2015 SPE Annual ConferenceSpeakers

Jennifer Schwartz

Friday, March 13, 2015 @ 9:00am, Celestin E

Create Demand for Your Work

Jennifer Schwartz is the creator/director of Crusade for Art, a non-profit organization dedicated to cultivating demand for photography. In 2013, she traveled the country in a 1977 VW bus, engaging audiences with photography. Her book,... read more

Michael Shaw

Friday, March 13, 2015 @ 9:00am, Celestin BC

BagNewsNotes: Visualizing Photojournalism in Today's Media and Social Media Ecology, and the Atmosphere for Literacy

As founder and publisher of the highly regarded photojournalism and media literacy site, BagNewsNotes, Michael Shaw is an analyst of news photos and visual journalism. Highly skilled at dissecting imagery and the function of photographs... read more

Lara Shipley

Saturday, March 14, 2015 @ 2:00pm, Celestin BC

Devil's Promenade

Lara Shipley is a photographer, writer, and bookmaker. She founded the photography book publisher SEARCH PARTY, and recently released a series of books, Spook Light Chronicles, with collaborator Antone Dolezal. She received a MFA in... read more

Kurt Simonson

Saturday, March 14, 2015 @ 9:00am, Celestin FGH

Lure of the Local: Issues in Photographing the Familiar

Kurt Simonson is an artist/educator based in Long Beach, California, whose work explores the longings and tensions that surround our ideas of home, community, and identity. Simonson's work is regularly exhibited nationally and internationally, and... read more

Charan Singh

Friday, March 13, 2015 @ 1:00pm, Celestin FGH

Should there be Queer Photography Archives?

Charan Singh, who has a MFA (Photography) from the University for the Creative Arts, Farnham, UK (2014), lives and works in London and India. His photography is informed by many years of HIV/AIDS work and... read more

Linda Smith

Saturday, March 14, 2015 @ 10:25am, Celestin A

David and Rosemary

Linda Smith is a photo-based artist in the NYC area, who creates narratives through still and moving images. She has lived in over four continents. She is currently completing her MFA at the University... read more

Sheida Soleimani

Saturday, March 14, 2015 @ 10:50am, Celestin A

Political and Economical Climates/Gross Domestic Product Reports

Sheida Soleimani is an Iranian-American artist, currently doing her graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. The daughter of two political refugees, Sheida references situations in relevance to her own and her parents'... read more

Rebecca Solnit

Thursday, March 12, 2015 @ 7:00pm, Celestin Ballroom

Thursday Evening Guest Speaker: Rebecca Solnit

Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of 16 books about environment, landscape, community, art, politics, hope, and memory, including two atlases, of San Francisco in 2010 and, with Rebecca Snedeker, New Orleans... read more

Ashly Stohl

Saturday, March 14, 2015 @ 9:00am, Celestin FGH

Lure of the Local: Issues in Photographing the Familiar

Ashly Stohl examines community as an extension of the family, and believes that the families that people create for themselves can be as revealing as the ones to which they were born. ... read more

Jim Stone

Friday, March 13, 2015 @ 1:00pm, Celestin BC

Shooting for the Stars: Starting on the Path to Success in Academia

Jim Stone turned to photography while studying engineering at MIT. His photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, and collected by the Museum of Modern Art, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian American Art... read more

Mary Virginia Swanson

Thursday, March 12, 2015 @ 9:00am, Imperial 5ab

Student Seminar: " A Life in Art: The Realities and the Economy"

(Mary Virginia Swanson (MFA, Arizona State University) is an author, educator and advisor who helps artists find the strengths in their work, identify appreciative audiences, and present their work in an informed, professional manner. She... read more

Michelle Tinta currently teaches Visual Arts and Photographic and Digital Media at St. Joseph's College, Sydney, Australia. Michelle graduated from the College of Fine Arts, Sydney with a Bachelor of Education, Visual Arts. Exploring applications... read more