Portfolio Throwdown
Photography Gathering and Portfolio ThrowDown MARCH 31st– APRIL 2nd.
Portfolio reviews registration is now closed!
Registration is on first-come-first-served bases! We will do our best to schedule you with your desired reviewers. Portfolio reviews for students will be $10.50 for five 20-minute reviews. The entry fees will go toward portfolio awards, selected by the reviewers.
Reviewer Bios are at the bottom of the page.
Registration is not completed without registration payment. Registrations are based on first come, first served basis- in order in which we receive the registration fees, paid through Square. You will receive the Square invoice link after you complete your reviewer selection. Please make the payment as soon as convenient after receiving your invoice.
Here is Our Preliminary Schedule:
All of events will be on East Carolina University Campus and near-by.
Friday, March 31st:
Evening: Informal Gathering and Kick off (Location TBD)
Saturday, April 1st:
9AM-Noon: Workshops and Demos:
Get Your Wet Plate Portrait Taken (Jenkins Fine Art Center)
SuperSauce Image Transfer (Jenkins Fine Art Center)
iPhone in the Darkroom (Jenkins Fine Art Center)
10AM-Noon: Open Gallery for Morgan Zichettella and Anthony Naimo MFA Thesis exhibitions. (Greenville Museum of Art)
Noon to 5PM: Lectures and Presentations will run concurrently with portfolio reviews in adjoining room.
Portfolio Reviews (Student Center Rm 249)
Lectures and Presentations (Student Center Rm 253):
12:00PM Bridget Conn
12:25PM David Johnson
12:50PM Stephanie Sutton
1:15PM Ann Kaplan
1:40PM Aspen Hochhalter
2:05PM Morgan Zichettella
2:30PM Briana Earl
2:55PM Andrew Caldwell
3:20PM Shane Booth
3:45PM Jill Beaton
4:10PM Leah Sobsey
4:35PM Josh White
5PM:
Gallery Reception- Tim Christensen, wet plate collodions, MFA Thesis Exhibition.
6PM:
Social Time
Sunday, April 2nd:
Morning:
Portfolio Walkthrough (Gray Gallery, Jenkins Fine Art Center)
Accommodations
We have a block of 15 single rooms for $129 per night at Microtel Greenville for ECU Photography- Please use code CGECUP on their site or if you’re calling the front desk!
AirBnBs in town– Good for larger shared groups: Link
Hotels in Greenville: Link
Hotels in Washington, NC (Nice town on the water, About 25 min ride): Link
And for those of you who are not opposed to Camping, River Park North is a nice location:
https://www.greenvillenc.gov/government/recreation-parks/river-park-north
Portfolio Reviewers
Greg Banks is a photo-based artist and instructor at Appalachian State University. He received his MFA in photography at East Carolina University in May 2017. He received a B.A. in photography and a B.A. in fine art from Virginia Intermont College in 1998. Banks is a top 200 finalist in Photo Lucida’s Critical Mass in 2018. He was one of only seven artists chosen for the Light Factory’s Annuale 9 in 2017. Greg’s work was among the top 5 most popular, on the online magazine “Don’t Take Pictures” in 2017. Greg combines everything from IPhone images to historic 19th century processes, gelatin silver printing, painting and digital printing. His current creative practice investigates family, folklore, memories, magic, Appalachia, as well as history and religion.
Shane Booth was awarded an MFA in Photography from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He is a Photography Professor at Fayetteville State University. His work on identity has taken him all over the world where he works with populations at risk of HIV, most recently in Russia. He is currently documenting his home town of Hildreth Nebraska with his vintage 8×10 studio cameracamera.
Andrew Caldwell’s personal projects revolve around themes of place and identity. Frequently taking a narrative approach, his explorations of the medium employ analog and modern technologies including, aerial platforms (drones), 3-D modeling and lighting, digital compositing, film/video documentary, alternative processes, clay modeling and whatever else sparks his imagination. He has exhibited internationally and nationally, winning both juried and public awards. His most recent accomplishment was having one of his images chosen as a winner in the 2017 Communication Arts Photo Annual.
Erika Cespedes is a Costa Rican born commercial and fine art photographer. Her fine art focuses on narrative life events in natural settings and her commercial focuses on food photography and advertising. Current courses include Traditional, Experimental, Digital photography, Design Fundamentals and Post-Editing. Her fine artwork has been displayed in galleries and museums nationwide. She believes students from all cultural backgrounds and socio-economic status deserve art in their life as a form of expression and personal growth.
Bridget Conn is a photographic artist who explores the potential of photography as a chemical and physical medium through chemigrams. Dealing with themes of mark-making, written language, and challenges of communication, Conn investigates the boundaries of photography through prints, wall installations, and sculptural works. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions and publications across the United States and abroad. She is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Georgia Southern University in Savannah.
Brian Culbertson is originally from Chesapeake, Virginia, currently residing in Greenville, North Carolina, where he is an instructor at East Carolina University. Brian has exhibited work internationally participating in exhibitions across the United States, Canada, China, and the United Arab Emirates. His work has been featured in publications such as The Hand Magazine, Don’t Take Pictures, Light Leaked, and Fraction Magazine. Brian creates images that investigate photography’s influence on cultural and social values.
Briana Earl is a collector of stories. As a photographer, Briana uses her medium to explore elaborate narratives through visual storytelling. Her current work focuses on themes of nostalgia, homesickness, and autobiographical memories. Briana is inspired by studies of sociology, psychology, and gerontology and how personal experiences influence our perception of memory. She is also influenced by her own experiences of aging and transitions. Briana graduated from the University of South Dakota in 2018 with a BFA in Studio art with a specialization in Photography and a minor in Art History. Briana received her MFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in Photography from East Carolina University in 2022.
Maggie Flanigan is a North Carolina based artist working with ideas of community, intimacy and immediacy. Her experience in professional schools of crafts, community studios, and university settings have helped to define her interests in teaching in a playful and supportive atmosphere while maintaining and cultivating an artistic community. Maggie holds a BFA in Studio Art from Appalachian State University and an MFA in Photography from Tyler School of Art, Temple University. Being deeply entrenched in education is of utmost importance to her career, staying engaged in the art community both through gallery and museum work as well as teaching brings balance into her personal art practice. Currently teaching as an Instructor at Caldwell Community College, Maggie Flanigan specializes in teaching art and photography at all levels as well as working with alternative photographic process, printmaking, and mixed media fiber arts.
Jill Beth Hannes is a visual artist based in North Carolina. She received her MFA at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro 2021. Her work has been shown around the world including GUP, VICE and The Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles. Hannes graduated from The Academy of Art University in 2010 with a BFA in photography. She currently teaches at The University of North Carolina – Greensboro and Guilford College.
Aspen Hochhalter was born and raised in Chipita Park, Colorado. She received her Masters of Fine Arts in Photo Based Media at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina and her BFA in Photography from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. She is an Associate Professor of Art and the Photography Area Coordinator in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. Her work explores the crossover between digital technologies, historic processes and the use of experimental materials through appropriation, self-portraiture, and collaborative projects. Recent accomplishments include work published in The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes: 3rd Edition, McColl Center for Art + Innovation Residency, exhibits at Pease Gallery CPCC, Castell Photography Gallery, East Carolina University, Kiernan Gallery, The Light Factory, and many other venues across the country. She serves on The Light Factory’s Board of Directors and is active in the Society for Photographic Education, serving as a member of the National Board of Directors from 2016 – 2020.
David Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Photography at Coastal Carolina University. His publications include Wig Heavier Than a Book, a collaborative project with poet Philip Matthews from Kris Graves Projects and It Can Be This Way Always: Images of the Kerrville Folk Festival from The University of Texas Press. His photographs have been exhibited internationally, including the Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, Rathaus in Stuttgart, Germany and at the FotoFest Biennial in Houston.
Roger Manley
Before becoming director and curator of NC State University’s Gregg Museum of Art & Design in 2010, Roger Manley worked as a photographer, folklorist, filmmaker, curator and writer. He has scripted videos and films for PBS and has produced exhibitions of his own photographs of Australian Aboriginals, Hispanic migrant farmworkers, Palestinian villagers, Gullah Sea Islanders, Native Americans, Arctic gold miners, and self-taught artists. His feature-length documentary, MANA—beyond belief, premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam and at NYC’s Lincoln Center. His books and collaborations include Self-Made Worlds, Signs and Wonders, The End is Near!, Farfetched, Architecture of Hope: the Treasures of Intuit, three books for the Weird USA series, dozens of museum catalogues, and Walks to the Paradise Garden, with Jonathan Williams and Guy Mendes, published in conjunction with the exhibition, “Way Out There: The Art of Southern Backroads” at the High Museum in Atlanta. Roger lives in Durham, NC, with his wife, writer/photographer Theadora Brack.
Jonathan Molina-Garcia (b. 1989) is a Salvadoran-American, photo-based media artist, currently serving as Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital Futures at Virginia Commonwealth University. His projects are committed to experiments in radical sharing, as a practice of both material exchanges and social communing. A citizen of the third world and an American DREAMER, his work examines various zones of conflict at the intersection of national and sexual identity, counterfeiting new criminal identities under the aegis of experimental technology and mechanical media. Heavily grounded in processes of collage, his mediums of interest also include time-based actions: performance art and video; book-making and labor crafts. He holds an MFA degree in Photography from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and graduated with dual degrees in Photography and Art History from the University of North Texas.
Rebecca Nolan, Professor, Graduate Program Coordinator, Savannah College of Art and Design. Rebecca Nolan received a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and an MFA from the University of Oregon, Eugene. She is excited to see all types of work.
Ann Pegelow Kaplan is a photography and video-based artist and assistant professor at Appalachian State University. She taught previously at Elon University and Philippines Women’s University. Her degrees include an MFA, Clemson University; MA, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill; and she is currently a PhD candidate at the European Graduate School. Kaplan’s work has been exhibited by Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong; Manchester School of Art, England; University of Malta, Malta; tête gallery, Berlin, Germany; De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines; FORMAT Gallery, Washington, DC; SOHO20 Gallery Chelsea, New York, NY; among many others. She has been awarded artist residencies with fellowships at the Vermont Studio Center and F/Stop Festival für Fotografie, Leipzig, Germany.
Kathryn Shields is Associate Academic Dean, Professor of art history, and Art Department co-chair at Guilford College. She co-authored the introduction to art textbook Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts and co-edited Creative Collaboration in Art Practice, Research, and Pedagogy. Her research interests include masking in photography, identity in visual culture, community-engaged art, collaboration, and inclusive pedagogy. She serves on the board of SECAC, a vital and collaborative organization supporting artists, designers, and scholars.
Leah Sobsey is an image maker, Associate Professor of Photography, curator and Director of the Gatewood Gallery at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. Sobsey’s multidisciplinary photographic practice reaches into the fields of science, design, installation and textile. Often partnering with scientists, her photo-based work explores the natural world through archives and taxonomies with an experimental and materials-based approach to the medium of photography to explore the impacts of climate change and species loss. Her current exhibition, In Search Of Thoreau’s Flowers, documents species loss through Henry David Thoreau’s herbarium, open through 2023 at The Harvard Museum of Natural History. Her recent installations were exhibited at The Weatherspoon Art Museum, The Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California, Duke Raleigh Hospital, The Nasher Museum of Art, The Moss Center at Virginia Tech, The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, Colorado, The Fence Durham, and Rayko Photo Gallery in San Francisco, California. Her work is held in private and public collections across the country, including the North Carolina Museum of Art, Bill Gates-Microsoft, Fidelity Investments, Cassihaus, Duke Hospital, Duke Raleigh Hospital, Maine Media College, Rose Community Foundation Denver and many more. She has been an artist in residence at Virginia Center for the Arts, Dumbarton Oaks, Plant Humanities residency, Ayatana Research residency, Penland, Mother’s Milk, The National Park system, Vermont Studio Center, Hewnoaks artist colony, and Hambidge to name a few. Her images have appeared in New Yorker.com, the Paris Review Daily, Slate.com, Hyperallergic.com, The Telegraph, and many more.
Stephanie Sutton is an Assistant Professor at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC, specializing in photography and expanded media. Her performances for the camera employ labor and ritual to complicate assumptions of the fat body, discipline, and self-control. Her work is recognized for its success in transgressing the limits of the isolated subject and redirecting self-consciousness on to the viewer. Sutton earned her MFA from the University of Georgia, and her BFA from Georgia State University.
Angela Franks Wells is a photography-based artist specializing in 19th century photographic processes. As an educator, she is committed to facilitating creative thinking and skilled making with her students. Her recent creative endeavors are about playful investigation and finding levity. Angela is an Associate Professor of Photography at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. where she enjoys the lush greenery of the south, proper weather storms, and the benefits of natural humidity in the studio.
Joshua White uses wet plate collodion, cell phone photography, and traditional techniques to investigate space, memory, ecology, and place. His work has been published in National Geographic, and featured by Wired, Mother Nature Network, Scientific American, Don’t Take Pictures, The Hand, and Gizmodo. His exhibition record includes solo exhibitions across the US. White is an Associate Professor and the Photography Program Coordinator at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.