At the recent PMA Digital Show in Melbourne I accepted the position of President of this association for the next 11 months and have taken on the challenge of building the membership across Australia. I have been involved with the PIEA (under several name changes) on and off for 30 years and have seen membership numbers decline from the halcyon days of the 80s due to the gradual demise of traditional photography. It was not unusual to have 80 registered delegates representing photographic educational institutions across Australia attend our annual events. The content of the three-day conferences were inspiring, the discussion lively and the social contacts very useful. However, at the last Melbourne event we had but a handful of members attend the conference.

This comes at a time when enrolment figures for visual arts programs across Australia have never been higher. I am aware of the financial constraints that face all of us in this industry but we now have communication technologies that were unimagined 30 years ago. The teachers who had entered photographic education on the experience they had gained from industry have gradually disappeared as the new digital technologies have appeared. This association has never reached out to the new teachers and I am about to do so this year with confidence that we can build our numbers from 20 to 200 before our next conference in 11 months.

I have attached a brief intro document that is about to be published in the next issue of Images Magazine, circulated to 1600 Highschool teachers across Australia. It will provide you with some information about the intent of the PIEA.

If you are interested in meeting other photographic educators across Australia please log on to the Facebook site I opened a few weeks ago. "PIEA Australia" and ask to join the discussion group. See you there.

 

Best regards

Earle

 

--

Earle Bridger

QCA Deputy Director (Development)

Senior Lecturer Photojournalism

Griffith University

 

 

PMA WA State Report - by Murray Gibbs

Fri July 6th:                     PMA SA Lunch Meeting

                                       T- Chow Restaurant, Adelaide

 

July 18th                         PMA VIC Arctic Blast Golf Day

                                       Amstel Golf Club, Cranbourne

 

Fri July 20th:                   Info'tography Seminar - Sydney

Sat July 21st                   Info'tography Workshop - Sydney

                                       National Maritime Museum

                                       Darling Harbour

 

Mon 23rd July                Info'tography Seminar - Brisbane

Tue 24th July                 Info'tography Workshop - Brisbane

                                      Southbank Institute of Technology

                                      South Brisbane

 

Fri 27th July                   Info'tography Seminar - Melbourne

Sat 28th July                  Info'tography Workshop - Melbourne

                                      State Library of Victoria

                                      

Tue Sept 4th:                  PMA NSW Second Industry Quarterly Review

                                       North Ryde RSL Function Centre