November Program:

Our speaker for November will be Andrew Bevington, Photography teacher at Amphitheater High School. Andrew is a Tucson native who began teaching in 2002 on the Tohono O’odham Reservation and moved to Amphi in 2004. He recently won a Fulbright Scholarship to Photograph Turkey: Secular & Sacred Spaces. His awards come from Photo Imaging Educators Association and Prix de la Photographie in Paris. He’s also had works in a number of publications. Andrew will talk about his experience teaching students to create bodies of work that convey a theme or idea using color psychology, symbol, metaphor, etc. to expand and extend the conceptual value of each image. It also encompasses the transition from film to digital and how he trains students to choose a form (film, digital, historical process, etc.) that enhances the meanings of their series. For the last few years, he has been trying to change the focus from preparing students to work as studio assistants to preparing them with a wide range of skills to succeed in the photographic industry. Click Here to Read More!

October Meeting Recap

At our October meeting, James Gregg shared the life and works of a photojournalist with us. His ability to get people to talk about their situations and then to take photos that catch the story is impressive. He called it taking “pictures with heart”. Pictures from his recent trip to Puerto Rico gave us an entirely new sense of the vibrancy of life there with glimpses of the more difficult sides of life.

James always carries a camera with him and noted that, as a photographer, he always looks for the “unexpected in the expected”. As a newspaper photographer, he is assigned some routine shoots—a high school football game, for example. James got the expected football shots, but also showed us an intriguing picture of a baton twirler performing with the band.
One of the most impressive sequences of shots was taken while James stayed with a homeless man in Tucson whom he had befriended. Taking a camera “I could afford to lose”, he went to live with the man for three days with not much more than bus fare in his pocket. James’ confidence to survive in such a potentially dangerous situation was rewarded with some amazing shots that give the viewer a real look and feel for the life of homeless persons.

There are some quieter moments when James is reviewing all the shots he takes. He may take 10,000 shots in a day in order to get just the shots to tell the stories.

James likes the life of a newspaper photojournalist and has covered stories from the difficulties along the US/Mexico border to the winter celebration at La Encantada when the fake snow rains down on the courtyard. Thanks, James, for sharing your photos and enthusiasm with us.
Late Breaking News: James Gregg just won two Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for “His Own Fight” about a Tucson mixed martial arts fighter and in the achievement of craft/photography category.
Click Here to Read More!