Posted by Judy Weiser, PhotoTherapy Ctr Link: History/Development of PhotoTherapy
on 12/17/2008, 6:15 pm, in reply to "Post-conference greetings from Turku, Finland"
66.183.111.228
I thank you, Ulla, for your fine summary about the wonderful Conference last June on "PhotoTherapy and Therapeutic Photography" -- and I apologize for the delay in responding to it.
I think your summary is very complete and as one of the pioneers of this field, I completely agree with your statement that, "The conference was a success and provided, without a doubt, new ideas and useful contacts for all participants" (our only complaint is that it was not possible to continue it for weeks longer!
HOWEVER.... knowing the history of this field from its very earliest days, I do feel I need to add this small correction to the "historical record" you presented, simply because it is inaccurate (although perhaps you might not even realize this!).
And the inaccuracy is not a serious one -- I just think I should make it correct now, to explain that while yours was indeed the first one in Europe, it was not the third after the 1984 one in Toronto... Yours was the fifth one in the world; Toronto was the fourth...
In my Opening Plenary Presentation, I provided the background and history of the field, and the following is an excerpt from that document. Hopefully it will help ensure that all our "history" records can now match each other!
Thanks again for a wonderful Conference!!
and see now below, the true history re: all the past PhotoTherapy Conferences:
1) The FIRST "International PhotoTherapy Symposium" was held May 4-5, 1979, at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois (USA);
2) The SECOND "International PhotoTherapy Symposium" was held April 11-13, 1980, at the same location as the first;
3) The THIRD International PhotoTherapy event was a Conference that had to be "named" as a "Training course" so that Academic Credit could be given to those attending. "Photo/Therapy: Uses of Still Photography in Personal Growth, Counseling, and Therapy", took place June 5-9, 1981 at Kent State University in Ohio (USA);
4) The FOURTH International PhotoTherapy Conference: "Emerging Trends in PhotoTherapy" was held May 17-19, 1984, at the University of Toronto (Canada).
5) And, then the FIFTH "International Conference on PhotoTherapy and Therapeutic Photography" ("yours") is the one that has recently taken place in Finland (in June, 2008).
More about the History and Development of this field can be found at the link below
Hope this helps, and thanks again for posting about the Conference!!
Judy (Weiser)
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