Homecoming 2022-23 Biennial
Professional Development & Portfolio Reviews
We are excited to invite you to a weekend of learning, exploring and growing with the Homecoming 2022-23 professional lectures and portfolio reviews sponsored by FujiFilm US. Homecoming Biennial Exhibition and professional development weekend is occurring this year throughout RIT facilities. The exhibition with 131 recent graduates from across the globe will take place at the RIT City Art Space, with an opening reception on December 8th from 5-8 pm. On Saturday and Sunday December 9th-10th participants will descend on Rochester to attend professional development workshops and free portfolio reviews held in the Magic Spell Studios at RIT. Portfolio reviews are not available to the public.
Please RSVP for this FREE event in this link HERE
Event Schedule
Friday, December 8th
Location: RIT City Arts Space, 280 E Main St, Rochester, NY 14604
Gallery Opening 5-8pm RIT City Art Space
Saturday, December 9th
Location: RIT Magic Spell Studios, 300 Lomb Memorial Dr, Rochester, NY 14623
9-9:30– Introduction to MFA : Photograpy Review Team and why!!!
9:30-10:30 Dana Stirling & Yoav Friedlander - Balancing Acts: Navigating a Dual Career in
Photography and Publishing with Float Magazine
10:30-11:15 Michael Chovan-Dalton - Shutter and Sound: Michael Chovan-Dalton's Journey with The
Real Photo Show and Leading Mercer's Photography Program
11:15-12:00 Eric Kunsman- Showcase Strategies: Eric Kunsman on Mastering Exhibitions, Publications,
and your Professional Organization Skills
12:00-1:30– Lunch Break
1:30-2:15– Chris Knight - Creative Pitches+Business Workflow
2:15-3:00– Xyza Cruz Bacani - Business Budgeting for Creatives
3:00-3:10– Break
3:10-3:50– Nick Marshall & John Aasp Panel Discussion- Life as a curator with a lens-based MFA
3:50-4:35– Alanna Airitam - Capturing Success: Alanna Airitam's Triumph in Turning Fine Art
Photography into a Flourishing Career
4:35-5:00– Q&A of all speakers
5:00-5:15- Awarding Ceremony
7:00-9:00- Party for participants (bring an 11”x14” or 11”x17” print to swap to gain entrance)
Sunday, December 10th
Location: RIT Magic Spell Studios, 300 Lomb Memorial Dr, Rochester, NY 14623
9:00-12:00 Portfolio Reviews
12:00-1:00 Lunch Break
1:00-3:00 Portfolio Reviews
Portfolio Reviews - Bios
Alanna Airitam
Alanna Airitam is a photo-based artist based in Tucson, Arizona. As a self-taught artist, Airitam pushes the traditional boundaries of photography by incorporating materials such as metal, resin, varnish, and gold into her work. Her work is inspired by the lighting of 17th century Renaissance paintings, early Black studio photography, and historic and contemporary narratives. Airitam’s work has garnered recognition with features in notable publications such as the Chicago Tribune, BBC News, Artdoc Photography Magazine, and Lenscratch. Her work has been exhibited at esteemed institutions including the Center for Creative Photography, New Orleans Museum of Art, and Rhode Island School of Design Museum. Driven by a commitment to empowering emerging artists of color, Airitam serves as a valuable board member for Medium Photo and Oakwood Arts, organizations dedicated to fostering opportunities for underrepresented creatives. Additionally, she co-founded the Southwest Black Artists Network, a platform that champions the voices and contributions of Black artists within the Southwest region.
Chris Knight
Chris Knight was born in Wiesbaden, Germany and hardened by the sweaty, nearly chewable, humidity of Florida. He combines his unconditional love of art history with his conditional love of technology, topping it off with a flair for the cinematic and an uncompromising eye for detail. His work has appeared in or on Vogue, People, MSNBC, ABC, Ocean Drive, GQ and others. Chris is the author of The Dramatic Portrait, a Profoto Legend of Light, and an instructor at Pratt Institute as well as the New York Film Academy.
Dana Stirling (Float Magazine)
Dana Stirling, a fine art photographer and Co-Founder & Editor-In-Chief of Float Photo Magazine, was born in Jerusalem, Israel, to British immigrant parents. Now residing in Queens, New York, she completed her MFA at The School Of Visual Arts (2016) and BA at Hadassah College Jerusalem (2013). Stirling's photography, enriched by her experience of growing up amidst contrasting cultures, explores themes of identity and belonging. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues and publications in the US and abroad.
Dan Hughes (Chair of Photo Sciences at RIT & Industry Veteran)
With two decades rooted in photography, Daniel Hughes brings a wealth of experience to this weekend. Currently, a respected educator at the Rochester Institute of Technology since 2014, Daniel's expertise lies in both digital and analog photography. Equipped with a photography degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, Daniel's portfolio reviews are characterized by a technical eye, focusing on the cohesion of message and effective methodology. Beyond teaching, he has juried art shows, photography contests and curated numerous web galleries, showcasing his commitment to fostering emerging talents in the field. He looks to provide a non-fine art insightful portfolio review—a unique opportunity to gain feedback from an industry veteran with a keen eye for the nuances of visual storytelling.
Eric Kunsman (RIT/NTID & Booksmart Studio)
Eric T. Kunsman (b. 1975) was born and raised in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is the founder of Booksmart Studio and helped to start the MFA Photography Reviews. Eric is an educator at the Rochester Institute of Technology for the Visual Communications Studies Department at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and the School of Photographic Arts & Sciences. Eric was named one of 10 B&W photographers to watch of 2018 by BW Gallerist, B&W Best Photographers of the Year 2019 by Dodho Magazine and won the Association of Photography (UK) Gold Award for Open Series in 2019, Finalist, Top 50 for Critical Mass in 2002, Top 200 for Critical Mass in 2019, 2020, & 2021, Top 15 Photographers for the Rust Belt Biennial. His project Felicific Calculus was also awarded a Warhol Foundations Grant through CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, NY. Eric has held 40 solo exhibitions and counting. At this point, his work has been exhibited in over 250 galleries and museums and featured in Bloomberg Business Week, Harper’s Magazine, Dodho Magazine, Dek Unu, All About Photo, and LensWork. Eric is interested in projects that are collaborative in nature and photographers that can be a good fit for the invitation only residency program at Booksmart Studio.
Hernease Davis (Visual Studies Workshop)
Hernease Davis is a photo-based artist and the Assistant Curator of Education and Public Programming at the Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) in Rochester, NY. In her practice, Hernease uses multiple mediums such as photography, textile craft and sound to create multi-sensorial works that explore complex notions of empathy. Her work has been wildly exhibited in galleries and institutions, including the International Center of Photography, Transformer Station/Cleveland Museum of Art, Eskenazi Museum of Art, the Silver Eye Center for Photography, and the Houston Center for Photography. At VSW, Hernease develops programming that address contemporary conversations in the photographic arts.
John Aäsp (RIT Gallery Manager)
John Aäsp is currently Gallery Director and Adjunct Professor for the College of Art and Design at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. He oversees the programming and operations for three galleries: Bevier Gallery, William Harris Gallery, and City Art Space in downtown Rochester. He was previously Visual Arts Director & Curator at Rockport Center for the Arts on the Texas Gulf Coast. He received his MFA in Photography and Related Media from RIT and a BA from the University of Iowa.
Meredith Davenport (RIT)
Meredith is an Associate Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. As a freelance photojournalist, she has covered human rights issues around the world, ranging from the rise of Islamic extremism in Bangladesh for the New York Times Magazine to Hugo Chavez’s impact on Venezuela for National Geographic.
Michael Chovan-Dalton (Real Photo Show)
Michael Chovan-Dalton is the creator of the podcast Real Photo Show and the producer of PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf. He is a professor and coordinator of Photography at Mercer County Community College in New Jersey and the former Director of the JKC Gallery in Trenton NJ. He is also a photographer, an occasional juror, and he collaborates on many photographic projects and shows with other artists and curators. Chovan-Dalton received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and his MFA from Columbia University.
Nick Brandreth (Artist / Photographer Based in Rochester, NY)
Nick Brandreth is internationally recognized as a master of photographic process, with a decade of experience as the former Historic Process Specialist at the George Eastman Museum. His extensive research on the evolution of historic and alternative photographic processes has made him a sought-after teaching artist and enabled him to develop a diverse and innovative bodies of work using techniques like dry plate glass negatives, handmade early-20th-century-era motion picture film, Lippmann color plates and holograms to name a few. Brandreth creates unique photographic objects and apparatus to display and interact with his work. Using 3D printers, simple lenses, electronics, bookbinding and woodworking techniques, Brandreth’s art spans a range of mediums. His handmade works are seductive and utterly uncanny. Brandreth strives for his work to be cinematic, intimate, interactive and engaging.
Nick Marshall (Memorial Art Gallery)
Nick Marshall is an artist, educator, and designer with over 10 years of experience in leading the development, scheduling, budgeting, design and production of museum exhibitions and public programs. Recent Exhibitions featuring his artwork include “trans_late” at Plug Projects in Kansas City, “Synthesizing Nature” at View Art Center in Old Forge, “A Matter of Memory” and “Gathering Clouds” at George Eastman Museum in Rochester, NY, and “Another Day in Paradise” at Gravy Studio in Philadelphia. In 2016, he published his first book, “escapes” with VSW Press. He has taught photography courses at Alfred University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Visual Studies Workshop. Marshall has a BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design and a MFA from RIT. Currently, he is the Exhibitions Registrar at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester.
Robert Hirsch (Acting Curatorial Director, CEPA Gallery)
Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1949, Hirsch has a BFA from Rochester Institute of Technology (1971) and an MFA from Arizona State University (1974). He is a former executive director and chief curator of CEPA Gallery in Buffalo; a founder of Southern Light Gallery; and a co-founder of Northlight Gallery, and has curated numerous exhibitions and public art projects. Previously, he was a professor of photography at Amarillo College, SUNY Buffalo, and SUNY Brockport, where he was also the director of graduate studies in the visual arts and associate director of the Visual Studies Workshop. Since 2000, he has led Light Research, a Buffalo-based consulting firm that provides professional services in the photographic arts field.
Hirsch's work has been shown in over 200 solo and group exhibitions in North America and Europe, including at the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York; the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo; the Noorderlicht Photofestival in Groningen, the Netherlands; and the Stefan Stux Gallery in New York City. During the past decade, Hirsch's visual projects—such as World in a Jar: War & Trauma; Manifest Destiny & the American West; Unseen Terror: A Culture of Fear; The Sixties Cubed; and Ghosts: French Holocaust Children—have explored the interrelationship of historical images with memory and time. Hirsch has rephotographed and recontextualized images into three-dimensional installations in order to investigate ethnic violence, genocide, religious intolerance, and war.
Hirsch's books include Transformational Imaging: Handmade Photography Since 1960; Exploring Color Photography: From Film to Pixels; Photographic Possibilities: The Expressive Use of Equipment, Ideas, Materials, and Processes; Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography; and Light and Lens: Photography in the Digital Age. Light and Lens has been published in Chinese- and German-language editions. His work, both visual and written, is signed as Robert Hirsch.
Hirsch has published scores of articles about visual culture and interviewed numerous eminent photographers and curators. He has been the associate editor of Photovision and Digital Camera (UK), and a contributing writer for Afterimage, CEPA Journal, Light Work's Contact Sheet, Digital Camera, Exposure, The Encyclopedia of 19th-Century Photography, The Focal Encyclopedia of Photography, Fotophile, The Handmade Photograph, History of Photography, Photo Ed (Canada), The Photo Review, Photovision, Photo Technique, World Book Encyclopedia, and numerous regional publications, including Buffalo Spree and FY.
Ruby Merritt (CEPA Gallery)
Ruby Merritt is a professional Visual Artist and a Teaching Artist from Western New York, which allows her to work independently with many art organizations and schools. She has been an adjunct instructor of Fine Arts at Niagara County Community College and the University at Buffalo since 2013. Merritt is the studio manager and Assistant to the Director, Robert Hirsch of Light Research, since 2018 who works closely with CEPA. She works on curatorial projects, exhibitions, designing content, archiving past projects, and conducting services to artists and professionals in the field.
Starting with CEPA in 2019, Merritt began as an art handler, curatorial assistant, and head installer (preparator) working closely with the exhibiting artists and CEPA members. Alongside designing and producing exhibition materials, and developing marketing materials for social media and community outreach, she now focuses on engagement in the gallery space with the public and school groups while crafting workshops for photo fun and professional development.
Xyza Cruz Bacani
Xyza Cruz Bacani (b.1987) is a Filipina author and photographer based in New York who uses her work to raise awareness about under-reported stories. Having worked as a second-generation domestic worker in Hong Kong for almost a decade, she is particularly interested in the intersections of migration, climate change and human rights. She is one of the Magnum Foundation Photography and Social Justice Fellows in 2015, has exhibited worldwide, and won numerous awards in photography. She is also the recipient of a resolution passed by the Philippines House of Representatives in her honor, HR No.1969. Xyza is one of the Asia 21 Young Leaders (Class of 2018), the WMA Commission grantee in 2017, a Pulitzer Center and an Open Society Moving Walls 2017 grantee. She is one of the BBC’s 100 Women of the World 2015, 30 Under 30 Women Photographers 2016, Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2016, and author of the book We Are Like Air.
Yoav Friedlander (Float Magazine)
Yoav Friedlander, born in Jerusalem in 1985, is a photographer and co-founder of Float Photo Magazine (2014) and the Rust Belt Biennial (2018). Raised in Maale-Adummim, his worldview was influenced by the landscapes between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. His work, reflecting his "Americanized Israeli" identity, blends scale model creations with landscape photography, exploring the interplay of reality and its photographic representation. Friedlander studied photography at Hadassah Academic College Jerusalem (B.A.) and the School of Visual Arts in New York (MFA), examining how images shape and augment our understanding of the world.