SPE Heats up Miami

Photographic education was the topic at hand as more than 1,000 photographic educators, students, manufacturers and other industry leaders gathered together for the 44th annual SPE Conference, March 15th to 18th, in Miami, Florida.

The three-day event combined a trade show of more than 60 exhibitors, portfolio reviews for both students and photo professionals and seminars that touched on everything from using podcasts in the classroom to Moslem youth culture. “The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Look Out: Photography and the Worlds of Contemporary Art,’” says SPE Exhibits Fair Coordinator Kelly O’Malley. “We incorporated a number of international presenters from countries such as Germany, Australia and England in order to have a more worldly focus.”

While most of the East Coast was coated in snow, temperatures rose during the SPE Conference’s Saturday morning Industry Educator Forum as attendees engaged in a two-hour discussion on burning issues, including how to integrate digital and analog teaching in a school’s curriculum, how to charge students for necessary supplies like paper and ink as the cost of digital instruction continues to remain a challenge, and how to best prepare students for the working world.

“[Photographic education] started out as being a relatively narrow field, and getting people to share ideas was essential,” says Jim Stone, Associate Professor of Photography at the University of New Mexico, who has been coming to the annual event since 1975 and recently became an SPE Board Member. “Today the field is not that narrow, but sharing ideas is still important,” he adds.

The exhibit floor was a big draw for instructors like Colleen Mullins, Academic Director, The Art Institutes International Minnesota. “The vendors are a big deal,” she says. “I think it’s really important to be able to come here and have one on one conversations with companies like Adobe and Calumet who are really innovating things.”

Photography consultant and workshop leader Mary Virginia Swanson also emphasized the advantages of networking, especially if you’re a student looking to make connections in the photographic world. “I started coming to the SPE Conference in 1976, as a volunteer, when I was an undergrad. It is a terrific place for students to meet their mentors, as well as other students who are at schools they may want to attend for graduate studies.” Swanson adds, “The scale of the trade show is accessible—students can begin a dialogue with the industry and their peers.”

Next year’s SPE Conference, slated for March 13th to 16th in Denver, Colorado, will continue with an international slant. “The theme is Agents of Change: Art and Advocacy,” says Ashley Peel Pinkham, SPE National Conference Planner. “It will focus on how the power of art can change the political realm, from global warming to other pertinent issues.”

© 2007 All photos copyright Jill Waterman, All rights reserved.