Southeast Museum of Photography marks 50 years of influence, innovation, inspiration

Kevin D. Lane
In Motion Staff Writer

The Gale Lemerand Entrepreneurial Speaker Series recently welcomed two prominent alumni of the Daytona State College School of Photography: New York Times and Pulitzer Prize winning photographer, Stephen Crowley; and National Geographic film maker, Lawrence Cumbo.

Their presentations were in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the DSC School of Photography and 35th anniversary of the Southeast Museum of Photography.

The event was opened by Dr. Thomas LoBasso, Chief Operating Officer and Provost of DSC. LoBasso presented Lemerand Scholarships to Cynthia Puckett and Bambi Kelly. He then introduced L. Gale Lemerand who spoke briefly on his experience as an entrepreneur.

“It’s a long haul, you need to work real hard to be successful. You need to surround yourself with great people,” Lemerand said.
Lemerand also mentioned his book “To Win in Business Bet on the Jockey.

“The person running the business is more important than the show itself,” he said, summing up the premise of his book.

Daniel A. Biferie, Chair of the School of Photography, took the podium next to describe the photography program and its history. He also acknowledged and praised the staff of both the photography school and the museum. Biferie then introduced the first lecturer of the night, Stephen Crowley.

Crowley, who is in the middle of covering mid-term elections, took time off to speak at the event celebrating the School of Photography. He entertained the audience with his wit and sense of humor. He also shared a number of photographs from his many collections, including pictures from “Voices in Afghanistan,” “A Day in the Life,” and other retrospectives and creative works.

Crowley attributed his success as a photo journalist to the education he received at Daytona State College School of Photography, which helped him compete with his colleagues who were strictly photo journalists as opposed to being educated in all forms of photography as he was.

“I barely made an imprint there, but Daytona made a huge imprint on me,” said Crowley of his experience as a student here. “I learned so much. They taught us how to tell stories.”

Commenting on the broad range of instruction he received, Crowley said, “I learned photo devices like rhythm and isolation, the building blocks of a good story.”

Crowley kept the audience engaged with a number of stories about life in politics, including the serious side as well as the humorous. Satirical images from his wide collection, amassed from years of covering politics, were shown throughout his talk. Many of his works can be seen at www.CrowleyGraphs.com.

Crowley closed by answering a number of questions from the audience, covering everything from who is the most accessible politician, to his continued use of film photography. Explaining his film choices, Crowley said, “Sometimes the music is better with a banjo and sometimes its better with a viola. I think that if you take those options away, you’re going to feel like you’re stuck in an elevator. I like video. I like Polaroid, film, digital; whatever tells the story most effectively.”

Cumbo, who calls himself a storyteller, said,” I love telling stories.” He recognizes that it is what inspired his venture into film.

When told by a professor at DSC to ”shoot what you care about,” he found that still imagery could not completely tell the story of Tom Wise. He decided to create his first film to truly capture the story of Wise’s disability and how he over comes it.

Cumbo has made many films since then including: “Search for the Afghan Girl”; “American Transgender”; and “Rocking the Opera House: Dr. John.” He is also cited with producing a number of television shows for the National Geographic Channel. His credits include episodes of “National Geographic Explorer,” “Critter Quest,” “Expeditions to the Edge” and “Bug Attack.” He is currently in Japan filming killer hornets for a National Geographic special.