2024 SPE Annual Conference Overview

New Realities

When March 21-23, 2024
Where Marriott St. Louis Grand, St. Louis, Missouri

Download our 2024 Conference Poster

Our Registration is now open! 

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Featured Speakers: Phillip Toledano, Coco Fusco

Honored Educator: Zig Jackson Rising Buffalo
Inisght Award: Keith Carter
Imagemaker Award: Andres de Varona & Marcia Reifman
Lauren Shrensel Zadikow Award: Megan Jacobs
High School Educator Award: Justin Goh
Student Awards for Innovative Imaging: Charlie Tadlock, Dominique Munoz, Giselle Mira Diaz, Matthew Troyer, Natcha Wongchanglaw, & Sidian Liu

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The photographic arts are increasingly diverse and dynamic fields, encompassing everything from traditional film to cutting-edge digital technologies, including: immersive virtual reality, image recognition, text-to-image artificial intelligence, and more. With the widespread availability of digital cameras and smartphones, photography has become more accessible and democratized than ever before, allowing people from all walks of life to capture, edit, and share images with ease.

Rapid changes in technology have always played a significant role in shaping how photographs are made, consumed, and understood. Today, advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning are bringing new tools and techniques to photographers, while introducing myriad ethical questions regarding truth, authorship, the potential for misinformation, and the nature of artmaking itself. At the same time, there is a growing resurgence in the medium's use for addressing social and
environmental issues, as photographers make images to raise awareness and bring attention to important causes. The future of photography is being shaped simultaneously by technological innovation and a rekindled desire for a more personal and authentic approach to making pictures.

SPE invites members and non-members to submit proposals that interrogate our New Realities; the evolving social, political, and technological circumstances that confront us in our daily photographic and pedagogical practices. Successful proposals will embrace the expanding diversity of the photographic medium,
including: immersive visual storytelling, interdisciplinary research, intersectional thinking, and novel experimental practices. We encourage proposals that push the boundaries of our traditional sessions and invite audience participation, including process workshops, teaching demonstrations, and writing seminars. We
are eager to see proposals that expand, re-define, and challenge our notions of lens-based media, and how they are practiced, taught, and learned.

Registration Opens November 1, 2023

Reserve your room at the Mariott St. Louis Grand using the SPE Room Block for a special discounted rate: https://book.passkey.com/event/50696316/owner/84420/home

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SPE Juried Members Exhibition

Juror – Eric Lutz, Associate Curator of prints, drawings, and photographs at the St. Louis Art Museum

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Exhibition Dates March 4th -27th, 2024

Artist Reception March 21, 5:00-7:00pm

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12th International Combined Caucus Juried Exhibition

Juror – Sama Alshaibi

Washington University in St. Louis

Artist Reception March 22, 6:00-8:00pm

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