Issue date: 4/4/06 Section: NEWS

Media Credit: Photo courtesy of Carl Toth Carl Toth, Artist-in-Residence and Photography Department Head at Cranbrook Academy of Art was the Honored Educator and guest speaker at the conference. [Click to enlarge]

Six NT seniors were awarded a $500 scholarship from the Society of Photographic Education – south central region – in order to attend the 2006 SPE conference March 23-26 in Chicago.
Each year, the conference is for the sole purpose of providing "a forum for the discussion of photography and related media as a means of creative expression and cultural insight," according to the SPE mission statement.
The conference allowed NT photography students to broaden their horizons and meet and discuss their work with photographers from across the nation.
The NT attendees at the conference were Kimberly Berba, El Paso senior, Rachel Cox, Plano senior, Paige Hopkins, Arlington senior, Annie Ray, Lewisville senior, Todd Shaeffer, Dallas senior, and Travis Williams, Houston senior.
According to the SPE Web site, the conference encompassed many aspects of photography, including information about digital media, how to master Adobe Photoshop, educating the next generation of photo educators and how to publish photography.
Seminars and lectures were presented by photographers with amazing credentials and a passion for the art.
One presenter was NT's own Beau Comeaux, Baton Rouge graduate student. Comeaux presented a lecture titled "It's Blurry, Isn't That Art?" His lecture taught how to use photography in a way that stretches the boundaries of the medium itself, Comeaux said. His "blurred" photograph demonstrated how photography "is more about the experience than the instance of time," he said.
Aside from the educational value of the conference, NT attendees found deeper rewards from the trip. Williams took more than just knowledge of new technologies in photography home.
"The bonds that were formed during the whole trip was the most rewarding experience," he said.
Williams said he made many graduate school contacts and received great insight and critiques of his portfolio, while attending the conference.
Berba also took more than just knowledge of photography home with her.
"It was inspiring to see the work and meet so many people in all walks of life with the same passion for photography," she said.
Berba also said she got the opportunity to share her portfolio with and receive feedback from a professor of photography from the University of Illinois in Chicago.
For many NT attendees, this was a first-time experience. Some, like Berba, will attend next year.
"It was such a positive experience," she said. "[I think] it will be an even more successful experience [next year] because I will be more serious about finding information about graduate school."
Next year's conference is March 15-17 in Miami.

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