Conference frames photo trends

Thursday, March 21, 2002 | 8:39 a.m.

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Tracey Moffat, an Australian-born film/video artist and photographer whose work, influenced by popular culture, explores issues of race, gender, sexuality and social conflicts, will be the keynote speaker this weekend at the Society of Photographic Education's 39th National Conference.

"Fact or Fiction: Photography and Mediated Experience" is the theme of the conference at the Tropicana hotel, where photographers, museum curators, educators and exhibitors will converge to explore and discuss trends and issues relating to photography.

Other speakers include Dave Hickey, a local freelance writer, professor and art critic; photographer Bart Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston; and the Rev. Ethan Acres, an Alabama-born Las Vegas resident, artist and minister of The Highway Chapel, a traveling converted camper-trailer.

The Society of Photographic Education at Miami (Ohio) University in Oxford describes itself as a national nonprofit organization that works to promote a broad understanding of photography and encourage development of its practice, teaching, scholarship and criticism.

Jennifer Yamashiro, executive director of Society for Photographic Education, said the organization was formed in 1963 by a group of photography professors soon after the medium had entered colleges as a form of study.

In addition to the society's national conferences, its eight regional member organizations hold regional conferences each fall to discuss and share issues and ideas in photography.

At this weekend's conference, educators, curators and artists will be reviewing the work of registered attendees.

An exhibits fair will feature cameras, lenses, photographic papers, printers and software. Publishers have photo books on display. The fair is free and open to the public.

"If people are interested in photography and the contemporary scene this is a good place to go," Yamashiro said.

In conjunction with the conference, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas is hosting two exhibits: Pasha Rafat's "Untitled (10, 30x)," an installation dealing with light and space that incorporates sculptural elements in reference to the work of Russian constructivists, and Catherine Angel's "My Daughters," an exhibit of traditional black-and-white photographs that encompass the past 10 years of the artist's daughters lives.

"Untitled (10, 30x)" is on display through Sunday at UNLV's Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery. "My Daughters" is on display through Friday at UNLV's Grant Hall Gallery.