I’ve been actively involved with the Society for Photographic Education since my undergraduate days, first as a conference volunteer, then participating in coordinating regional and national conferences and serving on western regional then the national board. For many years now my friend and colleague Susan kae Grant (whom I met when we were student volunteers) offers a student seminar for the conference volunteers and scholarship winners, held just prior to the start of the conference. Whether you are directly involved in teaching, are an art maker, write about the arts, curate exhibitions or are involved in other related activities, I encourage you to attend this year’s engaging conference, and get involved in your regional activities as well. Visit the conference website for complete details on presentations, portfolio reviews, exhibits fair and more.
TOMORROW is the postmark deadline for early registration. Details follow, see you there!
From the SPE 2009 conference website:
SPRAWL
“The city of Dallas provides an informative and imaginative backdrop for the conference theme. Like other metropolitan areas since the 1960s, Dallas has seen suburban sprawl reshape its civic geography and identity. Sprawl then is a physical manifestation of civic growth and population migration, housing developments and ‘big-box’ retail parks. But the concept of sprawl also prompts discussions of environmental conservation, the appropriate use of land and resources, the loss and/or renewal of city centers and close-knit neighborhood communities.
Cultural depictions of sprawl have long been a mainstay in popular culture, including the 1970s photo movement New Topographics, William Gibson’s cyberpunk fiction, the music of Sonic Youth, and in TV shows, such as “Weeds,” with its ‘burb’-inspired theme song “Little Boxes.” Sprawl—suburban landscape and life—serves as both cultural inspiration and critique.”
IMPORTANT DEADLINES AND DATES
FEBRUARY 14, 2009 – Early-bird conference registration, postmark deadline
FEBRUARY 20, 2009 – Deadline for conference registration cancellation
FEBRUARY 28, 2009 – Late conference registration, postmark deadline. After this date attendees must register on site.
MARCH 2, 2009 – Hotel Cut-Off Date for $149 Room Rate at The Fairmont Dallas Hotel
MARCH 27, 2009 – Exhibits Fair Hours 8:00 am – 4:00 pm
MARCH 28, 2009 – Exhibits Fair Hours 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
2009 Conference Participants with Abstracts and Bios
Main Presenters:
Keynote Speaker: James Howard Kunstler
Honored Educator: John Pfahl
Featured Speaker: Steve Dietz
Featured Speaker: Karen Finley
General Session Speakers:
IMAGEMAKERS
Jesus “Chuy” Benitez – Houston Cultura: Panoramas and Portraits of Houston’s Mexican-American Community | Jeff Brouws – “It Don’t Exist:” The Impact of Sprawl and Suburban Build-Out on Inner-City America | Gary Cialdella – The Calumet Region: An American Place | Ruth Dusseault – What Are They Doing Out There? Recreational War in the Suburbs | Tom Fischer – Paradise/Paradox | Jessica Todd Harper – Interior Exposure | Debora Hunter – UA Search for Eden: Sprawl in Taos, NM | Jun Itoi – Tokyo Story | John Mann – Folded in Place | Bill McDowell – Ashes in the Night Sky | Osamu James Nakagawa – Banta (Cliff) | Rebecca Nolan and Meryl Truett – You Can’t Get There From Here | Sheila Pinkel – Site Unseen: Recent Social Works by Sheila Pinkel | Susana Raab – Consumed: Fast Food in the U.S. | Betsy Schneider – Phoenix, the New American City: A Video Portrait | Marni Shindelman and Nate Larson – Witness: A Psychic Collaboration | Vaughn Wascovich – The Tar Creek Project (Gary B Fritz Imagemaker Award winner)
LECTURES
Paula Bollers – Where We At? Patterns of Visibility in Suburban Space | Michael Brodsky – A History of Digital Photography | Christopher Burnett – The Processed Land: Sprawl and Reclamation | David Herman, Jr., and Shaun Wilson – Sight & Sound: Using Youth-Created Media to Explore Changing Communities | Sandy Sorlien – Malignancy on the Land | Mary Virginia Swanson – Reaching the World Online: Effective E-Marketing for Artists
PANELS
Rebecca Cummins withJ.D. Talasak, Justine Cooper, and Pamela Winfrey – Art in the House of Science | Judy Herrmann and Jay Kinghorn – Real World Solutions to Digital Technology Headaches | Mark Klett with Adam Thorman, Tracy Longley-Cook, and Chad White – Phoenix Transect Project: A Collaborative Look at Urban Growth and Change | Sandra Matthews with Deborah Bright, Kathy Kubicki, and Karen vanMeenen – Photography Journals and Cultural Debate | Katy McCormick with Susan kae Grant, Don Snyder, and Philip Zimmerman – Photobook as Pedagogical Space | Gregory Scott with Osamu James Nakagawa, Claude Cookman, and a panelist to be named – A New Way to Get the Shot: Recognizing The Growing Use of Multiple Photographs to Create New Depictions of Reality and Defining It as Hyper-Representation
GRADUATE STUDENT PRESENTERS
Victoria Victoria Clary – Off Northwest | Mark Geil – The Utopian Wake | Bruce Myren – Markers: History, Memory, and Home | Andrew O’Brien – Field Office | Jason Reblando – A Portrait of Public Housing | Alison Smith – In Between
ACADEMIC PRACTICUM WORKSHOPS
Michelle Bogre – Copyright: Update 2009 | Douglas Holleley – Structuring the Sprawl | Aspen Mays and AnnieLaurie Erickson – Weird Science: The Spectrum of Vision/The Science of Photography | Keith Shapiro – Meeting the Photography Education Needs of Growing University Populations
DEMONSTRATION PRESENTATIONS
Bill Gratton and Joe Lavine – What Do I Do with My 4×5 Camera Now? | Chad Jennings – Integrating Print-on-Demand Books and Bookmaking into Your Curriculum
“The Society for Photographic Education is a non-profit membership organization that provides a forum for the discussion of photography-related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight. Through its interdisciplinary programs, services and publications, the society seeks to promote a broader understanding of the medium in all its forms, and to foster the development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism.”
Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson 