https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spenational/fotofika-2020-all-stars-trading-card-project

There are 11 days left to the 2020 All Star Kickstarter campaign, where we are raising money to send every student who participated a free deck of cards with their images included. We have a $2000 challenge pledge which will match your contribution dollar for dollar until midnight tonight. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/spenational/fotofika-2020-all-stars-trading-card-project

Just over a year ago the International Center of Photography initiated the hashtag #ICPConcerned. David Campany, reflects on how it became an exhibition and book that democratized the curatorial exchange between image maker and museum. With over 800 images from 70 countries, the project looked at devastation and hope in a time of pandemic and civil unrest. Join us to hear about this collective endeavour that occurred both online and in the museum at ICP.

https://icpconcerned.icp.org/

David Campany is a curator, writer and Managing Director of Programs at the International Center of Photography, New York. He has published over 200 essays and authored seventeen books including On Photographs (2020), and Art and Photography (2003). Last year he curated the six-museum Biennale für Aktuelle Fotografie.

See you WEDNESDAY, April 14th, 4pm EST at:

ZOOM ID:

https://zoom.us/j/93761631388?pwd=eTYxL0NSVkVNWDh4SnVhclFXTEorQT09

In 2020, the pandemic impacted graduating students in a profound way. Thesis shows were cancelled, graduations were unique to say the least, and many students felt shorted by the last days of in person learning. But with difficult situations comes new ways of celebrating the next generation of photographers….and so The FotoFika 2020 All Stars Project was born.

ZOOM ID:https://zoom.us/j/93761631388?pwd=eTYxL0NSVkVNWDh4SnVhclFXTEorQT09Zoom –

PWD – fotofika
https://zoom.us/j/93761631388

John, Betsy, Anne

4pm EST – Wednesday, 11/18/20
Zoom Link: https://zoom.us/j/93761631388

Terry Barrett is the author of books on criticism and aesthetics including Criticizing Photographs and CRITS. A new edition of Criticizing Photographs is being published later this month and is available for pre-order now (Routledge Press). CRITS is a manual written to and for students about studio critiques published (Bloomsbury, 2019).

More to the point of this blog post are other things that happened this week:

This week on FotoFika we hosted Edgar Cardenas who spoke practically about his class at Michigan State where students have taken equipment home and made pinhole 4×5 cameras, developed in specialized little tanks and scanned the images. The class meets weekly on Zoom where they have instant help as they go through the process of using these cameras. Yet another solution to how we can teach in the time of Covid (and beyond really). Edgar also spoke poetically, showing some of his work particularly Los Americanx, portraits of Detroiters that can only really be seen by shining a light on the print. And he spoke conceptually about ideas of sustainability and the need for artists and scientists to work together not just in name but to really engage and consider how different ways of thinking, and knowing, are essential as we deal with Covid and climate change. Artists have an ability to show different paths to problem solving and to understanding. He emphasized how divergent, pluralistic and imaginative thinking (and acting) is the only way we are going to fight the pandemic, climate crisis and growing authoritarianism (and white supremacy, the patriarchy and xenophobia.  Not to be a drama queen. But…) Thanks to Edgar for giving us an hour of his time and covering so many important ideas.

On Wednesday I watched an excellent panel discussion that included  Sama Alshaibi and Zora Murff joining others to discuss the power and the ethics of representation, sponsored by The Visual Identities Art and Design Research Centre.  You can watch it here. You can also get information about Session 2 which is coming up October 29th. 

The MassArt Lecture series featured Nadia Sablin. This year they are boasting nearly double the usual number of artists in this excellent lecture series. It continues with Christine Osinski this Wednesday. 

For those of you who don’t already know SPE is hosting weekly virtual regional conferences. This weekend is the south central. Its very affordable and they have several weekends of important and meaningful programming.

And just sayin’ The ASU online BFA will be hosting a lecture series beginning this month. I’ll post details here next week.

Welcome to October 2020!

The SPE membership drive runs through October 11th.  Student memberships are $20 (instead of $55) No better time to join, renew or gift an SPE membership!

Workshops will take place on Wednesdays but unlike the regular FotoFika slot, we will meet from 2 to 4 (EDT). The dates and general topics are as follows:

Workshops will be participatory and emphasize problem solving and solutions through communal engagement.

June 17  POSTPONED TO JULY 1—Solidarity

The first workshop will address issues of political and social concern for the students and the faculty. Scheduled for the 17th of June which is the anniversary of, John said there was something but all I found was the 119th anniversary of the establishment of the College Board (boo). But there is a lot of other cool stuff that happened on the 17th of June  (check it out here: https://www.onthisday.com/events/june/17).

This workshop will address how we can advocate for our international students, concerns about access to equipment and software for students in a distance, hybrid or socially-distant campus situation, what this means for adjunct, un-tenured and other contingent faculty–as well as tenured faculty and how we might approach this with a shared sense of mission.

July 15– Tools and Concepts

The second workshop will address conceptual concerns,  questions about teaching portraiture in a Covid era, intimacy and distance learning, ways to provide an open and rigorous classroom environment, giving feedback, conducting critiques , using flexible techniques for giving feedback.

August 5 -Syllabus Boot Camp

We will go over assignments and strategies for planning our classes including assignments, readings, sharing lectures, artists visits and sharing resources.

August 19 – On your Mark, Get Set, Go (or Ready, Steady, Go)

Who knows what things will look like by the end of August. Wherever we are we’ll use this workshop to respond and work together to be ready to take on the new and the unknown.