Speaking Light Presents: John Holmngren

Join us for the School of Communication's artist lecture series Speaking Light on Friday the 28th in the JVH Auditorium in Thayer Hall. We are starting the year with photographer John Holmgren, whose personal and layered work explores connections to and experiences of place, landscape, environment, time and memory. 

"Growing up in the Pacific Northwest and having a father who was an educator, we traveled a lot during the summer, mostly in North America. These travels instilled in me a wanderlust, which draws me to explore the landscape from a visual and research point of view. Travel also helped create my interest in our connections to and interactions with the environment that sustains us. Photography allows me to record and collect the visual images needed for my work."

Originally from Lakewood, Washington, John Holmgren received his Bachelor of Arts from Central Washington University in 2004, and in 2007 received his Master of Fine Arts in Photography from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2010 he accepted a position at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally and has been awarded many grants and awards. Holmgren has taught a variety of photography, mixed media and printmaking courses at numerous institutions, including the University of Minnesota, College of Visual Arts, University of Oregon, Prescott College and Wright State University. He is also an active member of the Society for Photographic Education and the College Art Association.

To see more of his projects, check out his website www.johnholmgren.com.

The lecture will begin at 6PM on Friday September 28 in the JVH Auditorium located on the 2^nd Floor of Thayer Hall (201 Wood Street) on Point Park’s Campus.

Stephen Chalmers: Unmarked, Speaking Light Lecture Series

The Speaking Light Lecture Series continues with photographer Stephen Chalmers. Stephen will be presenting his project “Unmarked”, which documents the locations where the victims of serial killers were found. These locations were precisely located using Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, police records and newspaper articles.

“Stephen Chalmers’ photographs of sites where serial killers dumped their victims on the West Coast of America are haunted with the final experiences of the victims that were brutally disposed of. They also tap into our society’s fascination with what murder looks like. Obscured by the passage of time and often invoking the natural beauty surrounding them—wilderness areas being ideal dumping places—Chalmers’ pictures challenge photography’s ability to expose the spectral history of a location and the knowledge of its viewers.” (Natasha Egan, Associate Director, Museum of Contemporary Photography. Chicago)

The lecture will begin at 6PM on Friday March 30 in the JVH Auditorium located on the 2^nd Floor of Thayer Hall (201 Wood Street) on Point Park’s Campus.

More about Stephen:

Stephen Chalmers has worked as a Lead Treatment Counselor to Severely Emotionally Disturbed children, worked as an Emergency Medical Technician, and taught gang children photography – informing his projects which deal with issues of loss. Chalmers has taught many workshops in alternative photographic processes and digital imaging, and been a visiting artist at numerous colleges and universities. He has also been a contributor to five books, and has been in group and solo exhibitions throughout the US and also in Australia, Ireland, British Columbia, Thailand, England, South Africa, and China. Stephen Chalmers earned his MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, was the NW Regional Chair for the Society for Photographic Education for two terms, was professor of Photography and Digital Media in the state of Washington for eight years and is currently a professor of Photography at Youngstown State University in Ohio. The work of Stephen Chalmers is in several collections including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Light Work, Polaroid, and the Getty Research Institute. Since the start of March of 2012, his work was featured on the Picture Show on National Public Radio (NPR), the Huffington Post, the Daily Mail (UK) and other venues.

Selections from his projects and more biographical information can be viewed at: www.stephenchalmers.com

SPE Scholarship Winners Jamie Russel and Marie Mashyna

The SPE MA Board is happy to announce the 2012 National Scholarship winners for the National Conference in San Francisco, California.

Along with awarding the Adjunct Faculty, Graduate Student and Undergraduate Student Scholarships, we are extremely honored to recognize our friend Patrick Millard.

The Patrick Millard Scholarship has been awarded to two students from Point Park University. Patrick Millard served the SPE MA region as the Webmaster for 2011 and was active in SPE for a number of years. To celebrate his life and contributions to SPE, one scholarship was awarded by the SPE MA region and a matching second scholarship was generously donated by Point Park University.

We would like to thank Dr. Heather Starr Fielder of Point Park University for her help with the Patrick Millard Scholarship.

Additionally, we would like to thank SPE National for recognizing the contributions of Patrick Millard by donating a National Conference Registration to each Millard scholarship winner.

Enjoy San Francisco!

Sincerely,

Sonya A. Lawyer

SPE MA Secretary

Marie Mashyna:

Marie Mashnya is working towards her BFA in Photography at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Marrow is a rendering of something that is difficult to articulate. It is about those quick moments in life that are not always shared or acknowledged, the interior transitional moments between action and reaction. They are bursts of significant emotion that do not appear externally, but occur silently within. They are defining moments that last perhaps a quarter of a second but linger while we exhale and sometimes long after that.

-Marie Mashnya

The scholarship committee found her imagery particularly compelling and awarded her a Patrick Millard Scholarship for her work "Marrow".

Jamie Russel:

Jamie Russell is working towards a BFA in Photography at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

This project was an experiment with letting go. After I began working with it, I began to embrace the uncertainty of the pinhole. I eventually let go of any control I had over the image making process and simply opened the shutter. While making the abstract images I finally accepted that I didn't have control.

- Jamie Russell

She was challenged by Patrick Millard to create and use a pinhole camera. The resulting body of work, "Letting Go", was selected for the scholarship award.

Nature Photography: midsemester reviews

The midsemester review posts from Chris Rolinson's Specialized Photography: nature class. Throughout all of their field trips, the students are building upon a cohesive idea.

Aldona Bird

http://shutterbugconfessions.blogspot.com/2012/02/natural-lines.html

 Allison Wynands

http://twelvefouroheight.tumblr.com/post/18419767820/the-beginning-to-be-a-cohesive-bunch-of-photos

Amy Crawford

http://aecrawford.blogspot.com/2012/02/cohesive-idea.html 

 Camelia Montoy

http://cmmagnificent.blogspot.com/2012/02/perspective-cohesive-portfolio.html

 Evan Skowvron

http://photoskowvy.blogspot.com/2012/02/cohesive-final-progress.html

 Heather Spirik

http://heatherspirikphotography.blogspot.com/2012/02/mid-way-portfolio.html

 Joseph Smith

http://benevolent-memories.blogspot.com/2012/02/speclized-photography-critiquei.html

Karen Bullock 

http://karen-bullockphotojournalism.blogspot.com/2012/02/final-cohesive-portfolio-idea.html

Laura Quinn

http://ppunaturephoto.blogspot.com/2012/02/portfolio-formation.html

 

Lean Irwin

http://lmirwin.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/midterm-critique/

Lyddia Akrom

http://lyddiaankrom.blogspot.com/2012/02/midterm-fantasy.html

Madeline McKain

http://naturephotographymjm.blogspot.com/2012/02/portfolio-project.html

 Mary Reid

http://marybethphoto.blogspot.com/2012/02/final-project-theme.html

Matt Brudnok

http://mbrudnok.tumblr.com/post/18438783776/photos-i-have-chosen-from-this-semester-for

Rebecca Lessner

http://threadbarejournal.tumblr.com/post/18448138917/quite-honestly-these-images-only-partly-have-to

Specialized Photography class featured on Point Park website

Professor Chris Rolinson's specialized photography class, which focuses each semester on a different topic area, has been featured on Point Park's website! This semester the class concentration is nature photography. Check it out!

http://www.pointpark.edu/NewsCommunication.aspx?id=501

Speaking Light Continues! "New 21st Century Photography"

Point Park University's School of Communication will be contenting its Speaking Light lecture series this Friday with an artist talk by Pittsburgh photographer Tom Persinger. Tom Persinger is an artist, photographer, writer, and the founder of F295. F295 is an international organization that believes in the value of a heterogeneous photographic approach, in which contemporary, historic, and self-made methods are employed and combined in the creation of a new "21st Century Photography."

He organizes the F295 symposium and seminar series to promote the exploration 21st Century Photography. These events offer a unique chance to investigate the ideas of light, time, and the apparatus through the voices of practicing photographers. The symposium also offers exhibitions and workshops by masters in their field.

Persinger's photographs have been shown in numerous exhibitions and are in many private collections in the United States, Europe, and Japan. He has been published in Photographic Possibilities (3rd Edition), Light and Lens (2nd edition), Afterimage, Ag, Black and White Photography (UK), OneLife, PhotoEd, Photo Techniques, and View Camera. He is also the author of the critically acclaimed of F295 Historic Process Quick Reference Card series, the F295 Historic Process Workbook, and the F295 Historic Process Syllabus.

He has lectured at numerous colleges and universities, has lead many workshops, is a member of Freestyle Photographic's Advisory Board of Photographic Professionals, and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Pittsburgh Filmmakers.

In addition to several photographic projects he is also currently working on a book which will further illuminate the 21st Century Photographic approach. He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife and two sons.

The talk will begin at 6 in the JVH auditorium, located on the 2nd floor of Academic Hall located on 3rd and Wood Street. This event is free and open to the public. For more information please contact Stephen Grebinski, sgrebinski@pointpark.edu.

Speaking Light: In Memorial

When I went to the SPE Regional Conference in November, he stressed that we should live blog events. He said we should blog in the moment, at events, to show others what's going on as its really happening. I started live-blogging at that conference for this blog. So Patrick would want me live-blogging this event: his memorial at Point Park.  
The first thing Patrick did when he got to Point Park was instill a photographic lecture series. We all went because it was extra credit, but what we didn't know was that Speaking Light was the start of his legacy. There were always so few people here for them. Tonight, the room is full. There are people standing in the back. We all took off work and rearranged our schedules for this Speaking Light.
Tonight, Patrick is the guest artist. Tonight we celebrate his life, his work, his teaching and his legacy. I think we all feel him here with us tonight.
He may be gone but... he's here. In all of us.

- Camelia Montoy
Junior photojournalism