2000 SPE NATIONAL CONFERENCE.

SPE 2000: Turning 21: Celebrating Photography at the Turn of the Century

Cincinnati, Ohio

March 23-26, 2000

This year's Society for Photographic Education (SPE) national conference celebrated the turn of the century with a look back at earlier photographic processes and concerns as well as a consideration of the future of photographic education (especially in regard to the incorporation of digital imaging) and the influences of the post-postmodern. With over 40 presentations, screenings, portfolio reviews and exhibitions, there was plenty to occupy attendees and something for everyone.

The conference began on Thursday night with the Keynote Address by Emmett Gowin, "Learning from Wonderful Teachers: Remembering Harry Callahan and Frederick Sommer." In his introduction he quoted Lonnie Holley, a Birmingham, Alabama artist known for his use of other people's refuse in his work. "All of us artists, we all want the same thing . . . real beauty," he said, articulating an underlying theme of the conference. Gowin had an intimate friendship with Callahan that extended beyond his years as his student and his adoration for these two teachers was made clear through the many anecdotes he shared. However, his accounts were personal and, at times, not entirely accessible to the audience. For instance, in a seven-minute video of a morning show interview with Sommer that Gowin played, not only was the audio difficult to hear, but the tape did not have the impact that Gowin had evidently hoped.

Presentations on older photographic processes filled many conference rooms throughout the weekend. Theresa Leininger-Miller (University of Cincinnati) presented a paper entitled "Painting with the Sun's Rays: James Presley Ball, African American Daguerreotypist and Activist." Ball ran the largest daguerreotype studio in Cincinnati, serving clients such as Frederick Douglass, the family of Ulysses S. Grant and a cross-section of the African American community. The topic was especially poignant at the Cincinnati conference because of the close proximity of the Kentucky border and to the history of slavery. Rebecca Cummins's (University of Sydney) presentation "Necro-Techno," on her work with the camera obscura, was filled to capacity as was Bea Nettles's (formerly of the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana) "Return Trips: Photography's Influence on lime and Memory." Nettles discussed how she integrates digital image processing with output to negative as an additional tool in her alternative process work. S imilarly, Peter Feldstein's (University of Iowa) "New Clich[acute{e}] Verre" work employs the computer as both a design tool and a means of output with varying degrees of handwork in between.

One of the few theoretically based presentations, "Beyond Postmodernism: Photography and the Recuperation of the Aesthetic Mode" by Danny Guthrie (Michigan State University) and Stephen Skopik (Ithaca College), drew such a large audience that people had to be turned away at the door. Guthrie, who examined Thomas Struth's work, and Skopik, who discussed the work of Gregory Crewdson, presented the thesis that the idea-oriented process of postmodernism is stimulating new work that embraces a "new beauty." In other words, the aesthetics of eye-pleasing imagery are informed by underlying concerns about identity and representation in the critical discourse of postmodemism. Audience reaction seemed restrained, however there were hints of both relief and concern.

Several presenters addressing the specifics of photography education, including Cass Fey, curator of education at the Center for Creative Photography, who stressed the importance of teaching the "non-art" student to be critical of and sensitive to artists' views in her presentation "Mainstreaming Photography." The panel for "A Curriculum for the New Millennium" included Carole Jacobsen, Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan; Nathan Lyons, founder of the Visual Studies Workshop; Mary Virginia Swanson, founder of Swanstock; and Cheryl Younger, founder of New York University's National Graduate Seminar. Younger began with a brief history of the Graduate Seminar and its goal of sharing its annual proceedings with the educational community. Lyons gave an overview of the development of photographic education and proposed a reevaluation of visual education beginning at the primary school level and continuing to postgraduate study, expressing his concern that such action is long overdue. Swan addressed th e need to educate our students on the business of art photography, citing a downloadable sample curriculum available from American Society of Media Photographers that has been successfully implemented at numerous universities. And Jacobsen explained the development of the New Genres program at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, School of Art and Design. This powerful, proactive panel received significant audience participation.

On Friday, the Women's Caucus presented a number of independent films and videos produced by women. The visually and emotionally rich Night Cries: A Rural Tragedy (1997) by Tracey Moffat deals with an Australian aboriginal woman caring for her dying white mother. It addresses issues of assimilation, mortality, anger, resentment, memories of childhood and the loss of innocence. Gorgeous (1994) by Kaz Cooke is a hilarious animation about Hermione and her "evil alter ego," Deirdre, as the two prepare for a job interview. This work examines issues of appearance, bulimia and an overwhelming lack of self-esteem.

Filmmaker Cauleen Smith, the featured speaker on Friday night, was not present as she instead attended the Independent Spirit Award ceremony, sponsored by the Independent Feature Project, where she received the Movado Someone to Watch Award. Her film Drylongso was screened, as scheduled, in her absence. Drylongso is an old African American term that means getting by with very little. The film follows a young contemporary African American woman named Pica, who documents the lives of the young black men in her neighborhood with a Polaroid camera. Pica believes the men to be an endangered species: "I'm taking their picture to have proof of their existence."

The day-long portfolio reviews were well-attended as usual. Lines began forming as early as 4 a.m. for the opportunity to have work reviewed by curators, gallerists and educators. However, the trade-off for attending the reviews is not being able to attend presentations. Thankfully, additional opportunities were available for informal meetings and reviews as well as an open portfolio viewing on Sunday morning. Students seemed to be pleased with the openness of reviewers and were empowered by the interaction with those firmly established in the photographic community.

Ingo H. Leubner, a former research scientist at Eastman Kodak, gave a thought-provoking presentation entitled "A Technological Comparison of Traditional and Electronic Photography (Silver or Chips?)," in which he compared archival standards and the cost-effectiveness of working with traditional film versus digital media. His conclusion was that although we should embrace both media, traditional film still yields the best results simply due to the fact that silver gelatin prints are archival, cost-effective and can easily be transformed to a digital medium. Anne Savedge presented works by artists who work in digital media from "New Realities/Digital Transformations," an exhibition she curated at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia. These "digital imagers," as she refers to them, include Peggy Anne Jones (who incorporates pinhole imagery), Stephen Marc and Olivia Parker, as well as Savedge herself. Savedge compiled a CD-ROM of the work for self-distribution to educators and will continue to add to the collection .

Two very commercial presentations on Saturday included "Teaching Adobe Photoshop," a sales pitch for version 5.5 (with useful tips) and Joyce Tenneson's audio/visual presentation, which only served to further romanticize and trivialize her work by setting it to music, highlighting its formulaic nature (as opposed to her unique earlier self-portrait work). Private reactions to these two presentations reflected distaste for the commercial infringement on the conference.

Carl Chiarenza's talk, "A Lifetime of Photography, Teaching and Writing," was a thoughtful reflection on his career, which began at a time when there were few opportunities for art photographers. He acknowledged the support of Lyons, Jerry Uelsmann and Dick Zakia, his contemporaries who were in attendance, for their consistent support. Chiarenza recently retired from the Art and Art History Department at the University of Rochester, New York and was the SPE 1999 Honored Educator but was unable to present his talk at last year's event.

The final presentation of the conference was given by Uelsmann, the 2000. Honored Educator, and was delivered in his humorous, self-conscious yet revealing style. He cited the gothic tradition of southern literature as an influence on his often-ethereal combinations of images within a single print. He also discussed his thoughts on what he terms "post visualization," allowing for in-process discovery during the making of a photograph. He acknowledged the criticism of his work by postmodernists and playfully countered, "Do you know what happens when you cross a postmodernist with a used-car salesman? An offer you cant understand."

This year's National SPE Conference covered a lot of ground, acknowledging its roots, the implications of modernism, postmodernism and what lies ahead. Some very important discussions were begun regarding the future of photographic education, especially the continuing integration of digital and related media into the curricula. Hopefully, these issues will be further explored throughout the year and re-examined at next year's conference in Savannah, Georgia.

KITTY HUBBARD teaches photography at the State University of New York College at Brockport and the University of Rochester and is the Assistant Program Coordinator at Visual Studies Workshop. Contributing to the report were Arnold Icasiano, Kali Meeks and Rachel Siegel, graduate students at the Visual Studies Workshop/SUNY Brockport.