My name is Adam David Bencomo. My journey as an artist began over a decade ago when my experience as a photo student pulled me past treating photography as a hobby, into treating it as a passion. Over the years, I photographed my family, my underwear, the inside of my car, memorials and more, all in the pursuit of the essence of my identity. Once attending graduate school, I allowed myself to be a queer artist. I had always separated my queerness from my artistry, but mixing these, gloriously, has allowed me to talk about hardships and successes as a queer person of color. It was in grad school that I found myself attending SPE conferences for the first time, which allowed me to share my queer art with a photographic community. Today, I continue to use my art to elevate and amplify queer voices of color, and I have no intention of wavering from that. I bring that to my art, my classroom and my everyday life, and I will do the same within SPE.

As a queer educator of color, I have experienced roadblocks in my career path and have had to overcome the tribulations of racism and bigotry. Due to perseverance, most of the troubles are now behind me. As a board member of SPE, I intend to help diversify the artists and speakers within the SPE community and increase accessibility, objectives that I believe will insure a strong future for the organization. I will use every resource at my disposal to find ways to increase accessibility and to integrate voices from all walks of life that have been silenced in the past. With more diverse artists and educators coming to SPE, it will evolve to better serve the photographic community for years to come.

I'm a first generation Mexican-American Woman born to parents that are immigrants, becoming a product of the American Dream. All my mom ever wanted for her children was to get an education, to help further the family. I recently received my MFA in Visual Arts at The University of Texas At San Antonio. By wanting to make my mom proud I've been able to achieve things I never thought a little brown girl from a small town could do. They include solo exhibitions: Satellite Gallery, Huntsville, TX; The Brick, San Antonio, TX; Presa House Gallery, San Antonio, TX; Casa Lu, Mexico City. Numerous group exhibitions: Luis Leu Gallery, Karlsruhe, Germany; The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio, TX; Won Best in Show at "56th Annual Juried Competition Exhibition'' at Masur Museum in Monroe, Louisiana. Winning two CAMMIE awards from Blue Star Contemporary and Luminaria Contemporary Cultural Center during Contemporary Art Month 2020. Having two publications collected by The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Lastly, being hired as the Photography Professor at Dine College, that's the first Native-American College.

The reason I want to be a part of the SPE Board of Directors is because I'm part of a generation of artists that's been wanting a seat at the table, that has many ideas that could help advance the new coming artist. I wish I knew sooner about SPE because I've met some incredible people here that have helped me understand that my artwork is important. I want to be the person that they can relate to and to let them know that I was once scared of not making it because no one looked like me. But here I am years later, making a place for myself in a world that I've been told many times that I don't belong.

Michael Darough graduated from the University of Memphis, earning an MFA in photography in 2011 and his BFA in photography from Arizona State University in 2007. His work explores the intersection of personal and cultural identity though tableau and portraiture. Darough received a Fulbright seminar grant addressing diversity in German education, which was hosted by the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.  He is a nationally exhibiting artist whose work has recently been shown at the Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, TN and the Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO.  He is a Silver Eye Fellowship 20 recipient and a 2020 finalist for the Arnold Newman Prize For New Directions in Photographic Portraiture.  Currently, Darough is a practicing artist and educator working in St. Louis, MO.

I have been a part of SPE for the last 10 years.  I first heard about it as undergrad from one of my professors but didn't get a chance to get involved until graduate school.  I volunteered for a regional conference.  I made sure everything was ready for the speakers and listened to as many lectures as possible.  It wasn't until a few years later, at the Baltimore national conference, as a new college professor that I truly learned about our photographic community and what SPE has to offer.  It has been a resource to me and to my students that I bring to conferences each year. SPE is photo camp; it's my direct connection to working photographers.  It is an organization that I love being a part of but I know is struggling, financially and with membership numbers.  If elected to the board I will do what I can to help grow and sustain SPE.

I am an Associate Professor of Art specializing in Photography, and gallery director at Vincennes University in southwestern Indiana.  I have been a longtime member and student advocate of SPE where I served as national Student Volunteer Coordinator and Social Media Chair. In addition, I have held various leadership positions in several photo arts organizations including Texas Photographic Society and Ticka-Arts.

 As an active SPE member,  I have witnessed the continued evolution and changes within the organization as well as the challenges faced. Challenges with membership, financials, and leadership have taken its toll on this venerable organization.

 Recognizing that change is a must for organizations such as SPE, I feel that the combination of my experiences can add to the conversations and promote effective change on the board. These conversations will help broaden the perception of the organization in academia and the general public. My experience includes:

 Art Practice:  Research history includes self-representation and imagery related to social media.

 Pedagogy: Teaching in several different academic environments: for profit, community colleges and universities. These opportunities enable me to adapt and communicate to a diverse student/academic population.

 Curatorial Experience: Director of the Shircliff Gallery of Art (Vincennes University)

 International Experience: Travels abroad to China, Italy and Greece. This exposure has expanded my interest to diversify photo history and pedagogy.

I believe the relationships that I have developed as a member of both the MCC and the LGBTQ Caucuses over the years has given me a unique view of the needs and challenges of today's diverse membership base.

Ultimately my presence on the board would be a visible example of accessibility to students who do not  have the opportunity to see and be taught by BIPOC in their pursuit of an art education. 

Larry Gawel grew up in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and holds a BFA Degree in Applied Media Arts with a concentration in Photography from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania and an MFA in Studio Art with a concentration in Photography from Penn State. After graduation, he relocated to Tempe, Arizona where he established his art practice, started a commercial photography business, and held adjunct teaching positions at both Arizona State University, and within the Maricopa County Community College system. In 1998, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska and began working at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, a position that he still holds. Since 2002 he has been Photography Program Coordinator, managing a department that includes four full-time and four adjunct faculty members for a student body of between 150 and 200 students. In 2008, he founded WorkSpace Gallery in Lincoln, Nebraska to exhibit work by contemporary photographers. He served as Chairperson of the Midwest Chapter of the SPE from 2013 to 2019.  

I've been a member of SPE since 1998, and have watched the organization go through great changes during the past twenty-two years. While serving as the Chairperson of the Midwest Chapter of SPE, I, along with several other of the then Regional Chairs, worked to change organizational policy regarding Regional/Chapter accounting and financing, an endeavor that proved to be largely successful. If elected to the National Board I would like to, first and foremost, find and establish ethical and sustainable ways to bring the organization to financial stability. After this, my interest lies in establishing organizational policies and procedures that further promote an inclusive environment for our membership by recognizing and partnering with other methods of photographic instruction that are outside of a traditional academic model.

Abbey Hepner is Assistant Professor of Photography at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She holds undergraduate degrees in Art and Psychology from the University of Utah and an MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico. Her work examines health, technology, and our relationship with place. She frequently works at the intersection of art and science, examining biopolitics and the use of health as a currency. Her work has been exhibited widely, and her first monograph, The Light at the End of History, will be published by Daylight Books in 2021.

I have been an SPE member for eleven years and served as the Southwest Chapter Chair from 2017 to 2020. SPE has been an invaluable asset in my growth as an artist and educator. As a board member, I would help take the lead on urgent issues, including diversity, inclusion, and access. I want to help guide the future of SPE, encouraging agility as we look at how technology and the global economy are transforming professions in the arts. As COVID-19 has changed the world, it has also shattered the myth of isolation. Our global interconnectedness highlights the importance of thinking about how SPE can be a resource globally and encourage cross-cultural collaborations. As a board member, I would also examine how SPE can help remove barriers to access in terms of participation in SPE's programming and encourage platforms for disability advocacy for students and faculty. As our global attention has turned to health, many are recognizing for the first time the kind of barriers to access that others have grappled with their whole life. We have also been able to find unique and accommodating ways of creating access where it seemed impossible before. I will facilitate conversations around future programming and equity for individuals with varied abilities.

Nick Shepard is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Sacramento State University. Before joining Sacramento State in 2015, he taught at Humboldt State University and Photo Center Northwest in Seattle. He received his MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and his BA in Studio Art and Art History from Carleton College. His work has appeared at the Crocker Art Museum, the Wassaic Project, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock. He is an active member of Axis Gallery in Sacramento where he shows regularly. His work explores the construction of images and spaces, as well as the relationship between the two. @nickeshep / nickshepard.com

It is an honor to be included on this slate. I attended my first regional conference in 2007 and have attended many regional and national conferences since. I have been serving as the West Chapter Chair since March. I've seen firsthand how inspirational SPE conferences are for students, especially those who have no idea what to expect. We should work to make these experiences as accessible to students as possible. I also know how valuable it is to reconnect year after year, as I have been fortunate to develop a robust network of friends, mentors, and colleagues through SPE. I have learned so much by listening to SPE's thoughtful, engaged members. SPE must grow with the times; this means the ways we communicate, the makeup of our membership, the ways we connect with each other, and the work we share as artists. I would be honored to contribute my energy, enthusiasm, and experiences as a board member of other organizations to this community that I believe in deeply.

Joshua White uses photography and mixed media to investigate memory, mortality, and ecology. His images have been shown internationally, and featured by National Geographic, Fraction Magazine, Don't Take Pictures, among others. He received his MFA in Photography from Arizona State University, and is an award winning banjo player, associate professor, and the Photography Area Coordinator in Studio Art at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

Since joining SPE in 2013, I have seen what a vibrant community of passionate artists, educators, and students we are, and I deeply value the relationships I have made through SPE. As the Vice-Chair of the Southeast, I have attended many meetings where we ask, "What is the value of SPE?" And outside of conference attendance and community, I don't know. But I know we need to work hard to find out and provide more than just a conference to our members. I also know that we are a predominantly white organization, and our operations have been largely opaque over our history. As a cisgender, heterosexual, white person with tenure, I have a position of extreme privilege, and I am doing my best to recognize that privilege and use it to amplify the voices of others. I am not sure if I am a good candidate for the board. I have no special skills related to running a non-profit organization, and people with my level of privilege have been a the helm since SPE began. What I do have is a willingness to work, listen, and learn, and try to use my position of privilege to make SPE a more inclusive, equitable, and transparent organization that celebrates the diversity of the photo community. Not because it is popular, performative, or timely, but because it is right and will make SPE a better organization.