Society for Photographic Education

SPE WEST PRESENTERS

DAVID BAYLES is a widely respected artist, writer and conservationist. He is author of Notes on a Shared Landscape: Making Sense of the American West, and co-author (with Ted Orland) of Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking.

DIANE CHOPLIN is a freelance photographer based in San Francisco, CA. Her passion for photography took root while documenting her experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa. Since that time she has focused on cultural documentary and community development.  Her work has been exhibited nationally and in Cortona, Italy. Diane received her MFA in photography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2002 and currently teaches at the Academy of Art University where she also spearheads the school’s documentary emphasis.

JENNIFER LINNEA DALY received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of Missouri- St. Louis in 2006. She has worked for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and taught photography at the St. Louis Community College and California State University, Chico. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in Photography at Chico State. Her work is a study of human memory and experience in and with the landscape.

ANNE EVANS has worked in the film and video industry for over 30 years as a sound mixer on feature films as well as long form documentaries. Her documentary credits include the Academy Award nominated Berkeley in the 60s and Emmy awards for 60 minutes as well as being nominated for an Emmy for Sound. Most recently she has used her experience to make independent documentaries on behalf of unseen and unheard people to promote social change. Her most recent DVD “House of Books: In Their Own Words”, was released by the African Library Project in May, 2008.

TERA GALANTI is an Assistant Professor of Art Foundations at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Her recent sculpture integrates her interest in biological science and animal studies. Her work has been exhibited nationally, at the Cincinnati Contemporary Art Center, and the Abington Art Center in Pennsylvania. International exhibitions include Ha Noi College of Fine Arts, and the Art Center at Silpakorn University, in Bangkog, Thailand.

Los Angeles Area exhibitions include the Armory Center for the Arts, the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Irvine Fine Art Center, Angel’s Gate Cultural Center, and locally at the Santa Barbara Contemporary Arts Forum.

MATTHIAS GEIGER was born and raised in Germany at the edge of the Black Forest. After finishing with a diploma in Photography at the University of Darmstadt, a Fulbright scholarship enabled him to study in the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Matthias is currently a faculty member of the Art department at UC Davis. His lens-based work is an attempt to explore the in-between spaces of our perception. Playing with the time/space continuum enables him to question our concepts of reality. His work reflects on human relationships to various environments and their inherent subconscious underpinnings. Select exhibitions include PS1 MOMA (NYC), Von Lintel Gallery (NYC), Miami Art Museum (Oxford) and SF Camerawork (San Francisco).

JASON HANASIK is an artist, writer, and art educator. His photographic works have appeared in group and solo exhibitions across the United States as well as in various publications including the anthology Photography Now and JPG magazine. In 2003, Hanasik was the recipient of the Patricia K. Ross Award administered by the New York Foundation for the Arts and named a Thayer Fellowship Finalist. Hanasik is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in the Visual Arts at California College of the Arts in San Francisco, CA.

VICTORIA MARA HEILWEIL is a nationally exhibited photographic artist, educator and curator. She received her MFA in Photography from California College of the Arts in 1995. Her artwork has been included in exhibitions at Intersection for the Arts and Root Division in San Francisco, BC Space Gallery and the Robert V. Fullerton Art Museum in Southern California, the Visual Arts Center in Portsmouth, VA and the Washington Square Art Galleries in New York City. Victoria was the curator and co-owner of Points of Departure, a cooperative art gallery in the East Village in New York City. Currently, she is one of the Visual Arts curators for the Climate Theater in San Francisco where she runs “Show and Tell” a monthly slide slam and pot luck and a project space with her two collaborators, and was one of the co-curators for “Night Light: An Evening of Luminous Environments”. Victoria resides in San Francisco, CA where she is a Lecturer at City College of San Francisco, CCA and Academy of Art University. She has also been a guest lecturer at UC Berkeley and Art Center College of Design. www.victoriaheilweil.com

MARY DANIEL HOBSON is an artist, teacher and director of the Arts and Healing Network. She holds an MA in the history of photography from the University of New Mexico, where her graduate studies on Surrealism and Dora Maar inspired her to begin working in a mixed media manner with photography. Whether bottling photographs, building layered collages, or constructing still lives, Hobson’s work consistently explores inner geography and layered experience. Hobson’s art has been exhibited nationally, including solo exhibits at places such as Modern Book Gallery (Palo Alto, CA), Galerie BMG (Woodstock, NY), the Center for Photographic Art (Carmel, CA), the Robert Koch Galley (San Francisco. CA), and the Etherton Gallery (Tucson, AZ). Her work is held in collections such as the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Albuquerque Museum. Hobson is adjunct faculty at JFK University’s Arts and Consciousness Program in Berkeley, CA. She is also the director of the Arts and Healing Network, an online resource on the healing potential of art at www.artheals.org. To learn more about Mary Daniel Hobson, please visit www.marydanielhobson.com.

ROBERT HOLMES is an internationally-known photographer and book author. Bob has illustrated over 35 books and he has regularly been one of the elite group of photojournalists invited to participate in the acclaimed “Day in the Life” series of books. He has won many awards including the coveted Travel Photographer of the Year award from the Society of American Travel Writers in 1990 and 1992, making him the first photographer to receive the award twice.

MARGO JONES is an emerging artist and instructor currently living in San Jose, California. Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in order to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Photography from San Jose State University. She received a BA in Studio Art from Humboldt State University in 2005.

GEIR JORDAH’S work features magical panoramic photographs from throughout the world. The creator of several books, Jordahl’s latest photo book, “Searching for True North,” was published by MB edition in January 2008 and has won the Gold medal at PubWest and Silver Medals at The Independent Book Sellers and the Prix-de-Paris competitions.

KATE JORDAHL is a professor of Photography and Digital Imaging at Foothill College, and has had featured exhibitions at the Yamate Gallery, Yokohama, Japan, Modernbook Gallery, Palo Alto, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artist’s Gallery. She was editor for “Searching for True North” and has published a number of limited hand-made books with Dreaming Mind.

STELLA KALAW is a photographer based in the San Francisco area. Her personal work features objects and places of everyday life which holds underlying meanings rooted from family, memory, personal experiences and identity.  She has participated in group exhibitions in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Singapore and Manila. Stella was recently an Artist in Resident at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA. She is currently preparing for her first solo exhibition in Manila scheduled for January 2009.

Stella is a graduate of the Communication Arts program at De La Salle University, Manila. After graduation, she worked  for Film Director Peque Gallaga as a production assistant for a year and a half before leaving the industry to pursue her true passion.  She briefly worked as a photographer’s assistant to Neal Oshima shortly before migrating to America. In 1994, she enrolled at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California to pursue a second Bachelors degree in Professional Photography. Just before graduation, she moved to New York City  for a six month internship with Irving Penn Studio. In 1998, she settled in San Francisco. Her work has been featured in Business Week, San Francisco Examiner Magazine, Fortune Small Business, EMI/Angel Records, Gastronomica and Wine Enthusiast magazines.

JAY KINGHORN, ASMP, is an Adobe Photoshop Certified Expert, Olympus Visionary photographer and full-time digital workflow consultant and trainer. He specializes in helping corporations use their photos efficiently and effectively by streamlining workflow processes and improving employee’s skills using Adobe Photoshop. Jay is co-author of Perfect Digital Photography and author of two Photoshop training DVDs, Photoshop CS3 New Feature Training and Beginning Photoshop for Digital Photographers. Jay lectures and presents to businesses and universities internationally. His presentations focus on digital photography workflows, color management, image optimization and the future of photography. His clients include Olympus, Sony, Adobe, Cabela’s, Vail Resorts and the Rocky Mountain News.

ADRIANNE KOTEEN is a freelance photographer, educator and arts consultant. She worked as an editor and curator with the International Museum of Women, coproduced a documentary short on an artist in Nepal, and teaches international photo workshops. Her photographic projects have been exhibited nationally.

MELANIE LIGHT is founding Executive Director of Fotovision. She is also a writer, co-author of Coal Hollow as well as writings about photographers such as Hansel Mieth, Donna Ferrato and Micha Bar Am. She is currently working on a project about the Great Cental Valley in California.

LESLEY LOUDEN’S recent documentary project “The ABCs of HIV,” was selected to be
included in Moving Walls 15 (Dec. 2008-June 2010) through the Open Society Institute,
Soros Foundation Network in New York City and Washington DC. Lesley Louden
received her MFA in Photography from Cranbrook and BFA in photography from Ohio
Wesleyan University. She is currently an Associate Professor at West Valley College
and PT Faculty Professor in Photography & Digital Imaging at Foothill College in the SF
Bay Area.

TED ORLAND pursues parallel careers in teaching, writing & photography. He teaches digital photography at Cabrillo College, is author of The View From the Studio Door, and his photography is represented by the Ansel Adams Gallery.

CHARMAINE MARTINEZ worked as a graphic designer in Chicago after earning her BFA from the University of Notre Dame in 1993. She went on to study studio art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she received her MFA in 2003. She is currently an assistant professor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where she teaches all levels of graphic design and typography. Charmaine views her design work as inextricably linked with her art interests which include: mixed media installations, book arts, text-based work and printmaking.

TOM PATTON Since 2002 Patton has led the photography program in the Department of Art and Art History at California State University, Chico.  He has 30 years of full time teaching, 10 of which he has served as Department Chair.  Patton holds a MFA from University of New Mexico and a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. He’s received numerous grants including those from the National Endowment for the Arts and the James D. Phelan Foundation.  Tom’s artwork is in major museum collection on three continents and has published “The Isolation and Intrusion Series” and “Metropolis.”

MARK PINSUKANJANA, Co-founder of Modernbook Gallery specializing in modern and contemporary photographic art, is the owner of MB Editions.

CLIFFORD PUN is a fine artist practicing in the photographic medium. He was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and currently resides in Newark, California. Mr. Pun originally studied graphic design at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1998 and the California College of the Arts in San Francisco in 2000. He transferred to San Jose State University in 2005, and will graduate with a BFA in photography in December of 2008.

DINA ROPEL is an emerging artist in the San Francisco Bay area. She currently resides in Santa Cruz, California while she pursues a MFA in Photography at San Jose State University. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in Studio Art, Photography from the California State University of San Bernardino. Ropele grew up in Southern California, which has been a main influence on her artwork.

ALEC SOTH (b. 1969) is a photographer born and based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the recipient of several major fellowships from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and was awarded the 2003 Santa Fe Prize for Photography. His work is represented in major public and private collections, including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Soth’s photographs have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including the 2004 Whitney and São Paulo Biennials. His first monograph, Sleeping by the Mississippi, was published by Steidl in 2004 to critical acclaim.  Since then Soth has published NIAGARA (2006), Fashion Magazine (2007), and Dog Days, Bogotá (2007). Soth is represented by Gagosian Gallery in New York, Weinstein Gallery in Minneapolis, and is a member of Magnum Photos.

JEFF VAN KLEECK has taught at Western Washington University, Central Washington University, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Redlands and California Polytechnic State University, along with numerous workshops the past thirteen years. Currently, he runs the Art Gallery at Cal Poly.

ANNE VEH is an independent curator and art consultant based in Marin County. Since 2007, she has developed a comprehensive photography collection for Cavallo Point, a new lodge in Sausalito. The collection was curated with a sensitivity and respect for the history and architecture of Fort Baker and its unique setting within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  Recent curatorial projects also include the Landscape of War, a group exhibition at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art. She is active in the Bay Area art community and is a current board member of PhotoAlliance.