West Chapter Conference Overview

2026 SPE West Chapter Conference

When November 05-08, 2026
Where Online Event

Shared (Un)realities: Photography, Truth, and Meaning in 2026

In 2026, photography exists within a fractured public sphere. Artificial intelligence generates images at scale. Politicians and public figures circulate demonstrably false visual and verbal narratives. Social media platforms algorithmically shape perception. Audiences inhabit parallel information ecosystems with few shared reference points.

The 2026 SPE West Fall Conference invites artists, educators, scholars, and technologists to examine photography's evolving relationship to truth, meaning, and quality in this environment.

How do photographs construct meaning today? How do they function amid algorithmic feeds and attention economies?

What does photographic "truth" mean at a time when images are shared endlessly, easily generated?

What constitutes quality—formally, ethically, politically—when belief itself appears polarized?

This conference brings together critical discourse and technical engagement. One day will focus on hands-on workshops addressing contemporary tools and processes—from alternative photographic methods to AI workflows and hybrid video practices. A second day will foreground presentations, panels, and discussions that interrogate photography's epistemological, political, and aesthetic stakes today.

Call for Proposals: Papers, Panels, and Presentations

Deadline:May 24, 11:59 pm
Presentation Date: November 7, 2026

Photography has long claimed proximity to truth. Today, that claim is unstable.

Generative AI produces plausible fictions. Political discourse normalizes visible falsehoods. Social media platforms distribute images through opaque algorithmic systems. Audiences increasingly inhabit distinct visual and informational environments, with diminishing shared reference points.

• What is the status of photographic truth?
• How do images construct, distort, or stabilize meaning?
• What formal strategies encourage sustained looking in an age of accelerated consumption?
• What constitutes quality in a field saturated with images?
• How do we teach critical literacy when belief itself is polarized?
• How do photographers critique fractured publics while participating in them?

We welcome proposals that engage these questions historically, theoretically, pedagogically, or through studio practice.

Possible areas of inquiry include:

• Photography and post-truth politics
• Attention, duration, and resistance to scroll culture
• The place of physical exhibitions in a digital world
• Image verification, authorship, and authenticity
• Algorithmic feeds and the fragmentation of public discourse
• Photography and the disappearance of shared cultural channels
• The definition and relevance of "quality" in contemporary photographic practice
• Pedagogical models for critical visual literacy
• Documentary ethics in the age of AI

Possible formats:

• 20–40-minute presentations
• 60–90 minute panels (3–4 presenters)
• Roundtable discussions

Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged!

Proposal Guidelines

Individual Presentations:

• Title
• Abstract (300–500 words)
• 5–10 images
• Brief bio (150 words max)

Panels:

• Panel title
• 500-word overview
• Individual abstracts (250 words each)
• Short bios for all participants

We will look for conceptual rigor, clarity of argument, and relevance to the conference theme.

Submit here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUjuS5_p-Qz1YN7dCa5RSJHGIt3zE2ELiTqYQFFGBbmFMe_A/viewform