(from left to right): Adrien Duey, Michael Tardioli, Jennifer Martin, Olivia Johnston, Jonathan Hobin, and Whitney Lewis-Smith (2017)

SPAO is pleased to offer mentoring with our faculty members and instructors.


We are proud to be able to work with some of the most talented arts professionals in Ottawa; our staff and instructors have hugely varied skill sets that include expertise in photography and photo-based media, art history, grant writing, lighting, working in the darkroom, bookmaking, various computer software, and more. Our two facets of mentoring include Private Mentoring (one-on-one) and Group Mentoring.

GROUP MENTORING

SPAO offers ongoing mentoring sessions every semester (fall, winter, and summer) led by expert instructors. These customized sessions allow artists and photographers to gather in a small group with other creatives who are committed to the development of their individual photographic practices.

Mentoring groups offer long-term support for your photographic growth, fostering confidence, friendships, and professional development. Many mentees have gone on to produce exhibitions, publish work, and earn prestigious awards.

  • Fees vary per semester, it ranges from $400 - $700 per semester. Email us at part-time@spao.ca for more information.

*See mentor options below. Need help choosing? Email part-time@spao.ca for guidance.

Image detail by SPAO alum and mentee Ann Piché

SPAO MENTORS

SPAO mentors have unique professional expertise based on training and experience in photography and professional visual art based practices. They are happy to help you in any way we can to achieve your goals, build your visual literacy, and advance your technical prowess. 

MICHAEL TARDIOLI

Project Development + Bookmaking

  • Project conception to realization

  • Expertise in photographic printing

  • Digital Post-production

  • Portfolio and photo book layout

  • Michael Tardioli began his career in photography as an analogue printmaker, most notably collaborating to produce prints for artists Yousuf and Malak Karsh. Tardioli developed new techniques in silver archival print-making, leading to commissions from the honourable Mitchell Sharp, Margaret Trudeau, and Roberta Bondar. As a teacher, he has mentored a generation of students, many of whom have developed into acclaimed artists and successful commercial photographers. This private mentoring group will focus on the art and exploration of portraiture.

 

JOHN HEALEY

Studio + Outdoor Digital Photography

  • Digital photography techniques

  • Studio lighting techniques

  • On-location + documentary storytelling

  • Technical knowledge of photo equipment

  • Since 2011, John Healey has devoted himself to lens-based image creation and developing the talents of students within SPAO’s College Diploma Program through education and instruction. John’s images have been exhibited in galleries across Ontario and his work, HEAD-ON, has been shown nationally at the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival 2017 and his work “Michigan Man after Arcimboldo” was awarded the Grand Prize at the international Figureworks 2019 competition. John is currently a part-time instructor at SPAO. This mentoring group will focus on Healey’s areas of expertise including still-life composition, studio lighting, and image manipulation.

 

RUTH LESS

Analogue + Historical Processes

  • Traditional darkroom techniques

  • Large format camera photography

  • Analogue film development

  • Historical + alternative processes

  • Ruth Less is an artist based in unceded territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation. Has studied portraiture drawing at OSA and is a graduate of the SPAO’s Photographic Arts and Production Diploma Program, 2023. She has a practice of image making based in metallurgy, chemistry and pigment in print and sculptural installation. In her work, Less explores queerness, disembodiment, memory, chronic illness and the cyclical experience portrayed through the use of form, movement, repetition and colour.

 
 

NEEKO PALUZZI

Arts Practice + Exhibition Design

  • Exhibition planning + design

  • Professional arts practice development

  • Contemporary + emerging photographic technology

  • Project development

  • Neeko Paluzzi (he/him) is an artist and language educator based on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation (also known as Gatineau, Quebec). He is interested in translating other texts – both visual and non-visual – into intertextual installations that situate his own body at the centre of these photographic translations. In order to overtly or covertly embed his body into his installations, he uses digital technologies, such as 3D-scanning/printing and deep-fake algorithms. These photographic techniques create digital doubles of himself, personifying contemporary queerness and identity. Although he utilizes early twenty-first century technologies, his art practice is grounded by the rigours of darkroom chemistry and scholarly research, which present opportunities to explore the history of lens-based art in conversation with other artists and academics – both past and present.

 

PRIVATE MENTORING (ONE-ON-ONE)

SPAO offers private one-on-one mentoring either in-person or online. Work with our part-time studies coordinator to select one of our many faculty members or instructors to best target your specific needs. View our team here.

  • In-Person

    $65 / hour In-person mentoring takes place at the SPAO Centre and uses its facility to your benefit. This kind of mentoring is perfect for hands-on technical learning such as darkroom tips and techniques, discovering your camera, your equipment, reviewing lighting techniques, learning set up, and more.

    Online

    $65 / hour Private online mentoring from the comfort of your own home is one of the easiest and best ways to connect and answer questions or receive guidance.

Image by SPAO alum Judy Dupont