New Jersey Photographic Educational Conference Being Held April 4-6, 2008

I’m really looking forward to attending the New Jersey Photographic Educational Conference Friday to Sunday, April 4-6, 2008. It’s being held at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey in Summit, NJ, and it includes workshops, lectures, panel discussions, portfolio reviews, a faculty gallery exhibition, and an exhibitor fair.

The roster of about 20 workshops and discussions will be conducted by photographers who specialize in a wide range of disciplines, from darkroom printing to Photoshop. They include: Ron Brown, George Bujarski, Patrick Connor, Diana Edkins, Chip Forelli, Ted Harris, Dot Kuehn, Eric Kunsman, Donald Lokuta, Nancy Ori, Joan Pamboukes, Stephen Perloff, Don Polzo, Ernestine Ruben, George Schaub, Mitchell Seidel, Jay Seldin, Joel Smith, Roy Thomas, and George Tice.

The following events are free and open to the public:
• Friday night opening reception photography exhibit at 9pm
• Sunday exhibitor fair: 10am-6pm
• Sunday darkroom demos, tour and presentations
• Sunday mini workshops by vendors

The keynote discussion on Friday evening, panel discussion on Saturday evening, portfolio reviews, and workshops are very reasonably priced in my opinion (just $45 for any 2, and more can be purchased in blocks of two for $45). The conference organizers highly recommend registering online, however on-site registration will also be available. A good overview of the full schedule can be found on this page, and a full list of workshops, discussions and portfolio review sessions can be found here.

According to the event organizers, to determine if a class or portfolio review is full when registering, sessions that are full will not be listed in the box where you choose your sessions near the bottom of this page. To choose multiple sessions, just Cmd click on Mac (Ctrl click on Windows) and select the sessions you’d like to attend, then click continue to advance to the payment page.

One of the events that I am particularly looking forward to attending (shown above) is the Panel Discussion on Saturday evening from 7-9PM entitled: “The Image as Information: Where Does That Lead Us?” moderated by George Schaub, Editor of Shutterbug Magazine. The panelists include:

• Ted Harris, View Camera Magazine, Contributing Editor
• Joel M. Smith, Princeton University Art Museum, Curator of Photography
• Donald Lokuta, Author & Photography Professor, Kean University
• Diana Edkins, Aperture Foundation, Director of Exhibitions & Limited-Edition Photographs

The event is sponsored in part by Epson and The New Jersey Photography Forum.

For more information or to register, visit www.njphotoconference.com.