2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pageThe Blue of Distance
Jordan Putt & Kelli Connell
Saturday, March 21 - 3:30PM to 4:30PM
Valdosta
"The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, and the color of where you are not." -Rebecca Solnit
The Blue of Distance is a conversation between artists Kelli Connell and Jordan Putt. In a discussion and presentation of their work, they will unpack how the act of wandering shapes their photographic practices. For Connell and Putt, getting lost is not a mistake, but a voluntary surrendering of control, and welcoming of distractions. Their work emerges through slow, intuitive movement across the geography and building relationships, using the unknown as both material and process.
The artists will consider how slowness, distance, and uncertainty function as generative forces in art-making. Connell will discuss her project Pictures for Charis, in which she retraces the travels of writer and model Charis Wilson, Edward Weston's collaborator and partner, while simultaneously telling her own story through image and text. Putt will speak about his series In Search of Giants, which follows his search for the rare crested saguaro in southern Arizona.
This session invites artists and educators to consider the role of disorientation and delay in their work, not as obstacles, but as ways of encountering what lies just beyond reach.
speakers
Jordan Putt
Kelli Connell
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