Ground Meets Water:

Photographs by
Michael Chovan-Dalton

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RECEPTION THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th 6-8pm

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The Fordham University Galleries
Ildiko Butler Gallery
June 9 – September 7, 2025
 Fordham University at Lincoln Center map
113 West 60th Street at Columbus Avenue
New York, NY 10023
fordhamuniversitygalleries

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In 1993 I moved to Hoboken, New Jersey and began to explore what this latest version of home was going to mean to me. After travelling along different NJ Transit rail lines, and wandering around different train stations, I found myself being drawn to ponds, reservoirs, and rivers that had become fishing holes for families. The spiritual and adventurous interactions between parents and children, along with the feeling that a tradition or an important skill was being passed along, was fascinating and beautiful to me.

I call this work Ground Meets Water because I always felt that there was a coming together at these fishing holes, a kind of “levelling of the playing field” with me and with others. People were generous with their time, their food, and their conversation and I am grateful for that.
— Michael Chovan-Dalton


Michael Chovan-Dalton is a photographer and Professor of Photography at Mercer County College in New Jersey and the Director of the JKC Gallery in Trenton NJ.  He is the producer of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf and the host of Real Photo Show podcasts. He is also a founding member and curator of the Homecoming Biennial at RIT and the media partner for the Chico Portfolio Review in Montana. His work is in the collections of SF MOMA and The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. Chovan-Dalton received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and his MFA from Columbia University.