Society for Photographic Education South Central Regional Conference at MSU

The South Central Society for Photographic Education Conference that will be held at Mississippi State University in the fall of 2012, from October 25-28. The conference will be co-hosted by The Department of Art and The Department of Communication to promote intercollegiate collaboration within the university by involving students, faculty, and the facilities in each department, as well as the community of Starkville, with a regional chapter of a national organization. The Society for Photographic Education is a nonprofit membership organization that provides a forum for the discussion of photography and related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight.

The South Central SPE chapter is comprised of seven states: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas, with conferences hosted by institutions of higher education for the exploration of academic discourse surrounding the medium of photography. Opportunities will exist at the conference for SPE members and MSU students and faculty to participate in this discourse with panel discussions, image-maker presentations, exhibitions, portfolio reviews, workshops, critiques, and honoring a distinguished educator.

The 2012 conference titled Nothing Ventured /Nothing Gained: The Creative Risk, will focus on the risks artists take in the conceptual and technical aspects of their work, and the challenges they overcome in their visual research. Mississippi State University’s commitment to hosting the conference will critically examine the diversity of photographic practice by addressing the three major sectors of photography: traditional, digital, and alternative processes, not only with member participation, but by inviting Keynote Speaker Todd Hido and Featured Speakers Kelli Connell, and Susan Burnstine to talk about their research.

Thursday 10/25/2012
10 - noon workshop with Susan Burnstine
SPE student volunteers 6 -7 Susan Burnstine, Featured SpeakerGiles Auditorium 7-9pm Reception, Visual Art Center
Exhibition Title: SPE Members’ Exhibition and
Antiquarian Avant-Garde Photography:Works by the North Texas Alternative Process Group
October 16-November 2
  FRIDAY 10/26/201212- 1:30pm Dornith Doherty, Honored Educator Presentation and ReceptionMcComas Theater
 4:30 – 5:30 KEYNOTE:  Todd Hido, McComas Theater
 5:30 – 7:30pm McComas GalleryExhibition Title: Nothing Ventured /Nothing Gained: The Creative RiskDornith Doherty, Susan Burnstine, Kelli Connell and Todd Hido  Saturday 10/27/2012
5:30  -6:30pm: Featured Speaker: Kelli Connell, McComas Theater
 8 – 11pm       Jazz Party, SPESC Event
Hotel Chester, Downtown Starkville SUNDAY 10/28/201210-12 Portfolio Reviews in Stafford HallPortfolio Registration and directions in entry of Stafford“Walk through” Portfolio sharing in upstairs hallway of StaffordProfessional Level and Student Level  / 20 min slots[regional curators and editors are expected to be reviewing]

Marita Gootee, SPESC Co-Chair

Professor of Art

Dominic Lippillo, SPESC Co-Chair

Assistant Professor of Art

Wendy Roussin, SPESC Co-Chair

Assistant Professor of Communication

Austin Edwards in Best of Photography 2012

The Department of Art at Mississippi State University is please to announce that  Austin Edwards who is majoring in Graphic Design will be published in the Best of Photography 2012 published by Photographer’s Forum magazine.  Austin Edwards placed as a finalist in the 32^nd  Annual Student Photography Contest co-sponsored by Sigma.

Amateur photographers from the United States and Canada, as well as 60 other countries worldwide submitted over 12,000 photographs.  Only 13% of the entered photographs were selected to be accepted into the Best of Photography 2012 .  The judges are college-level instructors: Ann Cutting, Art Center College of Design; Gene Strickland, Columbus State Community College; and Sherri Taylor, Syracuse University.

“I am not surprised that Austin was selected as finalist.” States Professor Gootee.  “ He created the image in a my entry level photography class, Photo Survey. This just shows you of his incredible talent.”  Professor Marita Gootee is the Area Coordinator for photography in the Department of Art at Mississippi State University. “This image was created for Austin’s final project. He was inspired for the idea after the Childhood Memories hand-tinting project. In the final series Austin really took the idea to a new level and this was one of his images.”

Best of Photography 2012 is sold to photographers, college libraries and instructors of photography, art and graphic design. Learn more about the Best of Photography 2012 and Photographer’s Forum magazine at http://pfmagazine.com.

Exhibition Announcement: Transitional Moments: Photographs by Ruth Adams and Marita Gootee

Exhibition Announcement: Transitional Moments: Photographs by Ruth Adams and Marita Gootee Sept 23- Oct 26^th at Studio San Giuseppe on the campus of The College of Mount Saint Joseph in Cincinnati OH.

  Artist reception is September 28^th 4-7pm.

Ruth Adams work titled Meditations Eyes Wide presents ‘street photography roots with meditation”. 

Marita Gootee’s body of work titled The Journey with Sand and Water draws focus to the quiet moments lost in the sounds and actions of the present.

The Journey With Sand And Water

Journey is defined in the Webster’s New World Dictionary as ‘to travel from one place to another’.

            Everyday one wakes to see meet a new day and continues the personal journey through life. It is a both personal and public experience. It is filled with dreams, visions, memories and reflections – so many that subtle nuances flash by without recognition.

            The flicker of time and how one presents this fleeting memory has always been a major aspect of my work. It does not yield exactness of imagery rather the impression of a moment. I do not portray the chaos of dreams nor the non-representational design of the total abstract thought. Rather I search for the mental visual; tags that convey the emotion for location and the feeling for the moment. I search to express visually the quite moments of the memory. The journey from the present to the past as one moves through the reality of the day. It is my goal to bring the moment back to the surface so others may share the experience of the mountain trail or the child in the ocean. Still it more than the obvious – it is the mood created that we all share untied to the location presented. It is the spiritual quality of nature and the whimsy of play.

            The journey I have undertaken is to have the viewer to ‘think again’ about the quite moments that are lost by the sounds and actions of the present. This is a personal journey through abstracted thoughts and emotions that I bring to the public. These are reflections of moments that should not be forgotten or lost. Although created by a single individual these images are not to be owned by one but shared by many through a reflection of the private moment.

The Sand Shadows Series with its blurred imagery and hints of color are fragments of the moment. They have a touch of romance for a memory or an emotion. The images permit travel within a memory as the viewer is swept by the visual motion and timeless quality. The images are much like the subject as it blends with the ocean and is drawn out to the sea. The surf cannot be stopped or held back by man. Neither can time.

In the Shifting Landscape Series I am drawn to the landscape as I reflect upon the passage of time. The pinhole camera provides a vehicle for capturing the location and the passing of the moment in unison. It becomes a window into the mysteries of the natural world. The images reflect the spiritual quality of the land. The majority of the images are not grand vistas but rather the over-looked beauty of what wonder lies around us. The use of color in the images further expresses the wonder and mystery of nature and how humans perceive nature.

         Each image is a new and creative interpretation of a visual memory. My goal for the viewer is to accept and refresh through the visual exploration of this imagery.

Technique: The images that I produce are created with the use of various pinhole cameras, Zero Image and the Leonardo 8x10. I expose on film and print the images traditionally in the darkroom. The images are then hand tinted using standard colored pencils and a touch of linseed oil.

This exhibition is in conjunction with FOTOFOCUS a tri-state celebration spotlighting historical and contemporary photography throughout the month of OCT.

www.RuthAdamsPhotography.com

www.maritagooteephotography.com

www.msj.edu/ssg