everything was resonating with me. It was like being in a Disney movie and all the birds were chirping…”

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