We are excited to host a series of Zoom Reviews with top Industry and Academic Professionals. Critical review as our seniors present their year-long projects and embark into the professional workspace.
Reviews by Industry and Academic Professionals:
Valerie Fox - Creative Director, Photo Studio Operations Consultant, Photographer -Phoenix, AZ
Kim Harkins - Former Director of Media Arts, Art Institute of California - Orange County
Shana Lopes - Assistant Curator of Photography, SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art - San Francisco, CA
Kathryn Roach - Photo Editor, The New York Times - New York, NY
Nick Shepard - Assistant Professor of Photography, California State University, Sacramento - Sacramento, CA
Julie Skarwecki - Photo Consultant, Julie Skarwecki Consulting - Richmond, VA
Joanna Szupinska - Senior Curator, California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTS - Riverside, CA
Karen Williams - Stills Curation Specialist, Netflix - Los Angeles, CA
Thankful to these professionals for offering their precious time to the Program and the next generation of Photographic Professionals.
Valerie Fox is an accomplished lifestyle, apparel, children’s, and still life photographer based in both Arizona and California. She has been known to tromp through swamps, climb the tops of sand dunes, charm distressed babies, and hang precariously from ceilings in order to get the right shot. Fox’s experience as a creative director continues to shape both her graphic sensibilities and her collaborative approach to photography.
Her imagery has been seen around the world on billboards, major retail storefronts, magazines, and catalogs. Her professional experience in studio production and management has been heard in global studio conferences and featured in online webinars.
Most importantly, clients agree her warmth and humor bring ease to the production and crew while effortlessly executing the shoot.
Kim Harkins, retired and formerly the Academic Director of Media Arts at the Art Institute of California - Orange County. And previously Program Director and Professor of Commercial Photography at Gwinnett Technical College. Kim continues to be an active member of the Society of Photographic Education - locally and nationally. Kim has been involved with higher education as a photo educator since 1976 - specializing in the history of photography. Restoring vintage and historic cameras is one of her favorite pastimes - having sold several collections over the years.
Shana Lopes, Ph.D., is an Assistant Curator of Photography at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Since her arrival at the museum in 2019, she has organized exhibitions on cyanotypes, the 1906 earthquake, Atget, and Wright Morris. She is the co-curator of Constellations: Photographs in Dialogue, which pairs recent acquisitions with existing work from the collection, and A Living for Us All: Artists and the WPA. Over the past fifteen years, she has gained curatorial experience at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Kathryn Roach is an experienced photo editor in both editorial and commercial spaces. Her career began in San Francisco at award-winning ReadyMade Magazine - a pioneer of its kind and time in the publishing industry. Since, she has transitioned to New York - working for such publications as Dwell, Make, CNBC, and now the New York Times. She is a dedicated and creative collaborator with a deep well of contacts. Her passion lies as a visual storyteller, with a strong foundation in digital and print. Featuring excellence for design and adept at interpreting needs to create powerful visuals.
Nick Shepard grew up in New York City, graduated with a studio art and art history degree from Carleton College, and earned his MFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts in his hometown. Shepard's most recent exhibition, “PUSH / PULL,” appeared at TGTG in Sacramento in April 2022. His work has also appeared at the Crocker Art Museum, Axis Gallery, the Wassaic Project, Disjecta Contemporary Art Center, the Center for Photography at Woodstock, and the Center for Fine Art Photography. Shepard is based in Sacramento, where he is an active member of Axis Gallery and an Associate Professor of Photography at Sacramento State University.
Julie Skarwecki is a commercial photography professional with almost a decade of experience in the industry working directly with artists and advertising agencies, editorial clients, and Fortune 500 companies. After getting started as a studio assistant and production coordinator to photographer and filmmaker Alex Prager, she moved on as a commercial agent representing award-winning photographers and illustrators across the United States and in Europe.
As an agent, she helped artists define their personal brands, strengthen their portfolios, connect with photo editors and art buyers, and successfully target their ideal clients using strategic marketing and promotional tactics.
Joanna Szupinska is a curator and writer based in Los Angeles. She has curated exhibitions at the California Museum of Photography in Riverside, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, Sullivan Galleries at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Susanne Vielmetter Los Angeles Projects, and has contributed to projects at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Artpace San Antonio, and Santa Monica Museum of Art. She has contributed essays to exhibition catalogues and other books (selection listed below), and has published essays, articles, and reviews in Art Journal, and the Journal of Curatorial Studies; in Art Papers, Mousse, artUS, Artillery, and Artweek magazines; and online at SFMOMA Open Space, artSlant, FlashArtOnline, KCET Artbound, and The Cosmopolitan Review websites.
Karen Williams is a freelance Photo Director, Producer, and Visual Storyteller with 10+ years’ experience at major media and brands. She has created and art-directed images for prime brands and media, including Square, Airbnb, AARP, MasterClass, Wired, and San Francisco Magazine. Having produced hundreds of photo shoots, spanning the entire creative process from securing talent to onsite logistics to post-production. A has stepped into leading photo departments and visual aesthetics, managing all collaborations with creative teams and photographers.