Insight Award Nomination Form
The Society for Photographic Education offers the SPE Insight Award to recognize achievements of
significant distinction made by individuals to the photographic education field. Measured from when
careers first begin, to days when standing ovations erupt spontaneously in lecture halls, SPE’s Insight
Award symbolizes the realization of a national or international career or the launching of future
endeavors to new challenges, ideas, and horizons. Photographers (in the broadest sense of the word
today), as well as scholars, curators, writers, and visionaries—be their achievements rapid fire or
accumulated over time—are eligible for this mark of recognition and distinction.
The Insight Award is an honorary designation without monetary stipend granted annually to an SPE
member. (Membership is defined by five years of cumulative membership.) The Insight Award
recipient shall demonstrate excellence in two or more of the following ways:
• Innovative teaching
• Sustained mentoring of colleagues or students
• Broad contribution to technical, critical, pedagogical, or visual aspects of the field
• Breadth or depth of exhibition or publication
• Sustained presence in the field
The designation will be conferred with the calendar year (e.g. 2021 SPE Insight Award) in which it is
awarded. The honor carries no end date, and anyone so honored will be included in all subsequent
lists of Insight Awardees.
The award recipient will be selected by SPE’s Board of Directors and announced at the annual
conference. Conference attendance is not a requirement to receive the award, though the winner will
be informed of the honor in advance.
Members of the organization’s Board of Directors are not eligible to be nominated during their tenure
on the Board, but may nominate or provide support letters. Members of SPE’s Awards and
Recognition Committee may not nominate nor provide support letters.