2026 SPE Annual ConferenceSpeakers

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Vahid Valikhani

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 12:00pm, GSU

The Art of Wet Scanning: A Complete Film-to-Digital Workshop

Vahid Valikhani is a photographer and documentary filmmaker. He employs straight photography to illuminate environmental and social dynamics in his surroundings, both in his homeland and abroad. His scholarly work centers on archival materials, including... read more

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Jennifer Wilkosz

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 2:30pm, Georgia 12

Analog Meets Eco-Tech: Course Design for Sustainable Photography

Jen Wilkosz, a fine arts educator and photographer from Lebanon, Connecticut, blends traditional analog processes with eco-conscious digital practices. With an MFA in Photography from SCAD and over 16 years of teaching experience, she designs... read more

Nechama Winston

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 12:00pm, Georgia 6

The Power of the Photographic Zine

Nechama Winston is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in NYC. She is the co-founder and editor of New Poetics Publishing and works at Asya Geisberg Gallery. Winston is interested in working with the... read more

Sara J. Winston

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 2:30pm, Atlanta 3

An Unfixed Pilgrimage: Vulnerability, Kinship & Healing through Collaboration

Sara J. Winston is an artist who works with photographs, text, and the book form to describe and respond to chronic illness and its ongoing impact on her body, mind, family, and memory. Sara currently... read more

DM Witman

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 2:00pm, Atlanta 1

Navigating the Polycrisis

DM Witman is a transdisciplinary artist employing photographic materials, video, and installation. Her practice investigates climate disruption-at the intersection of presence/absence, resiliency, and ecology-relying on both archival impulses and ephemerality. Her creative practice is an... read more

Vanessa Wood

Friday, March 20, 2026 @ 9:00am, Atlanta 4

Cut Time: Collage and the Afterlives of Photographs

Vanessa Woods is an artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area whose practice, spanning photography, collage, and sculpture, explores themes of identity, motherhood, and gender. Since earning her MFA from the San Francisco Art... read more

Ruiqi Xu

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 1:30pm, Georgia 12

Folded Histories - A Study of the Fortune Cookie Mythos

Ruiqi Xu is a lens-based artist from China. He holds a B.A. in Visual Arts - Media from the University of California, San Diego, and is currently an MFA candidate and teaching assistant in Photography... read more

Ashima Yadava

Thursday, March 19, 2026 @ 12:00pm, Georgia 6

The Power of the Photographic Zine

Ashima Yadava is an India-born, San Francisco based documentary photographer, curator and printmaker. She works on long-form stories investigating issues of gender and racial justice while approaching art as a means to social activism and... read more

Eric Zeigler

Saturday, March 21, 2026 @ 9:00am, Atlanta 2

Science as Art/Art as Science

Eric Zeigler is Associate Professor of Art at the University of Toledo. Aaron Ellison is Senior Research Fellow Emeritus in Ecology at Harvard. read more