Podcast: Photography Has Nothing to Do with Cameras - A Conversation between Nancy Borowick and Adriane Ohanesian

What obstacles have gotten in the way of your photography? When life’s troubles arise, where do you point your camera? Or do you set it down? Photography can be a weekend hobby or it can be a life’s calling and, for our guests on today’s episode of the B&H Photography Podcast, there is no doubt that photography is part of their very being, and meshed into the most intimate aspects of their lives.

Adriane Ohanesian and Nancy Borowick have been friends since they studied together at the International Center of Photography, and have remained close despite careers that have put them on opposite sides of the globe. Both had specific aspirations while studying, both have received professional recognition as photographers, and both have faced tragedy and pain with a steady hand and unflinching eye. In addition to her many assignments for the likes of Time magazine and the New York Times, Borowick documented her parent’s parallel treatments for stage-four cancer. And as a photojournalist in East Africa, Ohanesian has covered war, refugee crisis, climate change, and illegal mining. Not only has she witnessed and documented extreme human brutality, she has been caught in the crossfire on more than one occasion.

As part of B&H’s content for International Women’s Day, which is on March 8, 2020, we asked Borowick and Ohanesian to join us for a conversation about the role photography has played in their lives and to discuss their careers thus far. For both women, 2019 will be a watershed year—Borowick welcomed her first baby and Ohanesian survived a plane crash that has left her broken but unbowed. After a decade of “the hustle,” they also take a moment to gaze into the future of their photo careers and we are proud to be privy to this conversation and present it to our listeners. Join us for this real-world conversation among two accomplished photographers.

Guests: Adriane Ohanesian and Nancy Borowick

Adriane Ohanesian and Nancy Borowick at the International Center of Photography, in 2010. Photograph courtesy Nancy Borowick

Allan Weitz, Adriane Ohanesian, and Nancy Borowick. Photograph © John Harris

Hundreds of women and children who have fled the fighting and are seeking shelter from continued bombing by the Sudanese government's forces live in a cave, in Central Darfur, Sudan, March 2, 2015. Photograph © Adriane Ohanesian

A young boy looks over the Mahama Refugee Camp that currently houses more than 24,000 people who have fled from Burundi to Rwanda, May 14, 2015. Photograph © Adriane Ohanesian

Martha helps to bury her six-month-old daughter, in a mass grave for children in the cemetery across the road from the UN base in Bentiu, South Sudan, June 30, 2014. Photograph © Adriane Ohanesian

Healthcare workers pause for a photo as they finish dressing in their Personal Protective Equipment, at the beginning of the morning shift at the treatment center in Butembo, the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, March 5, 2019. Photograph © Adriane Ohanesian for The Wall Street Journal

Ebola responders with an armed police escort run with one of two coffins to be buried at the cemetery on a hill in Butembo, the epicenter of the Ebola epidemic in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, March 6, 2019. The responders have been a frequent target in attacks by community members and militias. Photograph © Adriane Ohanesian for The Wall Street Journal