Homer Photofest 2007 participants look at portrait photos.

Homer Photofest 2007 promotions

In fall of 2007, Homer photographers stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the nation’s noted image-makers as Homer Photo Fest 2007 got underway. The three-day event included workshops, lectures and exhibitions as well as a statewide portfolio competition.

Asia Freeman, director of the Bunnell Street Arts Center, one of the event’s sponsors, said the event opened the doors wider than ever on the Homer arts scene, as well as on Homer as a photographer’s destination.

“In Photo Fest we see an incredible range of portfolios from Homer photographers that look like they could come from all corners of America. Homer has that contrast,” she said. “Part of our growth and health as an arts community and an arts economy is to move forward.”

Some 20 participants came to the event, which included presentations by Tom Rankin, Director of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, as well as director of Aperture West, Michelle Dunn-Marsh and internationally recognized documentary photographer Sylvia Plachy.

The Photo Fest 2007 was supported in part by a $2,000 Homer Foundation grant that funded the event’s publicity. A web presence and print documentation were created with the funds, Freeman said, which were vitally important to promoting Photo Fest 2007 to the community, state and nation.

Plans are already in the works for Photo Fest 2009, which will take place next August. Freeman said one of the event goals is to keep the event affordable and accessible to Homer residents as well as those from elsewhere in Alaska and beyond.

Freeman, who has long been involved in the arts community in Homer, said the Homer Foundation has consistently been a source of support for projects like Photo Fest.

“The Homer Foundation steps in in a long-term way by supporting, every year or two, an upstart project … by seeding a new, visionary project that has the potential to have a major impact.”
Freeman said this support of new ideas is what keeps the community in a constant state of growth, “challenging, gradually reordering and reconfiguring and adding innovative things.”