Jean Ferro, President's Letter:

No. 11  -  Summer Issue, July 1, 2002

Summertime...! We’ve got a lot of catching up to do this summer, so please bear with us while we take a moment to catch our breath, take a dip in the ocean and gather our plans for our October Quarterly issue.

We had six back-to-back exhibitions since Oct. 2001, “Tea Time”, Stephen Cohen’s “photo l.a”, “Hollywood Bound”, “kitsch & klick, the art of the toy camera” (two exhibition venues) and a second presentation of the “photo l.a” presented by Photo Impact in Santa Monica, CA, USA.

Our galleries for the June Quarterly are a stunning example of the quality of our members. Kathleen T. Carr, an accomplished and celebrated photographer for her Polaroid transfer work, is featured in our PRO gallery. Kathleen is an author, teacher, and creative-uses consultant for Polaroid. A National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship recipient, her photographs have been published in numerous books and periodicals. (See workshop schedule.)

In the General Member Gallery, Gloria Golden shares her b/w images and her interest in traveling to many parts of the world to photograph the unusual and the exotic.

The Student Gallery presents Lauren Gabriele, who brings a brightness to the scene. Exaggeration, inquisitiveness, verbosity and laughter emanate throughout her photographic and video work.

The WIPI staff is working diligently on funding. WIPI’s support funds have come mostly through membership dues to date. We are now making steps to apply for grants and private funding, so we can expand and hire needed staff and provide programs about portfolio presentation, exhibition submissions, and special presentations by invited “celebrated photographers.” We also want to provide a job bank for our Professional members which will include photographers, photo-based web designers, and curators...to keep our finger on the pulse of the industry so we are the best we can be. We want your help, so please focus on helping us find both corporate and private funders.

One of the ways to contribute is to create an “In Memory Of” membership for someone special who may not have received the recognition they deserved during their career. See the Membership Page for more information.

Special thank you to Carrie Villines for helping with our web site over the last month and Cat Jimenez for her work on the funding project. Special thanks to Ludivine Martin for all her wonderful work and support while she volunteered as Webmaster for WIPI and wish her a ton of success in her new job.

Hope you are having a lovely summer!


Jean Ferro