April - June, 2003 Quarterly #14 Jean Ferro, President Dear Members,

Throughout the last 12 issues of the online publication that I've produced, I've had the opportunity to present a variety of women's work. Their portfolios, their stories, a glimpse into their world and life. It's really been exciting and sometimes a lot more work than I had anticipated. When I was asked to help turn WIPI around by the late, great, Peter Palmquist, I had no idea that a one year obligation would turn into three solid years of often intense production of the website, creating exhibition brochures, PR releases, invitations, gathering WIPI archive material, financial responsibilities and membership outreach. Talk about wearing a lot of hats. I kept saying to Peter, "I'm a photo/artist, not an Arts Administrator. WIPI needs an Arts Administrator." He would chuckle and say, one will show up... My single-mindedness and technical ability played an important role to propel WIPI full speed ahead onto the information super highway. Thanks to the many calls to Chuck Berhman (WIPI Tea Time CD producer), for his patience and expertise to help me overcome each computer and software challenge. I apologize and thank everyone for suffering or hopefully chuckling through my grammatical ills. Many offered to proof read, but with these tight and unpredictable schedules, we just never hooked up..so I just kept skipping forward with my typo's, drifting sentences, etc.

As of June, I will be surrendering my post as President, the time has come for me to open the book to Jean Ferro, my favorite photo artist. I keep finding so many projects I was promoting or developing that just came to a halt in the spring of 2000. My American Flag series, the Global Liberty International Newspaper Project involving 42 countries, Trees, Through Our Own Eyes, Self-Portraits by People Without Homes a 30 min. video/documentary, Peace Kids, and Metrolink, Earthquake Emergency, documentation for the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, Southern California's rail expansion in 50 years, along with tons of photo archives of personalities, including my son Eric and personal photo essays on my life and work. I want to take the time to complete several documentaries I started about My family, my Mom who is 94 and our family numbering over 200 family members who live mostly on the east coast,..,phew..I've got a lot of catching up to do!. WIPI members are now prominently situated, grounded, linked to the information highway and reaching a large international audience each day. We are currently speaking to several candidates who will be able to take WIPI to new heights of accomplishment and outreach.

Tea Time, the exhibition, will move forward and we will be posting the entire exhibit online shortly. Since I created the CD and created the theme, I'll make the steps to stay with the project to bring it to fruition. We are actively pursuing new opportunities for this wonderful and timely exhibition, Tea Time, Images of Women, Images of Tea.

The website is wonderful. We are getting so many compliments and constant recognition for the quality work of our photographers. So many of our photographers have experienced new opportunities because of exposure or contacts through WIPI. We now have our Photo Profile section up and running, thanks to Carrie Villines (visit the member links section for more information). We will be offering a General member profile shortly, a one image and 300 character text profile. Many people have approached WIPI looking for photographers. They feel confident from the work shown on the website that the women associated to the organization are professional and will deliver quality work. It's just been impossible to handle and refer each request, from publishers, photo agencies, individuals etc. and that is why we pushed forward to create the Photo Profile. Carrie Villines, WIPI's new webmaster and a dedicated member for two years, helped with the original BIOS's for the Tea Time CD and is now handling the Profiles. Carrie also has the message board up and running for our members. This is a great way to communicate, find contacts, share information about your work and possible opportunities.

The April Quarterly has a lot of information. Please take the time to visit each area and get to know the talented WIPI women who are accomplishing their goals by producing good work. Also, read the correspondence from Photo Historians about the recent Los Angeles Times, March 31 cover story controversy about digital manipulation and the problems it's causing for editors. See Katheen McLaughlin's PRO gallery, it's only a glimpse of the stunning work she has accomplished. Her website is a joy to visit. If you enjoy taking photographs of children, see Rachel Devine, you can tell the children trust her and they are very comfortable in her presence. Our historical section is full of WIPI history along with tribute pages to Peter Palmquist. He was so loved by so many, we will all miss him. His archive will be held at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. Pam Mendelshon, a very special person and Peter's mate of 26 years has worked tirelessly since his untimely death on January 13th to create a foundation for Peter and also the upcoming tribute in Arcata, Ca. on April 12th. The tribute replaces the wedding plans they had scheduled for this summer. Thank you to all those who sent kind words and well wishes. Suzanne Urminski is Peter's associate curator of the archive.

Susan Scafati our New York press attaché is now providing a New York City News that will be found in the Exhibition Highlights section, so if you are traveling to New York or have an exhibit there make sure you contact Susan. Also in the Exhibitions section this month, there is a photo presentation from the farewell solo tribute to Winter Bell, (1975-2003) so young, so talented and passionate, so sad. A wonderful exhibit happened in Los Angeles on March 22nd. A group of Persian women came together and put up ARTISTS FOR PEACE, NUDES NOT NUKES exhibition. I felt it was a fine representation of a culture we so often see shrouded in robes. Here they disrobe and stand free to express themselves. The stunning installation NOR (Persian for New Day) by Char Rae gives us an artistic glimpse into this beautiful tradition. Shah Baba WIPI member is also Iranian and participated in the exhibit with her award winning Tea Time image "Unknown Woman" along with a large scale red veiled nude piece.

WIPI News is just packed with great information. We held over Stephanie McGehee's article about Invasion Training. Stephanie is still in Kuwait and is t side by side with US soldiers and photojournalist traveling into Iraq. Juanita Richeson, what a talented lady. I suggest anyone who wants to know what to do to get their career moving might want to take the time to read, print and reread her article about her work and tips on staying focused. Sara Terry dropped me a line to say she had images from Code Pink, the international gathering of Women against war. We have just a clip of the layout, but you can visit her agency's site to see the whole layout. Now..if you want to take a break from all the intensity, see the Ellen Hess WIPI News story piece. The images are calm and soothing to the soul and on top this visual serenity, she lives on the dream island of Bali.

Joyce Tenneson has a new book "Flower Portraits" due out in April. So make sure you check Amazon.com for its release. Susan Sontag has brought forth another brilliant investigation of photography and the media "Regarding the Pain of Others." I'm looking forward to reading Sontag's book and seeing Joyce's new images.

The photo la. 2003 images will remain online. In the Ruth Bernhard tribute section, the interview by Ted Hartwell, photography curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) delights in telling the story of his visit to Ruth Bernhard's home in San Francisco. Ruth and her long time assistant Maryann were very pleased with our online tributes. After photo l.a. I bought two pictorial books to send to Ruth, Los Angeles and another called Hollywood. Ruth at one time lived in a studio just off Highland around 1950. I signed the first page of the Hollywood book with a note "You can always take the girl out of Hollywood, but you can never take Hollywood out of the girl." I tried to photograph her old residence, but I fear years and years of development left nothing but street signs and 1970 apartment buildings. Hopefully the books brought back some wonderful memories to this incredible photographer, artist and teacher of 97 years of age.

The Quarterly is full of wonderful work and words by women. Peace to ALL nations and ALL people. May the Iraqi people also find peace and forgiveness for this aggression and all the people of Islam. May we find a way to live and share our lives together and may our boys/girls and men/women return home as quickly as possible. I thank them for giving of themselves so that I may be free and I pray that in the future we find new ways to make changes in our world community and in ourselves. Keep educating yourselves and keep shooting those award winning photographs.

Focus on Peace,

Jean Ferro