Two New Members, Both from NANPA, Appointed to Seats on the ASMP Board of Directors; ASMP Board Elections to Be Held in April
Two new members, Lisa C. Alvarez and Ralph Clevenger, were appointed today to seats on the American Society of Media Photographers Board of Directors. And elections will be held next month to fill the four seats regularly expiring in June. Information on the April elections, including opportunities for candidates to declare or be nominated, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Board Chair Michael Shay said, “We are incredibly excited to welcome Lisa and Ralph, both distinguished nature photographers and long-time members of the North American Nature Photography Association, to the ASMP Board, as a part of our partnership announced last year with NANPA. Together they bring a wealth of experience with them, from nature photography, wildlife conservation, law, teaching, writing, and publishing. ASMP has always had a large and strong contingent of nature photographers in our membership, going back to the legendary Ansel Adams, known as the Father of American Nature Photography and a pioneer conservationist and environmentalist, and we are proud that this tradition is continuing and expanding.”
Bios of the two new ASMP Board members are below:
LISA C. ALVAREZ
Lisa C. Alvarez is an attorney and nature conservation photographer based in the Sacramento, California, area. She helps independent photographers increase their impact and image licensing revenue by teaching legal topics critical to protecting their creative work.
After becoming a nature conservation photographer, Lisa found that many independent photographers had a gap in their legal knowledge essential to their livelihood and the impact of their creative work. Recognizing that there were few legal resources to meet their specific needs, Lisa decided to draw on her legal experience to help bridge that gap.
Lisa is licensed to practice law in California, where she is a member of the California Lawyers Association’s Intellectual Property Section and its Copyright Interest Group. She’s worked as an appellate attorney for the California Attorney General’s Office, a litigator in federal and state courts, and as counsel representing clients in elder law and estate matters.
In addition, Lisa was a founding Board Member of the Silicon Valley Bar Association and its first Treasurer. More recently, she served as Co-President of the Parent-Teacher Club for Cavitt Junior High and as the Vice-President of Philanthropy for a local league of the nonprofit organization, boys team charity.
When not speaking on the latest legal trends impacting photographers, you can find her working on her personal photo project, the survival story of a unique but declining population of Western Purple Martins in urban Sacramento.
Lisa’s portfolio of work can be found at www.lisacalvarez.com and at www.instagram.com/lcalvarezphoto/.
RALPH CLEVENGER
Ralph Clevenger, who was honored with the prestigious NANPA Fellow Award in 2001, an award that has been granted fewer than 70 times since the founding of the organization, and previously served on NANPA’s Board of Directors, grew up on the coast of North Africa and began diving in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea at an early age with his father. He went on to study zoology and worked as a diver/biologist for the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. He holds a BS degree from San Diego State University and a BA degree from Brooks Institute of Photography.
Based in Santa Barbara, California, Ralph is now retired from his commercial photography business but still travels extensively sharing images via his website and Instagram account, @ralphwildshot. Today, much of his photography is dedicated to supporting environmental and social issues he’s passionate about.
Ralph was a senior faculty member at Brooks Institute of Photography for over 33 years, teaching courses in Natural History Photography, Location Lighting, Video Production, The Business of Stock Photography, Undersea Photography and other photo and video courses.
He has traveled throughout the world on assignments including Australia, Antarctica, Brazil, Chile, Canada, Costa Rica, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway and many countries in Africa. His print and digital publication credits include Audubon, Backpacker, Islands, Oceans, Outside, National Geographic, Nature’s Best, National Geographic Traveler, Orion Nature Quarterly, National Geographic Books, Smithsonian Books, Sierra Club Books, and many other national and international publications.
He is the author of the book “Photographing Nature”, published by Peachpit Press. Ralph’s photography is exclusively represented by Tandem Stills & Motion, https://tandemstillsmotion.com/licensing/.