2026 SPE Annual Conference: Catalyst for Exchange
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print this pagePracticing Revolution
Katherine Savelle
Saturday, October 11 - 2:20PM to 2:35PM
Wayne State University
I'm afraid of pain, and there are a lot of ways to get hurt. One of them happens by forgetting things. One of them happens through isolation. One of them happens from trying to maintain a lie. All of these, and others, are what ultimately lead me to create photographs; to make a tangible memory, a chance to connect, an authentic record.
My goal is to trace the lessons I picked up through my three most major photographic projects – beginning with my first documentary piece, X, which focused on someone new to me and was put together in just a few weeks. On to my semi-documentary piece, For A Better Life, which included both strangers and friends and was made in roughly three months. Through to my latest project, Right Where We Are, created over a span of eight months, and focused entirely on my own personal community. I will highlight and illustrate all the important things I've learned through my processes of creation on how to be authentic, how to honor someone else's story, and how to balance myself with the world around me, including all the unexpected turns. My main focus will be on these three projects, with a few supplemental anecdotes from a handful of my other works – a handmade booklet about my dad's death, a photographic series representing global forced labor reports, journal entries about my thoughts during the first winter of the Palestinian genocide, and a small photo series made after my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Noticing the bad things is the catalyst. Keeping an open mind and a listening ear is the way to contextualize what's happening. Recognizing who I am and where I fall within my community is the beginning to creating a change. Making that change is practicing revolution.
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