Located just 20 minutes south of Plantation Bay on the campus of Daytona State College, The Southeast Museum of Photography makes a fantastic day trip for residents looking to expand their cultural side. The museum is one of only 13 facilities in the entire country that are dedicated exclusively to photography.
The museum is actually located in the building that bears the name of Plantation Bay resident and founder of ICI Homes, Mori Hosseini.
In addition to many permanent exhibits, the museum features between two and five different traveling exhibits each year, so there is always something new to keep photography lovers coming back. The museum also hosts a number of different community workshops over the course of the year that can serve as excellent training to help any amateur photographers improve their skills.
Museum Exhibits
At the core of The Southeast Museum of Photography is its permanent collection, which contains more than 4,500 photographs. This collection has been assembled as a result of many gifts and grant programs. The collection contains photos dating as far back as 1840, and is also one of the largest collections of post-revolutionary Cuban photography in the country.
While a full database of the museum’s permanent collection is not available online, their website does document many of the acquisitions made over the past two years. These acquisitions include the work of photographers like William Castellana, Alex Harris, Andy Warhol, Eric Breitenbach, Kate Brooks, and David Spitzer.
Because the museum is a close partner with the photography programs at Daytona State College and The University of Central Florida Daytona Campus, there are also many temporary exhibits that feature the work of the faculty and students of those programs. Current exhibits include “Of One and The Other” featuring the work of professor Jayanti Seiler, and “Obsessions, Curiousities, and Fancies” featuring the work of professor M. Laine Wyatt.
In addition to all of the permanent collection photographs and the temporary exhibits, the museum is also well known for bringing in outstanding traveling exhibits. The current traveling exhibit, which will be available through the end of the year, contains 114 prints of photographs taken by Douglas Kirkland. Kirkland’s work contains photographs of various celebrities from Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie all the way back to Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe.
Community Workshops
Another popular aspect of the Southeast Museum of Photography is the different photography workshops that it holds for members of the community throughout the year. Many of these workshops are full-day events that are scheduled on Saturdays during the school year.
The workshops are broken into four different levels based on skill and experience that range from complete beginners with absolutely no experience to photographers with extensive experience and skill. Regardless of your skill level, there is a workshop that will make you feel comfortable while gaining experience.
The museum also has workshops that are particularly geared towards children and teens. There are Children’s Photo Workshops, Teen Digital Photo Workshops, Summer Photo Camps, the Digital Photo Academy, and even a Family Photo Fun Day. You can find more information about all of these workshops on the museum’s website!
Whether you are an expert photographer, a novice picture taker, someone who appreciates great photography, or just looking a different type of day trip, the Southeast Museum of Photography has something that will appeal to pretty much anyone.
Photography experts will appreciate some of the great pieces contained deep in the museum’s permanent collection, and visitors with no photography background whatsoever will still appreciate the celebrity photographs in the Douglas Kirkland collection. Either way, the Southeast Museum of Photography is a great way to spend an afternoon!
For more information, visit their website or call (386) 506-4475
Images via DaytonaState.edu and via Flickr by ATrumbly
