Left: Keynote Speaker Barry Lopez was commended for his "humble and insightful" lecture. Center: Conference Program Chair Phil Harris (l) and SPE Executive Director Jennifer Yamashiro (r) celebrate Honored Educator Linda Connor. Right: Featured Speaker Mark Klett takes questions after his standing-room-only presentation.

Society for Photographic Education
2005 National Conference Review

PASSAGE

42nd National Conference – March 17-20, 2005
Portland, Oregon at the Hilton Portland & Executive Towers

From the Executive Director
on the 42nd SPE National Conference

During the bicentennial of Lewis & Clark’s landmark historic negotiation of the Northwest, SPE held its 42nd National Conference in Portland, Oregon. Our conference, Passage, was not only a great success, but marked several milestones for the organization. Every year, SPE organizes a vibrant annual national conference with four days of plenary sessions, featured speakers, along with an exhibits fair featuring the latest and greatest books, equipment and opportunities in the field, gallery walks and social events. Recent conferences have also included formal portfolio reviews, informal portfolio sharing, job fairs, workshops for aspiring artists and educators, and scholarships and awards honoring our best students and educators. This year, significant additions were made to the already rich program and we witnessed landmark passages within the organization.

Neil Chowdhury receives the first Garry B Fritz Imagemaker Award

Garry B Fritz Imagemaker Award was established in 2004 in honor and in memory of Garry B Fritz, an SPE member with a long-time interest in photography. Funded by a generous gift through the Oregon Community Foundation, the award is granted annually to an artist presenting for the first time as an imagemaker at the national conference. In Portland, the organization’s first imagemaker award was presented to Neil Chowdhury, Assistant Professor at Zayed University in Dubai. This first imagemaker award is an important complement to the ten SPE Student Awards and the prestigious Crystal Apple Award that are available to student members.

New programming dedicated to education included pre-conference workshops on academic careers and the future of photographic education and an Educators Fair. The extremely popular Academic Practicum Workshops offered two tracks of programming – one geared toward academic survival, expectation and success; the other focused on the future of photographic education. Thirteen presenters led the workshops to a total of 120 participants. The 2005 SPE also launched an the Educators Fair, designed to feature schools with accredited undergraduate and graduate programs in photography and related media at colleges and universities. Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, the University of Oregon, Virginia Commonwealth University, Oregon College of Art and Craft, San Francisco Art Institute, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, Florida State University, Syracuse University/LightWork, and the School of Visual Arts participated in this new venue for bringing educators and potential students together.

The ASMP Foundation awarded SPE a grant (funded in full) to support our portfolio reviews. This generous sponsorship helped to support some of the basic expenses associated with the production of this extensive part of the conference program. SPE also received external support from long-time supporters, including sponsors: Adobe, Calumet, Eastman Kodak, Freestyle, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Fuji and the University of Oregon. A special thanks also to Nazraeli Press, Polaroid and the Oregon Community Fund for their contributions.

The force behind Passage was different this year. Ashley Peel Pinkham joined the hardworking conference team as our national conference planner. What a relief! SPE also welcomed Executive Assistant Travis Linville to the staff as overseer of the membership records and conference registration. Carla Williams guest edited the spring 2005 issue of exposure and became our permanent editor in March. The other changes on the staff were not additions, but transitions. Jeannie Pearce and Hannah Frieser, two exceptional members of the organization’s operations, decided to accept new challenges and opportunities in their lives this year. Mary Brown, Advertising Coordinator, also decided to move on to new challenges. Gina Rubin, Corporate Sponsor & Development Officer, bravely stepped forward to fill the shoes of Jeannie and Mary. Thank you to Kelly O’Malley, Administrative Assistant extraordinaire, for staying with SPE through these operational transitions! It is fitting that the end of an era and the beginning of a new one was marked by our conference Passage.

From left: Former Chair of the Board Gary Kolb presents staff members Jeannie Pearce and Hannah Frieser with goodbye presents as Ashley Peel Pinkham and Gina Rubin assist

The tremendous contributions of Jeannie Pearce, Corporate Sponsor Liaison (1998-2005), and Hannah Frieser, Registrar and Jack-of-All-Trades (1994-2005), were recognized publicly in Portland. SPE presented each of these esteemed members with a photograph by Featured Speaker Mark Klett. Hannah’s service to membership was further recognized with a ten-year complimentary membership to SPE. Through her fundraising for SPE, Jeannie developed an interest in supporting students. To honor her interest, SPE created a the Jeannie Pearce Award, a new scholarship opportunity, supported through the SPE student scholarship fund to be awarded next year in Chicago to a student working with digital media.

Major highlights of the conference were featured talks by Barry Lopez, who delivered an engaging keynote address on the importance of teaching and the relationship between social responsibility and the artistic endeavor, Featured Speaker Mark Klett, Honored Educator Linda Connor, Michael Kenna, Paul Berger and Bob Edgerton. The national conference compelled 1,157 individuals, including148 exhibitors, to convene in March at the Portland Hilton & Executive Towers. Phil Harris, the conference program chair, along with the 2005 national conference committee assembled a stellar program with 70 speakers that drew 865 members and 154 non-members. In addition to the strong interest in the pre-conference workshop offered by Adobe (161 registered) and the Academic Practicum Workshop, participation in the portfolio reviews was also strong, with 71 reviewers offering 362 reviews to students and 253 reviews to professionals. The membership reached 1600 just prior to the annual conference, which means that over half of the organization’s members attended the 2005 National Conference. Of 389 student members in attendance, 135 volunteered and contributed to the smooth running of the event. And smooth it was! Thank you for your contributions to the journey.

Jennifer Pearson Yamashiro, PhD
SPE Executive Director

PS: Since the conference, another transition on our staff has occurred. Sonya A. Lawyer will become the next Executive Assistant in the SPE National Office. Welcome aboard Sonya!

Smooth Passage, conference feedback compiled by Sandy Sorlien
Academic Practicum Workshops, a summary by Liz Lee
Barry Lopez keynote address, available to conference attendees on dvd
Special thanks to conference planners, speakers, sponsors and more

photographs courtesy of Ryan Flathau and Harris Fogel