Imagine someone who is highly educated, passionate about their art, dedicated to teaching and happy to share their ideas with others. This last week Eric and I not only found one of these rare individuals but an entire conference full. This amazing reunion was the 2011 national conference of The Society of Photographic Education, SPE.
This amazing conference started for us with keynote lecture by old friend and legendary photographer and educator Abe Morell. Always understated, funny, and thought provoking, Abe’s talk inspired and amazed everyone. He shared many stories about his camera obscura work; we especially enjoyed his new body of work. We also got a great insight into Abe as a teacher from his former student and fellow Guggenheim recipient and SPE Board Member Joann Brennan who gave a wonderful introduction, but I have a bias.
We would have liked to attend many of the others lectures but we had work to do. On the exhibition floor we had a great time making new friends such as: Ann Simmons-Myers, Angela Kelly, Vesna Pavlovic the Crew at Bostick & Sullivan and many more who we hope to see at SPE 2012 in San Francisco!
We also saw many old friends: Justin Kimball, John Willis, William DuBois. This is a very incomplete short list and if you didn’t make it that means you didn’t buy us a drink!
We left the 2011 SPE Conference, Science, Poetry and the Photographic Image, enlightened, feeling good, and secure in the belief that the future of photography is in great hands. If you are a photography or film educator you need to be part of this amazing community, they throw one heck of a party.
