Blog Author Richard Newman
TPS is a very forward thinking organization and has a very good overview of its membership. One thing TPS understands is the importance of sharing and exhibiting work. This can come in many different forms, for contests or conferences. In 2006, TPS was one of the sponsors of the first Silver Conference at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. There was a print competition, and we published a book on Blurb with the winners. I’d like to let one of the participants tell you about the contest and the importance of taking risks with your feelings and you’re your photography. Who knows, you just might win. Let me introduce Marguerite Courtney and let her tell you about it:
“I volunteered at the 2006 Sliver Conference at Art Center. I wasn’t particularly interested in black-and-white photography, but one of my former instructors at Santa Monica College (SMC) said that if you volunteered, you could attend the lectures and events for free." I thought, “Learning for free? Sign me up.”
"My experience changed the whole direction of my photography. I felt like I had found my tribe. I was so inspired, I signed up for an advanced black-and-white printing class for the following fall semester at SMC. The next year, 2007, I entered my work in the Silver competition and won second place.
"I will never forget or stop being grateful for that experience. When they made the announcement, I was frozen like a deer in the headlights. I remember Richard Newman getting up on a chair signaling for me to stand up, looking elated for me.
"People at the Silver Conference were so generous. I didn’t even have a portfolio, but people kindly looked at my work. At a point when I really needed it, they gave me feedback, encouragement, support, as well as the confidence and inspiration to keep going.
"I met Keith Carter, Ken Rosenthal and Susan Burnstine, whose work I loved. Their pictures made me realize that I could make a different, and perhaps more powerful kind of surf picture that conveyed another aspect of the surfing experience from the macho, competitive, saturated high-contrast images that dominated the surf world.
"I left with an idea for a body of work that I wanted to create. That body of work went on to win the Grand Prize of the Emerging Focus competition at Photo LA and to show in LA, New York, London and Geneva.
"I still keep in touch with many of the people that I met at the Silver Conference, and I cherish those relationships.
"Who knows, you just might win." 
