The visiting artists are coming fast and furious this semester. The Society for Photographic Education (SPE) conference is coming up pretty quick, and because of that, Oh Soon-Hwa, a South Korean artist and teacher in Singapore, was in town. She’ll be here until SPE happens over the weekend, but she came in early and was able to lecture and to crit. As I’ve mentioned before, this semester will include 5 weeks of visiting artists. Because we are taking the week off from critique for SPE, our next critique will also include a visiting artist. Seriously, crazy fast.

On Thursday night, Soon-Hwa gave her lecture. I wish that more people had attended the lecture, because it was quite good. I, personally, had not heard of her or her work, and while the work was not exactly up my alley, her lecture was very engaging. She is extremely smart and articulate.

Guest Crit

That’s what made her fantastic for critique the next day. Normally, the guest comes in for some people that signed up for critique in the morning and then leaves for the afternoon, but Soon-Hwa was generous enough to stay for the entire day, something she is by no means obligated to do. By the end of the day, everyone was exhausted.

I had signed up for one of the crit spots, and it was great to hear feedback from someone not only unfamiliar with my work but also from an entirely different culture, from the other side of the world. It is a really nice thing to hear that the main ideas in the work still come through even to someone from a different culture.

She was fantastic!