SPE Annual Conference 2026: Catalyst for Exchange

Join Aperture at the Exhibits Fair during the Society for Photographic Education’s annual conference. SPE is a crucial incubator for scholarship, innovation, community building, and professional development. This year’s theme, “Catalyst for Exchange,” will consider photography as a platform for dialogue around social and political change, and how, as photographers and educators, we can create opportunities for these exchanges.

On Thursday, March 19, Aperture’s teaching artist Alice Proujansky and education and public programs manager Alex Schlechter will lead a professional development workshop for educators centered around our free photography curriculum, Aperture On Sight. Participants will use the newly updated, twenty-lesson curriculum using photography to teach visual literacy. This activation will feature an exploration of ways to use Aperture publications in the classroom, and hands-on engagement with educational materials.

Aperture’s booth will feature the winter issue of the magazine, “Craft,” as well as our latest books, including titles by Anastasia Samoylova, Coreen Simpson, Alejandro Cartagena, Takuma Nakahira, and Tyler Mitchell, plus classic bestsellers.

Register here.

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Schedule of Events: 

Thursday, March 19

• 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.: Workshop with Alice Proujansky & Alex Schlechter, “Looking Together: Aperture On Sight Curriculum”

Friday, March 20

• 9:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.: Exhibits Fair
• 2:30 – 3:30 p.m.: Conversation with Kelli Connell and Jordan Putt, “The Blue of Distance”
• 3:30 p.m.: Book signing at Aperture booth: Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis

Saturday, March 21

• 9:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.: Exhibits Fair

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Image: Kelli Connell, Surf, Point Lobos, 2015; from Kelli Connell: Pictures for Charis (Aperture, 2024). © 2024 Kelli Connell