shaking booty at SPE

Wow--back from SPE which is Society of Photographic Education. I thought I
would report the news from there and give you all something to react to.
Just the facts, ma'am.

1900 people were there, at a huge and beautiful hotel downtown Chicago. We
were there with two other conventions in this hotel--an African American
women's sorority convention with a huuuge amount of members. They dressed
far more beautifully than we tortured artists-in-black, and seemed to have a
lot more fun. The other convention in town was 4000 orthopedic surgeons, a
well-heeled, mostly male lot who needed to lighten up a bit. Walking into
the ChiBar in jeans and seeing a whole roomful of black suits and black
dresses was quite the photographic experience and I forgot my camera in the
room.

We had panels morning, noon, and night so the only "fun" I had was getting
Darryl Baird to shake his booty on the dance floor the final night. Janet
Neuhauser, where were you that night??? Oh, and I did manage to go to Buddy
Guy's for a quick dinner, as well as a great tapas restaurant one night with
6 of us I did not know but do now--that is the great benefit of SPE is
connections with people of like concerns; conversation never grows dull.
Unfortunately, no alt list meeting per se as I did not even know Janet and
Darryl were there until I happened upon them at the cocktail night.

So, enough of the gossip.

After I got over the sticker shock of $9 for a glass of house wine and
virtually no place inside the hotel to enjoy a fine cigar (are YOU going to
stand outside in 30 degree windy weather and smoke?), I have to say that
this conference was the most vital of all the SPE conferences I have
attended. Digital was heavily addressed, especially in light of pedagogical
concerns. Follows are a smattering of notes I took while there, and an alt
conclusion, I promise.

One faculty even went so far as to say teaching wet darkroom at the
beginning photography level is doing the students a disservice (from a large
eastern university). However, another said when wet darkroom was abandoned
at their university, enrollment dropped by 50%. But most agreed that
introducing digital at the beginning level as a core practice was a must.

Don't "ghettoize" black and white into the wet darkroom but teach it
digitally also.

Silver gelatin is a nice "antique" process like all the rest--more important
to teach how to "see" thru the viewfinder.

Those who miss the darkroom experience have worked at transforming the
digilab to a darkroom experience--low lights, music, etc.

Contemporary photographic practice credibility now rests on photographers
and not the photographs.

The decisive moment has now become the decisive edit.

Some feared the loss of the happy accident.

Traditional photography was termed "residual" photography.

Stop teaching digital photography and start teaching photography digitally.

One said you don't throw out pen and paper just because the Wacom Tablet is
here.

There was mention of large Gursky works fading before people's eyes in a
gallery--so much for archivalness.

A difference in terms of the photographic and photographs: the photographic
has remained consistent but photographs have not--images in other words have
remained photographic but are not photographs...

We got a great demo of Adobe's Lightroom, a simplified and
photographer-friendly Photoshop, sort of.

The third point perspective of the photojournalist is being altered by the
amateur and participatory cell phone or digital user--think London bombing
and Abu Ghraib and all the other historical moments where some Joe Blow has
recorded the moment while being involved. A conflation of private and public
space.

Great panel on podcasting and one prof has podcast all his lectures and put
them online for a photo history course. Apparently there are podcasts on
photography you can download on the web...some of you are saying, "Like,
HELLLO, Chris, where have you been???"

And what did I buy? A zone plate body cap for my digital and traditional
Nikons...

What was so cool is that this digital revolution has, in fact, enhanced alt
process with the ability to print perfect digital negatives now. Digital
has made alt **more** accessible and user friendly. There were no panels on
how alt has changed, how pt/pd is outmoded, how alt is being thrown out of
the schools..The loss of the physicality of making an image in the wet
darkroom was mourned, and frankly, that physical connection to the alt print
is, to me, what alt is all about.
Chris
Received on Mon Mar 27 10:10:14 2006