Join us at The International Photography Hall of Fame in Midtown St. Louis on Saturday, February 20th for a day of imagery, discussion, outreach, guidance and fun featuring local artists Whitney Curtis, Izaiah Johnson, Demond Meek and Corey Woodruff. ASMP Executive Director Tom Kennedy, recognized internationally as one of visual media’s most inspiring and creative thinkers, will lead and listen as we consider how the rapidly changing media landscape impacts our society and our businesses.  This event is free and open to the public.
Does social media draw us together by facilitating conversations between otherwise isolated groups and individuals?  Or does is harden the social, political, religious and economic silos that we often find ourselves most comfortable in?  Moreover, how does social media impact creators in our image driven age?  Corey Woodruff's project examines these issues by photographing all of his Facebook friends.
The increasingly crowded media landscape challenges professional visual communicators to maintain sustainable business models while still leveraging rapidly evolving technologies that allow stories to be seen by an ever-expanding audience. How does a visual artist meet this challenge?  There are no easy answers, and today’s answer may not be valid tomorrow. Likewise, tomorrow, no one will have even heard of next year’s answer. Tom will discuss how this conundrum impacts everyone from a young creator just beginning a career to the Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award winning executive director of a venerable trade association like ASMP.Â
In August 2014 Whitney Curtis was concentrating on corporate and non-profit clients when The New York Times called on her join their coverage of the developing unrest in Ferguson, Missouri. Since then, Curtis has balanced commitments to her regular clients with her assignments for the newspaper, sometimes shooting her bread-and-butter corporate work during the day before working throughout the night for the Times. Whitney will show her Ferguson images and weigh the assignment’s professional and personal costs and benefits.
Demond Meek began photographing the beauty he recognized in St. Louis's desolate inner-urban landscape in March 2012.  The work helped transform what he describes as a personal low point into a creative jumping off point.  Demond will discuss how being stuck is often the best place an artist can find themselves.
