2008 Board of Directors Election
Please be advised of the following results for the SPE Board election. The vote was tallied in the SPE national office and certified by
the Society Treasurer in Rochester on 11/30/07.
Elected to the SPE board:
Christina Z. Anderson
Cass Fey
Michael Marshall
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Christina Z. Anderson
Bio
Christina Z. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana. She earned a
BA in French at the University of Minnesota, and two degrees-painting and photography--at Montana State University. Her MFA
is from Clemson University, South Carolina, where she studied under alternative process mentor, Sam Wang. She teaches
experimental, alternative process, and documentary photography classes at MSU. She has written three books:
Tutti Nudi: Reflections on the Reemergence of the Nude During the Italian Renaissance, The Experimental
Photography Workbook, and
Alternative Processes, Condensed. In the works is a book on the gum bichromate process. Christina's work,
which has been in
exhibitions nationally as well as Europe, China, and New Zealand, centers on themes of the social and/or spiritual
landscape
expressed in alternative and experimental methods of image making.
Statement
I came to photography by way of a painting degree in 1996 and was instantly hooked. This freshness of perspective toward the
medium is an asset to my serving on the SPE board. I am enthusiastic about photography, both historical and contemporary,
and about conveying that enthusiasm in an academic setting. I have organizational and discernment skills, or so I am told,
that would serve SPE well as a board member. I don't have any particular agendas at this time, preferring to sit back and
listen for a while in order to represent a larger constituency. SPE is an incredible networking organization. If I were to
express one hope, it would be that SPE remains ecumenical in its approach, reaching out to photo educators in all walks. In
that regard, I would love to see SPE conferences grow in pedagogical sharing so that attendees can bring back to their
workplaces more practical methods of sharing the art. I would love to see more heated, informal, theoretical discussions
carried out at the hotel wine bar! Forget the analog vs. digital debate-that is so "24 hours ago". I say that somewhat
tongue-in-cheek as a professor who teaches historical processes with state of the art digital negative techniques. SPE
has been and should continue to be a breeding ground for future trends, with a motto of "You heard it from us first". A bit
of humor, of course, always helps.
Cass Fey
Bio & Statement
I have held the position of Curator of Education at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona since
1993, and I have been a member of SPE since 1994. My love of photography blossomed in the darkroom as an undergraduate
studio and art history major at the University of New Hampshire and, while in graduate school, I relished passing that
enthusiasm on to middle and high school students. Today, as a museum educator, I use the Center's galleries and print study
area as classrooms to encourage, faculty, students, and the general public to explore the infinitely enriching ways in which
artists communicate their ideas through photography. I am a member of the National Art Education Association and have
presented several programs at their annual conferences and published the instructional resource, Examining the Art of
Photography, in their professional journal.
My involvement with SPE has grown in concert with the enrichment I have achieved through my association with this unique
institution. I began attending regional and national conferences in 1994 and, in 1997 I presented the first of many
conference programs. I've also moderated panels and I served on the organizing committee of the 1999 National Conference
held in Tucson. Currently, I am on the organizing committee of the upcoming Southwest and Western Regional Conference in
Tucson. I served on the SPE Publications Committee from 1998-2002 and was elected to our National Board in 2003. As Board
Secretary, I serve on your Executive Committee, where I and have been closely involved with both the ongoing business of
SPE and with the exciting new directions we are forging. Those most close to my heart include: the re-design of exposure
and the hiring of Carla Williams as our editor; strategic planning efforts to examine what we are doing and to determine
how we should achieve the goals our members value most; the crafting of the recent membership survey; the development of a
new, member-oriented Web site that will be introduced in the fall, and the hiring of our new Executive Director, Virginia
Morrison.
This is an exciting time to be a part of SPE. Our entire organization—staff, Board and committee members, and
members—are dedicated to our future solvency and relevancy, and I am eager to continue contributing to those efforts. I have enjoyed
bringing the many perspectives of a teacher, museum educator, program facilitator, and student mentor to the National Board
and I have found no more rewarding volunteer service to our field.
Michael Marshall
Bio
Michael Marshall is an Associate Professor and Area Chair of Photography at the University of Georgia, in Athens. He has
been an active member of SPE since 1997 serving as the vice-chair of the southeast region for the past three years, and
chairing two regional SPE conferences (southwest in 1998, southeast in 2004). He received an SPE conference scholarship as a
graduate student at Arizona State University and has given lectures on his work at three national SPE conferences since
then. For the past ten years his work has explored the intersections of science and the left brained sensibility of
intuition and emotion, a mirror of his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Studio Art. Over that time the work has
evolved from delicate platinum prints to his current mixed media constructions of digital printing, encaustic and wood.
This innovative work has been widely exhibited with five solo exhibitions in 2007 including Atlanta, Philadelphia and the
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Germany.
Statement
SPE inspires what I value in a community through citizenship and service, expression, inspiration, the resources of
information and invaluable friendships. I am excited about the positive direction of SPE's recent growth, and even more
inspired by its potential. Through my administrative experience I have developed skills in the complex processes of
dialogue, planning and execution necessary to contribute to a large organization. The wide range of our constituency from
darkroom to digital, students to professionals, and inspiration to practical matters of our working process, makes this an
exciting and challenging environment that is continually evolving. The Internet remains a far under-utilized tool for
this organization with the potential to make available the wealth of knowledge, history, resources and exchange that
our membership encompasses. It is a challenging time of growth, integrating new media and new technology while seeking
institutional support for the traditions of our craft. I would be honored to be on the SPE board, to use my experience to
serve and support the advocacy of education and the arts, and the continued growth of this organization.
Arno Rafael Minkkinen
Bio
Arno Rafael Minkkinen is a Finnish American photographer, essayist, educator and curator. His teaching career has been
extensive and international in scope; currently he is Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and docent
at the University of Art & Design Helsinki.
Along with worldwide exhibition and publication of his self-portrait work, his monographs include: Frostbite (1978),
Waterline (Aperture, 1995, Rencontres d'Arles Book Prize), Body Land (Motta, 1997), and
SAGA: The Journey of Arno Rafael
Minkkinen: Thirty-Five Years of Photographs (Chronicle, 2005) with essays by Allan Lightman, A.D. Coleman, and Arthur C.
Danto. The SAGA exhibition returns to America from a European and Canadian tour in 2009.
Minkkinen's photographs are in numerous collections including the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Maison
Européenne de la Photographie, the Musée de l'Élysée in Lausanne, and the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of
Photography among
many others. He is represented by Robert Klein Gallery in Boston, Fay Gold in Atlanta, Galerie Anhava in Helsinki, and
Tibor de Nagy Gallery and Barry Friedman Ltd. in New York.
Statement
I have often felt that if I stopped photographing I would stop teaching. The opposite scenario-if I stopped teaching, creative output would
diminish-also rings true. Perhaps you sense this connection too between our tandem roles as researchers and educators, that seeing and
teaching feed upon each other, like two friends climbing a mountain, each one taking turns to pull the other one up. In the early seventies,
I studied with Callahan and Siskind, as did many lucky students during those short years they collaborated at RISD. I always felt that the
passion that each had for photography also applied (certainly Aaron, but Harry too) to their outlook on teaching. The way Harry put it was
simple: teaching "nourished" his vision. His vision, in turn, nourished us.
Teaching art is making it. Being a member of SPE-as I have been more often than not-over the past 30 years has allowed me to dedicate my
career to that inseparable need and desire to be both a maker of images and an image educator.
I recently returned from Norway where I taught a workshop in the Lofoten Islands well above the Arctic Circle. Two weeks before that I was
teaching in Vilnius, Lithuania. I have taught in Finland, France, Italy, and Switzerland over many years. I would like to serve on the SPE
board to help our organization take its rightful place on the world stage of photography-not only to participate in the global art community
but to find nourishment from all the vast richness such participation can surely offer.
Links:
Current board bios and statements
Recent board history
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