membership | regions | conferences | exposure | print portfolio | opportunities | exhibitions | advertising/sponsors | about us

Conference History

2008
Site: Denver, CO (Chairs: Joann Brennan)
2007 Look Out: Photography and the Worlds of Contemporary Art
Site: Miami, FL(Chair: Rebecca Cummins)
Keynote Speaker: Nancy Spector
Honored Educator: Rod Slemmons
Featured Speaker: Timothy Druckrey
Invited Speakers: Natasha Egan; Tina Schelhorn
2006 A New Pluralism: Photography's Future
Site: Chicago, IL (Co-Chairs: Carlos Diaz and Richard Gray)
Honored Educator: Carl Toth
Keynote Speaker: Henry Jenkins
Featured Speaker: Barbara Stafford
Invited Speakers: John Paul Caponigro;
Kerry James Marshall
2005 Passage
Site: Portland, OR (Conference Program Chair: Phil Harris; Conference Committee Chair: Terri Warpinski)
Honored Educator: Linda Connor
Keynote Speaker: Barry Lopez
Featured Speaker: Mark Klett
2004 Photography and Place: Home-Neighborhood-Nation-World
Site: Newport, RI (Chair: Sandy Sorlien)
Honored Educator: Jerome Liebling
Keynote Speaker: Frank Gohlke
Featured Speaker: Mark Sealy
2003 American Vision
Site: Austin, TX (Chair: Lawrence McFarland)
Honored Educator: Evon Streetman
Keynote Speaker: Joel Meyerowitz
Featured Speaker: Anne Wilkes Tucker
2002 Photography and Mediated Experience
Site: Las Vegas (Chair: David Taylor)
Honored Educator: Bart Parker
Keynote Speaker: Tracey Moffatt
Featured Speaker: Dave Hickey
Guest Speaker: Rev. Ethan Acres

2001
Site: Savannah, GA (Chair: Steve Bliss and Carrie Peterson)
Honored Educator: Betty Hahn and Thomas Barrow
Keynote Speaker: Gregory Crewdson
Featured Speaker: Zeinabu Davis

2000 Turning 21: Celebrating Photography at the Turn of the Century
Site: Cincinnati (Chair: Jon Yamashiro)
Honored Educator: Jerry Uelsmann
Keynote Speaker: Emmet Gowin
Featured Speaker: Cauleen Smith
1999 Writing + Photography
Site: Tucson (Chair: Trudy Wilner Stack)
Honored Educator: Carl Chiarenza
Keynote Speaker: Luc Sante
Featured Speaker: Val Williams
1998 Expression - Insight
Site: Philadelphia (Chair: William Williams)
Honored Educator: Naomi Rosenblum
Keynote Speaker: Joel Peter Witkin
Featured Speaker: Margo Machida
1997 Images Dialogue
Site: Dallas (Chair: Carrie Peterson)
Honored Educator: Nathan Lyons
Keynote Speaker: Adrienne Wortzel and Noah Waldrip-Fruin
Featured Speaker: Pedro Meyer

1996
Site: Los Angeles (Chair: Carol Flax)
Honored Educator: Darryl Curran
Keynote Speaker: Ruben Martinez
Featured Speaker: Lucy Lippard

1995
Site: Atlanta (Chair: Wendel White)
Honored Educator: William Christenberry
Keynote Speaker: Clarissa Sligh
Featured Speaker: Alluequere Roseanne Stone
Special Welcome Reception Honoring Harry Callahan
1994
Site: Chicago (Co-Chairs Lynne Brown and Deb Willis)
Honored Educator: Esther Parada
Keynote Speaker: Coco Fusco
Featured Speaker: Carrie Mae Weems

1993
Site: Seattle (Chair: Margaret Stratton) Honored Educator: Barbara Crane Keynote Speaker: David Avalos
Featured Speaker: Abigail Solomon-Godeau
Honored Photographer: Donna Ferrato

1992
Site: Washington, DC (Chair: Mary Virginia Swanson)
Honored Educator: Robert Heinecken
Keynote Speaker:
Featured Speaker:
1991
Site: New Orleans (Chair: Jim Dozier) Keynote Speaker: Andrei Codrescu
Honored Photographer: Marion Post Walcott (presentation by Sally Stein)
Featured Speaker: Adrian Piper
1990
Site: Santa Fe, NM (Chair: Sant Subagh K. Khalsa)
Keynote Panel: “The State and the Arts: Funding Censorship, and Artistic Freedom in the 1990s”; panelists: Richard Bolton, Eric Gibson, Jan Zita Grover, Elizabeth Sisco, Susan Wyatt
Honored Photographer: Eliot Porter (presentations by Beaumont Newhall and Marni Sandweiss)
Featured Speaker: Rayna Green
1989
Site: Rochester, NY
Keynote Speaker: B. Ruby Rich (NY State Council on the Arts)
Featured Speakers: Deborah Willis, Carole Vance
1988
Site: Houston
Honored Educator: Gisele Freund
Keynote Speaker: John Szarkowski
Featured Speakers: Adward Said, Yvonne Rainer
1987
Site: San Diego (Chair: Suda House)
Featured Speakers: Dr. Alexander Astin, John Vasconcellos, Martha Rosler, Alan Weisman, Jay Dusard
1986
Site: Baltimore, MD (Chair: Frank Rehak)
Honored Educator: Roy DeCarava
Featured Speakers: Howard S. Becker, Anne Noggle, Naomi Rosenblum, Eikoh Hosoe
1985
Site: Minneapolis, MN (Chair: Cheryl Younger)
Honored Educator: John Schulze
Honored Photographer: Berenice Abbott
Featured Speakers: Estelle Jussim, Yi-Fu Tuan, John Schott, Judith Williamson, Gisele Freund
1984
Site: UC Riverside (Chair: Jack Higbee; Programming Coordinator: Mark Johnstone)
Honored Photographer: William Klein
Featured Speaker: Alfred Appel (also Pedro Meyer as "International Guest")
Honored Educator: Dr. Herbert Schiller
1983
Site: Philadelphia (Chair Helmmo Kindermann) Honored Educator: John Wood
Featured Speakers: John S. Lewis, Rosalind Krauss, Russell Lee
1982
Site: Colorado Springs (Chair and Coordinator: Ellen Manchester and Jean
Locey)
Featured Speakers: Brewster Ghiselin, Sonia Landy Sheridan, Ruth Bernhard
Honored Photographer: Ruth Bernhard
1981
Site: Asilomar (Coordinator: Greg MacGregor)
Honored Photographer: Ansel Adams
Keynote Speaker: Leroy Searle
Featured Speakers: Wright Morris, Dr. Harold Edgerton
1980
Site: Stevensville Country Club, Swan Lake, NY (Chair Arthur Taussig)
Honored Photographer: Helen Levitt
Featured Speaker: John Szarkowski
1979
Site: Fort Worth (Chair: Harold Jones)
Keynote Speaker: Henry Holmes Smith
Honored Photographer: Barbara Morgan
Special Guest Photographer: Bruce Davidson
Honored Educator/Historian: Helmut Gernsheim
1978
Site: Asilomar (Chair: Steven Cromwell)
Keynote Speaker: A. D. Coleman
Honored Guest: Beaumont Newhall with an introduction by Ansel Adams
Featured Photographer: Les Krims
1977
Site: New York City (Tom Baird Program Coordinator; Larry Miller Site Coordinator)
Keynote Speaker: Hilton Kramer
Featured Photographers: Jan Groover, Joel Meyerowitz, Bea Nettles, Stephen Shore
Honored Photographer: Frederick Sommer (introduced by Emmet Gowin)
1976
Site: Minneapolis (Chair: Jim Enyeart)
Honored Guest Photographer: Harry Callahan
Keynote Speaker: Douglas Davis
1975
Site:Monterey-Pacific Grove, CA
Asilomar Conference Center
Keynote Speaker: Robert Forth
Featured Photographer: Ansel Adams
1974
Site: Rochester
RIT, GEH, Visual Studies Workshop hosts, no outside speakers
1973
Site: Albuquerque and the Ghost Ranch, NM
A working session dealing with reports from a special task force dealing with the future of SPE; no outside speakers
1972
No annual meeting or conference
1971
Site: Chicago
No outside speakers
1970
Site: Iowa City, in conjuction with Refocus, U. Iowa
Featured Photographer: Robert Frank
Featured Speakers: Matin Dworkin, Beaumont Newhall, Minor White, Henry Holmes Smith
1969
Site: Oakland, CA
Sixth annual symposium
1968
Site: Washington, DC
Fifth annual symposium
1967
Site: Boulder, CO
Fourth annual symposium
1966
No annual meeting or conference
1965
Site: Chicago
Sypmosium on Teaching Photography
1964
Site: Rochester
GEH, Symposium on History of Photography
1963
Site: Chicago
Note: According to Peter Bunnell: during the 60s and early 70s "rarely did outside persons participate, and the concept of 'honoring' someone did not seem to be a part of the programs."

1962
Invitational Teaching Conference
Coordinated by Nathan Lyons, held in Rochester at the Eastman House, prior to the formation of SPE.

 

Our special thanks go to Maggie Taylor, Peter Bunnell and the Center for Creative Photography for their contributions to this list.
2001 conference report (732k pdf) (National Conference in Savannah, GA)
2002 conference report (152k pdf) (National Conference in Las Vegas, NV)
2003 conference report (164k pdf)
(National Conference in Austin, TX)
2004 conference report (252k pdf)
(National Conference in Newport, RI)
Link button 2004 conference details (HTML)
(National Conference in Newport, RI)
Link button 2005 conference details (HTML)
(National Conference in Portland, OR)
Link button 2006 conference details (HTML)
(National Conference in Chicago, IL)
Link button 2007 conference details (HTML)
(National Conference in Miami, FL)
Link button 2008 conference details (HTML)
(National Conference in Denver, CO)