Nadia Lee Cohen and Scarlett Carlos Clarke Launch Enigmatic New Photo Book 'Podunk'

The acclaimed photographers sit down to discuss their collaborative new project, shot on Super 8 film in the Mojave Desert.

Summary

• Photographers Nadia Lee Cohen and Scarlett Carlos Clarke have collaborated on a new photo book titled Podunk, published by IDEA Books
• Shot entirely on Super 8 film in a remote town in California’s Mojave Desert, the project features 128 black-and-white stills exploring themes of matriarchy, surreal femininity, and weird family dynamics
• The book celebrated its official launch at Dover Street Market Ginza in Tokyo

Photographers and longtime friends Nadia Lee Cohen and Scarlett Carlos Clarke are pulling back the curtain on their latest collaborative project, Podunk. Equal parts ominous and eerie, the enigmatic new photo book published by IDEA Books captures the weirdness and surrealness of womanhood, femininity, and motherhood. Ahead of the book’s official launch earlier last month, the two creatives revealed what it was like during their grueling desert shoot and the rebellious instinct of shooting on actual film in a heavily digital age.

Taking its name from the modern American slang for an insignificant or isolated town, Podunk was shot in Lancaster, California—a remote town located in the Mojave Desert’s Antelope Valley. The project features 128 stills extracted directly from Super 8 film, which marks a deliberate departure from Carlos Clarke’s typically colorful work. The photographers told Dazed, the spontaneous, freezing desert shoot captured a distinctly “matriarchal” energy. “The stills felt like a black and white art movie,” Cohen noted. “There was something matriarchal about the whole thing—not a grown man in sight.”

The decision to launch the book in Japan was actually inspired by a cinematic parallel. Cohen likened the raw footage from Podunk to Onibaba, a classic Japanese film about women fighting to survive while the men are away at war. That underlying matriarchal theme became the emotional core of the book, making Tokyo the perfect destination for the physical launch.

Having been friends for nearly a decade, the two have built a deep level of trust that heavily influences their creative output. This intimate dynamic allowed them to strip away the rigid, stressful nature of modern commercial photography. By keeping the crew incredibly small and leaning into the less precious, unpredictable nature of shooting on Super 8 film, the duo managed to capture a raw authenticity that avoids the heavily posed, high-definition aesthetics so prevalent on social media today.

Podunk by Nadia Lee Cohen and Scarlett Carlos Clarke is officially out now via IDEA Books. The photo book celebrated its global launch with a special event at Dover Street Market Ginza late last month.