Society for Photographic Education

2025 Members Exhibition

Bigger & Better

October 10-12, 2025

Tarleton State University

IPE Building | Fort Worth, Texas

JUROR'S STATEMENT

Let me start off by saying thank you to SPE SouthCentral for asking me to jury the Members Show this year. SPE is very near and dear to me, and I consider so many of you my lifelong friends. (And the rest of you are just friends I haven’t met yet!) To jury a show like this, without a prescribed theme or other parameters, requires a certain openness to the work that’s been submitted, a willingness to listen, as it were, to the stories the photographs want to tell, and tell together as a single unit. So what story do these images tell?

As we all know, there are myriad approaches to photography, image capture, taking and making pictures. This year’s Members Show features a range of these approaches—early processes like tintype and gum bichromate to contemporary media like Xerox and photomontage and film transformed into HD video—though only a sample of what each of the selected artists are capable of and currently producing. (I couldn’t choose them all!) From abstraction and mystery to human elements both recognizable and enigmatic, the photographs here go beyond a particular theme; rather, these selections represent the breadth of creative expression and documentation that exists within our organization, which is, I think, both exciting and encouraging. Many of our members are educators, and the caliber of work in our Student Show is a testament to our members’ commitment and ability to, not only do their jobs well, but also mentor and inspire the next generation of photographers and photography educators. It is my hope that this year’s Members Show conveys the continued relevance, excellence, and creative diversity of our organization and the prospect of a bright (bigger and better!) future.

Vahid Valikhani
Portrait of Andy

Krista Steinke
U-SCOPIC

Krista Steinke
I found some old footage of a tree

Carol Record
Where Spirits Dance

Humna Raza
Sojourn

Jacob Moffet
When the Flood Waters Rise

Mehdi Heidari
Lost in Light

Sierra Greenslade
Cherry Poppin Daddy

Kim Wasson Eagan
Both Sides of the Glass

Rebecca Drolen
Figure 009 Prize

Dillon Bryant
Looking (Rushmore)

Dillon Bryant
Holding Tight Out of Fear of Scarcity #1

Amanda Breitbach
Bolivar Roads

Kent Anderson Butler
From The Belly of Sheol

Lauren E. Allen
Sanctus

Ivan Aguayo
Improvisation No. 17

Diane Durant

JUROR

Diane Durant (b. 1978) works with image, text, and found objects to tell true stories, from remaking childhood moments to exploring familial relationships and societal expectations through humor (and trophies). She is a graduate of Baylor University (BFA '01), Dallas Theological Seminary (MA/BC '04), and the University of Texas at Dallas (MA '07, PhD '13) where she currently holds the position of Professor of Instruction and Director of the Marilyn & Jerry Comer Collection of Photography. Diane is a member of both the Board of Directors for the Dallas Wings Community Foundation and Texas Photographic Society. Her photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally; appeared online at Aint-Bad, Don't Smile, Lenscratch, Insider, and T, the New York Times Style Magazine; featured in print with Chronicles and Sun Magazine; and belong to the permanent collection of the National Park Service. Her creative writing has appeared in Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, RiverSedge, di-verse-city, the Texas Poetry Calendar, Stymie, The Spectacle, The Ekphrastic Review, Slackjaw, Frazzled, and McSweeney's. She is the former president of 500X Gallery in Dallas and past editor of The Grassburr, The Rope, Sojourn, and Reunion: The Dallas Review. In 2018, Diane was named one of four inaugural Carter Community Artists with the Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. Her first monograph, Stories, 1986–88, was released by Daylight Books in 2020. To her credit, she's never eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and fully intends to keep it that way.