Agency and the Image

A Two-Day Photography Symposium

Presented by Portland Community College in partnership with Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts

This is an off-site symposium.

Dates & Locations:

• Day 1: Fri, Oct 10, 2025 | 10:30 AM – 5 PM | PCC Southeast Campus

• Day 2: Sat, Oct 11, 2025 | 10:30 AM – 4 PM | PCC Cascade Campus

Overview

Agency and the Image brings together artists, scholars, and community members to explore photography’s histories, practices, and futures. The symposium honors Blue Sky’s 50 years of advancing contemporary photography.

The program includes:

• Workshops on artist statements, portfolio development, digital tools, and tintype making

• Panel discussions on photography’s role in community, identity, and experimental practices

• A keynote with Blue Sky co-founder Christopher Rauschenberg and Executive Director Kristin Solomon

• An interactive on-site Camera Obscura installation

Registration: $25 per person, $75 if including wet plate photography workshop.

• Free Blue Sky student membership for all student registrants.

• Financial assistance available (contact: bluesky@blueskygallery.org).

• The first event each day is free to the public.

Schedule

Day 1: Fri, Oct 10 – PCC Southeast Campus

• 10:30 – 11:10 AM | Blue Sky: Past, Present, and Future with co-founder Christopher Rauschenberg and executive director Kristin Solomon (Free to the Public)

• 11:30 – 12:15 PM | Panel Discussion- Visualize Belonging: Community and Identity in Photographic Practice with artists Mike Vos and Nykelle DeVivo

• 12:15 – 1 PM | Lunch Break - independent

• 1 – 2:15 PM | Workshop - Creating Yourself: Artist Statement Writing Workshop with Kristin Solomon

• 2:15 – 5 PM | Workshop - Wet Plate Photography with Kim Manchester (additional cost, limited space)

Day 2: Sat, Oct 11 – PCC Cascade Campus

• 10:30 – 11:10 AM | Camera Obscura Experience (Free to the Public)

• 11:30 – 12:15 PM | Panel Discussion: Blowing Up Boxes - Experimentation and Defining Your Practice for Yourself with Kim Manchester, C. Meier, Sadie Wescheler, and Brittney Cathey-Adams

• 12:15 – 1 PM | Lunch Break - independent

• 1 – 2:15 PM | Workshop - Portfolio Development with C. Meier

• 2:15 – 4 PM | Workshop: Digital Tools with David Torres

Workshop and Panel Descriptions

Blue Sky: Past, Present, and Future

Join Blue Sky Gallery co-founder and board president Chris Rauschenberg and executive director Kristin Solomon for a conversation tracing the gallery’s remarkable 50-year history and imagining its future. Together, they’ll reflect on Blue Sky’s origins as a scrappy artist-run space, its evolution into a nationally recognized center for photography, and the vision guiding the next chapter of community, creativity, and cultural dialogue.

Panel Discussion - Visualize Belonging: Community and Identity in Photographic Practice

“Exploring the role of the image in constructing both individual and collective narratives.”

This panel brings together artists and cultural leaders to examine the ways photography shapes, reflects, and challenges notions of community and identity. Panelists include Kristin Solomon, Executive Director of Blue Sky Gallery; David Torres, Professor at Portland Community College; and artists Nykelle Devivo and Mike Vos. Through dialogue and exchange, the discussion will explore photography’s capacity to construct belonging, question representation, and open new perspectives on collective and individual identity.

Workshop - Creating Yourself: Artist Statement Writing Workshop

Led by Kristin Solomon, Executive Director of Blue Sky Gallery, this workshop offers practical strategies for developing clear, compelling, and authentic artist statements. Participants will learn how to articulate their artistic vision, contextualize their practice, and communicate effectively with curators, funders, and audiences. Through guided writing exercises and discussion, attendees will leave with the tools to refine their own statements and greater confidence in presenting their work.

Wet-Plate Workshop 

Participants in this very brief but fast-paced and fun workshop will be ‘dipping their toes’ as it were into the Wet-Plate Collodion process of making images. We’ll begin with a short history of the process while we learn about the basic steps to coat, sensitize and expose an image. This is a hands-on workshop with a limit of only 10 participants which will make for a small and close cohort of folks who are perhaps interested in diving deeper at some point into wet plate collodion photography or who have already taken a workshop, fell in love and just can’t get enough of it! 
Participants can expect to expose a limited number of plates as time allows and will be able to pick their dried and varnished plate up the next day at day two of the symposium.

Enrollment cap 10 participants max

Each participant will need to bring the following:
Full water bottle
Closed toed shoes
Wear clothing or a smock/apron that is ok to get dirty / stained
Personal protective equipment - if you have your own you are encouraged to bring items for eye and clothing protection as well as a mask (k95 is ok) that will help minimize the inhalation of fumes. I encourage those of you who wear contact lenses to instead wear your glasses, if that doesn’t inhibit your focusing ability. We will be providing gloves and k95 masks as well as a limited number of safety glasses and aprons. 

Camera Obscura Experience

Step inside and experience the world upside down, in reverse and in real time.  We welcome you on our second day of the symposium to walk into the world of the camera obscura. Any one of any level of experience is welcome to this hands on, participitory and free activity. Located in the outdoor space next to our ceramics studio, you can step inside the camera, experience the physical properties of light, science and magic for yourself. We’ll have student volunteers on hand to answer your questions and suggest ways in which you can use your new technology to document the old.

Panel Discussion - Blowing up Boxes: experimentation and defining your practice for yourself

Once we begin to explore and figure out who we are as an artist, as a creator, we often find ourselves driven to experiment at an ever-expanding edge of the medium that we’ve previously identified with.  Are we still a Photographer? How do we allow ourselves to continue to evolve, develop and play at the edge of our understanding while keeping the intention and motivation of why we are driven to create centered?

We invite you to participate in a lively discussion of the possibilities and potentials as well as the pitfalls and worries of working outside of and along the edge of your identity as an artist and how to continue to experiment and be curious in your practice as you continue to explore.

Join our discussion with four artists who intentionally broaden their use of the photographic medium to reflect their own investigatory and creative practices. Each of them use the photographic medium in some sense or another, though not always through the lens nor a camera and all continue to explore how they identify themselves in relation to photography as an art form and struggle to maintain an authentic voice in their professional practice as art makers.

This panel on our second day of the two day symposium leads guests and participants through some of the questions, issues and considerations that many of us have to navigate as we strive to be vulnerable, brave and continue to do so regardless of the external messages we may receive along the way.

Participants include C. Meier, Brittney Cathey-Adams & Sadie Weschler, & moderated by Kim Manchester.  

There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion at the end of our session.

Workshop - Portfolio Development Workshop 

C. Meier will share their insight into the process of project conception to exhibition — from developing a body of work to curating for exhibition. Meier will be offering real-world advice and informal access to their experience as a curator and photographic artist themself. They will explore how editing and sequencing can sharpen narrative and structure—pushing projects toward a more resolved form and onto the gallery wall. Learn how to prepare your portfolio for reviews, exhibition submissions, and turning your portfolio into an exciting visual exhibition installation.

Workshop - Digital Tools

Welcome to Digital Tools! In this class, students will learn the fundamentals of how to use Adobe Photoshop, Animate, Premiere, alongside A.I software such as Stable Diffusion. Through this small workshop, students will become comfortable and efficient in understanding the practical use case of Digital Tools for portfolio building.

Instructor Bios

Brittney Cathey-Adams is a photographic artist currently located in Portland, OR. Her work includes themes of fatness, body politics and interrogating ideas of representation through self-portraiture.  Her work has been on exhibit throughout institutions such as the de Young Museum, SF Camerawork, The Center for Fine Art Photography in Fort Collins, CO and Rayko Photo Center. She was also selected for SF Camerawork’s [FORECAST 2020] . With a strong passion for photography and art education, Cathey-Adams dedicates herself to image making as well as sharing visual language through teaching with Portland Community College.

Nykelle DeVivo (they/them) is a Portland-based artist whose practice centers on light as a tool for ancestral connection and spiritual revelation. Through photography, film, and installation, they engage in a meditative dialogue with the unseen, drawing from diasporic traditions of divination, Afrofuturist methodologies, and Black Anarchist praxis. DeVivo holds an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California San Diego, and is an inaugural Google Image Equity Fellow. Their work has been presented internationally, with inclusion in numerous public and private collections. They are currently preparing their first monograph, Tha Crossroads, a culmination of over a decade of image-making, slated for release in Summer 2026.

Kim Manchester (they/them) is an artist, educator & photographer who relocated to the Pacific Northwest twenty-odd years ago and has been making images that explore the ways in which pattern, light, color and value interact in the world around them. The idea of ‘Home’ and making images inside domestic and residential environments is a recurring theme in their work as is the interplay of light, time and state of mind as they move through those places. Kim has been teaching Photography at Portland Community College since 2006 and has had the privilege to teach PCC students abroad  every other summer in Prague, Czechia.  Their work as an educator strives to empower students through using experiential learning opportunities, encouraging experimentation and reflection and through a curriculum that seeks to  de-colonize photography’s culture of singular authorship, emphasizing that every photograph is a collaborative act.

C. Meier (they/them) is a non-binary artist and curator based in Portland, OR. In their current role as Exhibitions Director at Blue Sky, Oregon Center for the Photographic Art, they have organized and installed over 80 solo exhibitions at the gallery since 2021. Meier co-curated the 2017 exhibition re:collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago (MoCP), and curated the 2023 exhibition Size Matters for Medium Photo, San Diego. Meier has reviewed portfolios at Filter Photo Festival, New England Portfolio Review, ICP Portfolio Day, and Photolucida Portfolio Review. They have juried for Photolucida’s 2024 and 2025 Critical Mass Top 200 and Top 50 winners. Meier earned their MFA in Photography from Columbia College Chicago (2017) and BFA in Studio Art from Pacific Lutheran University (2004). They have exhibited at Candela Books + Gallery, Hyde Park Art Center, Mana Contemporary (Chicago), Filter Space, Nine Gallery, Solas Gallery, Carnation Contemporary, among others, and their work is part of the Permanent Collection of Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA).

Kristin Solomon (she/her) is the Executive Director of Blue Sky Gallery, the Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts. Born and raised in New York. She holds a BFA in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and a Masters in Arts and Cultural Management from Pratt Institute. She has over 20 years experience in arts administration with a concentration in strategic planning, fundraising, and marketing. Over her career, she has helped many artists and non-profits find their unique creative edge and build sustainable business practices through one-on-one coaching sessions, workshops, retreats, and online courses through her virtual platform THINK WITH YOUR HEART INSTITUTE ONLINE. Kristin has served on the Boards of the Portland Art Dealers Association, Portland Open Studios, Creative Arts Community, and the Menucha Retreat and Conference Center.

David Torres is an New Media Artist and Co – Faculty Department Chair for PCC’s Casacde Campus. Born in West Palm Beach, FL, David Torres is interested in the history of stories where the unseen forces of morality are at work. The PTSD factor embedded in African American History has drawn Torres to the idea of the “hero” as an empathic ideal for people to aspire to. Torres explores the illusion and delusional discussions that surround the complexities of class dynamics within American culture. As a way of investigating these dynamics Torres created “Riakman”, an alter-ego, designed under the influences of 1990’s anime, video games, and his father’s middle school drawings. Riakman’s birth later expanded into the Sunkeepers, a race of warriors fueled by the cosmic power of the sun! Through worldbuilding and storytelling, Torres re-links pathways between high art and popular culture as a multimedia artist. Through Sunkeepers, Torres blends the handicraft formats of painting, drawing, and sculpture with the technocraft formats of 3-D modeling, filmmaking, and A.I to create video animations. Recent exhibitions include Hollywood Theatre, AfterTime Collective, Northview Gallery, Helzer Gallery, Black Fish Gallery and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery. Torres has attended fellowships at Oxbow School of Arts, Marie Waslh Sharpe and most recently Wheaton College’s Visiting Artist Program. 

Mike Vos is a photographer, visual artist and musician from Portland, OR. Drawing inspiration from various literary movements and themes, Vos uses traditional and experimental 4x5 film techniques, multi-channel video, field recordings and instrumentation to craft complex narratives that advocate for the preservation of wild spaces. Constantly pushing the capabilities of film photography, analog video and sound, Vos creates immersive experiences to draw viewers into surreal representations of physical places. Vos has been awarded artist residencies at esteemed institutions such as MASS MoCA, The Akureyri Art Museum in Akureyri, Iceland, Bær Arts Center in Hofsós, Iceland, Cobertizo in Mexico, Vermont Studio Center, Jentel Arts in Wyoming, and in his home state of Oregon: Caldera Arts and The Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. His work is part of the permanent collections for the city of Portland, Oregon and Listasafn Árnesinga (LÁ Art Museum) in Hveragerði, Iceland. He has received support from grants through the Regional Arts & Culture Council, The Ford Family Foundation, The Puffin Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission. In 2024 Vos released his debut monograph ‘Somewhere in Another Place’ through Buckman Publishing. In 2025 he was awarded a photography fellowship with the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology and helped develop a teaching program for rural youth across Oregon state. Mike Vos is currently represented by LAURA VINCENT DESIGN & GALLERY in Portland, OR and El Palmar Galería in Mexico City, MX.

Sadie Wechsler was born and raised in Seattle, Washington and is based in Portland, Oregon.  She received her BA from Bard College in 2007 and an MFA from Yale School of Art in 2013. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally. In 2021 she was featured in the Boren Banner Series and New Acquisitions exhibition at the Frye Art Museum in Seattle, WA. In 2020, Wechsler and Pao Houa Her premiered a collaborative two-person show examining the residue of secret American military campaigns on the land and people of Laos at King Street Station in Seattle. She has been included in group shows nationally and internationally. Wechsler has received the smArt Ventures Grant from the City of Seattle, Arts3C and Make Learn Build Grants from the Regional Arts & Culture Council. She has been an artist in residence at PLAYA at Summer Lake, Anderson Ranch Art Center, the Arctic Circle Expedition and the USCG Healy. Her work can be found in the collections of the Yale University Library, the Hammer Art Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Frye Art Museum, and the King County Portable Collection. In addition to her art practice, Wechsler is a certified arborist who supports the tree canopy of Portland through education, pruning, care, and consulting.