Location: JW Marriott Marquis Miami. 255 Biscayne Blvd Way, Miami, FL 33131
Artists: ABWilson, Meredith Andrews, Nadia Huggins, Nathyfa Michel, and Adeline Rapon
Curators: Éline Gourgues and Vanessa Selk

In celebration of Caribbean women’s voices and creative power, Visual Epistolary Diaries features women photographers from Bermuda, Martinique, French Guiana, Saint Vincent, and the Grenadines. Each photographer draws inspiration from the literary texts and poems of influential women authors from the region.

This exhibition is presented by Tout-Monde Art Foundation in collaboration with La Station Culturelle, in partnership with Atlantic Arthouse.

This program is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Location: Mallorca Room at JW Marriott Marquis Miami. 255 Biscayne Blvd Way, Miami, FL 33131

This event marks the grand opening of the second edition of the WOPHA Congress, honoring renowned documentary photographer Susan Meiselas, celebrated for her powerful documentation of human rights issues across Latin America.

About the Special Guest

Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer based in New York. She is the author of multiple books including Carnival Strippers (1976), Nicaragua (1981), Prince Street Girls (2016), Carnival Strippers Revisited (2022). Meiselas is known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America, with works held in North American and international collections. A MacArthur Fellow (1992) and Guggenheim Fellow (2015), she received the Women in Motion Award and Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2019), and the Erich Salomon Award of the German Society for Photography (2022). Mediations, a survey exhibition of her work from the 1970s to present, was initiated by Jeu de Paume and traveled internationally to multiple institutions. She has been President of the Magnum Foundation since 2007, advocating for diversity in documentary photography

This program is by invitation only. Tickets are required for entry.

Location: Norton Museum of Art. 1450 S Dixie Hwy, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
Speakers: Laylah Amatullah Barrayn (MFON Women Photographers of the African Diaspora), Velia Rocío de la Cruz Herrera (Fotógrafas del Norte)*, Carol Espíndola (LafO / Rosa Chillante), Anna Fox (Fast Forward: Women in Photography), Patrizia Pulga (Donne Fotografe), Clare Samuel (Feminist Photography Network), April Wiser (Foto Femme United)*

The WOPHA Assembly is an annual gathering of women photographers, collectives, and organizations committed to addressing theoretical, ethical, and practical issues related to non-patriarchal photography. This event fosters a supportive network for collaboration among representatives from international women’s photography organizations. In partnership with the Norton Museum of Art, the 2024 Assembly offers participants opportunities for networking, discussing best teaching practices, and examining the role of educational institutions in society.

Key themes of the Assembly include discussions on the current status and needs of photography education, exploring its history, challenges, social responsibility, and sustainability. Participants will also examine the significant contributions of women who have played pivotal roles as photography educators, mentors, and teachers, with a focus on working conditions, curriculum development, and relevant statistics. Additionally, the Assembly will address the impact of feminist pedagogies on photography education and the learning experience, propose essential bibliographies and reading lists for a feminist photography curriculum, and explore the technologies of companionship and the expectations they create. Case studies will be used to illustrate these discussions.

Museum admission is required for entry. This program is free for WOPHA members. For travel options, please refer to the Travel Information section. To join WOPHA membership, visit wopha.org/join-give/

* WOPHA Members

Fotógrafas del Norte promotes the work of women photographers from Northern Mexico and the US border, fostering dialogue, connections, and collaborative networks.

Foto Femme United is a startup established and based in Paris, France, which fosters the diversity, equity, and inclusion of female and non-binary photographers worldwide.

Location: Girls’ Club. 330 Southwest 2nd Street #102 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
Artists: Tracy Baran, Holly Lynton, Vivian Maier, Raymond Meeks, Ana Mendieta, Jackie Nickerson, Lori Nix, Samantha Salzinger, Alessandra Sanguinetti, Kanako Sasaki, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, and Carrie Mae Weems.
Curator: Sarah Michelle Rupert.

An exclusive happy hour at the renowned Girls’ Club to explore the collection of Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz, along with the women-in-photography exhibition No Looking Back. The exhibition features photo-based works highlighting dramatic heroines and vacant settings, creating dynamic storylines. Attendees will have the chance to network with WOPHA Congress participants, artists, curators, and supporters, fostering professional and personal connections.

Tickets are required for entry. This program is free for WOPHA members. For travel options, please refer to the Travel Information section. To join WOPHA membership, visit wopha.org/join-give/

Locations: Wynwood Norte, Miami Design District, and Downtown Miami
Instructors: Clara Toro, Rose Marie Cromwell, and Nicole Combeau

This program is free and open to the public thanks to the support from MPB, the world’s largest online platform for used photo and video equipment.

Photowalks are immersive, bilingual (English/Spanish), 1.5-hour photography walking workshops led by South Florida women photographers Clara Toro, Rose Marie Cromwell, and Nicole Combeau. During this morning session, participants will explore the rich imagery, public artworks, landmarks, and people of Wynwood, Miami Design District and Downtown Miami.

Wynwood Norte: Clara Toro will lead participants on a tour of the neighborhood’s Caribbean-inspired architecture, highlighting its vibrant colors and distinctive patio elements that reflect Miami’s rich Latin American culture. The tour will also emphasize the community’s historical significance while addressing the effects of gentrification on the neighborhood.

Miami Design District: Led by Rose Marie Cromwell, participants will explore how commercial centers and highways impact cities. Cromwell will share her approach to documenting the evolving places, materials, and people in the residential and commercial areas at the edge of Miami’s luxury Design District. Her goal is for participants to gain a deeper understanding of the effects of global capitalism on Miami’s urban landscape.

Downtown Miami: Led by Nicole Combeau, this photowalk invites participants to engage with the city’s sensory landscape. Combeau encourages the use of the camera as an extension of senses to explore the sounds, smells, and sights of the environment, experimenting with techniques like long exposure and double exposure to creatively capture perceptions. Her goal is to collectively respond to Miami’s “sensorial sites,” translating these experiences into unique, experimental imagery.

For those shooting with a film camera, Palm Film Lab has generously contributed Palm Panchromatic 400 black and white film for these photowalks, along with complimentary development and standard scans. This is a great opportunity to explore analog photography, courtesy of Palm Film Lab.

About the Photographers 

Nicole Combeau is a Miami-based artist, photographer, and educator born to Colombian migrants. She earned a BFA from the School of Visual Arts ( 2018) and completed graduate level training in Expressive Art and Somatic Education at the Tamalpa Institute (2021). Combeau has exhibited in New York, Massachusetts, and Miami, and has created public photographic activations at PAMM and Bakehouse Art Complex, among others. She was a ProjectArt resident artist (2022) and completed an art residency at ArteSumapaz (2020) in Colombia. Combeau is a recipient of the Oolite Ellie’s Artist Awards (2023).

Rose Marie Cromwell is a photo and video artist whose work examines the effects of globalization and the intersection between the political and the spiritual. Her debut book, El Libro Supremo de la Suerte (2018), was named “25 Best Photobooks of 2018” by TIME Magazine. Her published titles include Eclipse (2021) and A More Fluid Atmosphere (2021). She has exhibited at ICA Miami, Pier 24 San Francisco, and The High Museum, Atlanta among numerous others. Cromwell is a recipient of a Fulbright Grant, a Getty Reportage grant, and her work is included in collections at The MET Library, MoMA Library, and SFMoMA Library.

Clara Toro is a Miami-based Colombian industrial designer and photographer. She graduated from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín and holds a degree in Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism from the International Center of Photography, where she received a Director’s Fellowship. She is a freelancer for Univision, The 19th, and The Wall Street Journal along with volunteering for nonprofits. A resident artist at Bakehouse Art Complex and member of WOPHA, Toro has exhibited at the Coral Gables Museum, MIFA, and the Mexican consulate among others. She won an Ellies Creator Award (2022) for her project Eight Minutes.

Accessibility

We are committed to ensuring that all attendees can fully participate in our photowalks. The routes for our photowalks have been selected with accessibility in mind; however, some areas may present challenges. If you require specific accommodations or have any questions about accessibility, please contact us at sdiazherrera@wopha.org, at least five days in advance to initiate your request. Your participation is important to us, and we strive to make our events accessible to everyone.

Transportation is available to take participants to and from each neighborhood where photowalks are taking place. Parking is encouraged at PAMM or nearby available areas. For detailed instructions, please refer to the Travel Information section.

Location: Learning Auditorium at PAMM. 1103 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33132
Reviewers: Juliana Forero (Director and Curator at Coral Springs Museum of Art), Éline Gourgues (Co-director and Curator of La Station Culturelle, Fort de France, Martinique), Dina Mitrani (Director of Dina Mitrani Gallery), Verónica Sanchis Bencomo (Founder and Curator of Foto Féminas and Photo Editor at The New York Times), Noelle Flores Thréad (Senior Photo Editor at The New Yorker).

This group portfolio review aims to foster community, offer guidance, and create a safe space for artists to present their work. By facilitating critical feedback on creative practices, knowledge exchange, and professional opportunities, the session brings together leading photography experts from South Florida and beyond, including photo editors, curators, and artists. These experts will provide comments and ask questions about participants’ work in front of an audience, and participants should also anticipate questions from the audience. Constructive criticism, honesty, and fairness are essential for a successful review. Five photographers will showcase their projects and receive questions and feedback from both reviewers and the audience.

This program is free and open to the public. For events at PAMM, a one-time registration covers attendance for all events at this location over the two days.

As the morning session wraps up, participants are invited to recharge and connect over lunch at Verde Restaurant. This is an opportunity to meet with fellow artists, professors, and curators, explore PAMM’s current exhibitions, visit the WOPHA Congress listening room, or take part in a podcast recording presented by our partner Concept Aware, all in a relaxed and inspiring setting in the Nook area of the second floor. Food and drinks can be purchased at Verde Restaurant at participants’ own expense.

Concept Aware® is a podcast and educational force created by J. Sybylla Smith, an independent curator, podcaster, and consultant specializing in concept development. Concept Aware, equips visual artists with tools to bring abstract ideas to life in image and text. Through her podcast, Smith engages in unscripted conversations with global photographers and artists, offering a masterclass in creative process and concept development rooted in photobook-making.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speakers: Marie Vickles (Senior Director of Education, Pérez Art Museum Miami) and Aldeide Delgado (WOPHA Founder & Director)

About the Speakers

Marie Vickles is the Director of Education at the Perez Art Museum Miami and Curatorin-Residence at the Little Haiti Cultural Complex. She has curated over 30 exhibitions in different contexts since 2003, with a focus on Black contemporary artists in South Florida, and organized arts education programs, workshops, and exhibitions across the U.S. and Caribbean for over 15 years. In her work, Vickles seeks to develop new ways to bridge the connections between creativity and community engagement.

Aldeide Delgado is a Cuban-born, Miami-based independent Latinx art historian and curator, founder and director of Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA). She has years of experience writing, curating, lecturing, and presenting at art history forums focused on photography. She is a recipient of the Ellies Creator Award (2023), Knight Arts Challenge award (2019), the School of Art Criticism Fellowship by SAPS La Tallera(2018), and the Research and Production of Critic Essay Fellowship by TEOR/éTica (2017). She publishes and curates from feminist and decolonial perspectives on crucial topics of the history of photography within Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx contexts. She is the author of Becoming Sisters: Women Photography Collectives & Organizations (2021). Prior to founding WOPHA, Delgado created the online feminist archive Catalog of Cuban Women Photographers. She is an active member of institutional advisory boards and committees at Pérez Art Museum Miami, the Lucie Foundation, the Feminist Art Coalition and Fast Forward: Women in Photography.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker: Sarah Meister

Women have played a central role in the evolution of photography as an art form and its broader impact on our understanding of history and the world around us. Anchored by the achievements of heralded and under-known figures, past and present, Meister will reflect on key questions for museums, publishers, and each of us as we consider the medium and pedagogy today.

About the Speaker

Sarah Meister is the Executive Director of Aperture, following twenty-five years at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). At MoMA, Meister organized numerous acclaimed exhibitions and publications that provided new perspectives on beloved figures in photography’s history, played a central role in expanding the museum’s collection, and led several transformative educational initiatives.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker: Andrea Jösch Krotki

How does the territory we inhabit shape the images we produce? What role does photography play in forming identities and social standards? Can it challenge or transform reality? These questions will be examined during this masterclass, highlighting the critical potential of images to reshape cultural perceptions and drive social change. By investigating photography’s interaction with contemporary media and its influence on communal and territorial narratives, the masterclass will highlight how visual imaginaries shape everyday experiences and can transform how communities perceive themselves, fostering cultural, educational, and political shifts.

About the Speaker

Andrea Jösch Krotki is the Director of Escuela de Arte at Universidad Diego Portales, Chile. She holds a Master’s in Cultural Management from Universidad de Chile (2014). She is the founder and editor of Sueño de la Razón (2009), a South American photography magazine, and a member of the SudFotografía Foundation (2016–), which carried out the research and publication of A review of the Chilean photobook (2019). She was editor of Diagrama (2017–21) and director of Mater Investigación-Creación (2015–21). In the last 25 years she has been dedicated to university and informal teaching, holding countless workshops, and participating in colloquiums and biennials in Latin America, in addition to carrying out various editing and curatorial projects around photography, images, and contemporary art.

Lecture presented in Spanish with simultaneous English translation available.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speakers: Sofia Córdova and Carmen Winant

During this conversation, image-based artists and longtime friends Sofía Córdova and Carmen Winant reflect on how the role of coalition building and political imagination inform their work. With each artist approaching time in distinct ways, they will explore how looking backward and imagining forward can expand the possibilities of our present. Images from recent work and ongoing research will be shared, while engaging the notion of friendship as a generative force.

About the Speakers

Sofía Córdova creates work that considers sci-fi as alternative history, dance music’s liberatory dimensions, climate change, migration, and revolution, within the matrix of class, gender, race, and late capitalism. She has choreographed for the SF Arts Commission, Merce Cunningham Trust, and Soundwave Biennial. Her work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of The Whitney Museum of American Art and Kadist. Córdova has received multiple grants and awards, including the Creative Capital Award (2024). She is one half of the experimental sound outfit XUXA SANTAMARIA.

Carmen Winant is an artist and the Roy Lichtenstein Chair of Studio Art at Ohio State University. Her work utilizes archival and authored photographs to examine feminist care networks, with emphasis on intergenerational, multiracial, and sometimes transnational coalition building. Her recent projects have been shown at The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and other major institutions. Winant is the author of several books, including The Last Safe Abortion (2024). She is a Guggenheim Fellow (2019), a FCA Artist Honoree (2020), and an American Academy of Arts and Letters award recipient (2021).

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker: Isabella Marie Garcia, 2024 WOPHA Research Fellow

Awarded research project selected through an open call. 

The 2024 – 2025 WOPHA Research Fellowship is supported by the Pérez CreARTE Grants Program by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation and The Betsy Hotel. Cultural partners are Contemporary& and the Caribbean Cultural Institute at PAMM.

The Photography Care Matrix follows the historical and active work of women and non-binary photographers teaching traditional and experimental photography techniques in correctional facilities, residential rehabs, and alternative schools. The research project looks into the impact of this instruction on young students, especially in providing access to a medium that allows them to document their lives in the juvenile and criminal justice system. From at-risk youth to incarcerated adults, what care matrices can be implemented to ease the discomfort felt by body and situational displacement? How do we give agency to those who are limited in space and mobility?

About the Speaker 

Isabella Marie Garcia is an independent arts professional, writer, and photographer based in Miami, Florida. She has received multiple grants for What Happens When the Dust Settles?, a project exploring holistic aftercare related to death and grief within Latinx, BIPOC, and Indigenous communities. For over six years, Garcia has worked with local and national arts organizations and has curated and exhibited widely. Her writing is featured in Burnaway, The Art Newspaper, and The Miami New Times. She earned her BA in English from Florida International University in 2019.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speakers: Amalia Caputo, Jahaira Ríos Campos y Gálvez, Silvia Lizama, María Martínez-Cañas, and Noelle Flores Théard
Moderator: Amanda Bradley

About the Speakers

Amalia Caputo is a Venezuelan-American visual artist, art historian, educator, and researcher. She is a second-year PhD candidate at University Oberta de Catalunya and holds an MFA from New York University. Her practice spans photography, video, and installation, exploring the role of visual culture in shaping archives and memory. Guided by feminist and decolonial ideas, Caputo seeks non-invasive approaches to nature, fostering healing and creating new narratives with women as protagonists. Recent exhibitions include Every Being is an Island, Deering Estate, Miami (2021) and Senescere, MACZU ( 2019). Caputo has been awarded the Miami Individual Artist Grant (2023) and the Ellies Creator Award (2020).

Jahaira Ríos Campos y Gálvez was born in the village Rancheria in Chinandega, Nicaragua, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1979, fleeing civil war with her parents. Combining photography, fiber arts, and performance, Gálvez creates works from childhood experiences, motherhood, and reflections on embodying her mixed indigenous heritage. Her work touches on delicate subjects in a way that provokes conversations and inspires reflection and exploration. Gálvez received her BFA from New World School of the Arts/ University of Florida and her MFA in Creative Photography from Barry University. She is currently an adjunct professor at Florida International University and Miami Dade College. 

María Martínez-Cañas was born in Havana, Cuba, and holds a BFA in Photography from the Philadelphia College of Art and an MFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago. Known for her innovative use of non-traditional photographic media, she has exhibited widely, with over 50 solo exhibitions and 300 group shows. Her works are in major collections such as MoMA, the J. Paul Getty Museum, Centre Pompidou, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art amongst others. She is a recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Photography Fellowship (2016), a National Endowment for the Arts award, a Fulbright-Hays Grant among others. She is an Associate Professor and head of the Photography Department at New World School of the Arts where she has mentored dozens of visual artists since 1996.

Silvia Lizama, was born in Havana, Cuba and moved to South Florida in 1960. She earned a BFA from Barry University and an MFA in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology. A Professor of Photography and Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Barry University for 37 years, she was named Professor Emerita (2023). Her hand-colored photographs have gained international attention and earned her awards, including the Southern Arts Federation/NEA Fellowship (1993), Miami Dade Art in Public Places commission for the Deering Estate(1999) and the South Florida Cultural Consortium Grant (1992, 2015). Lizama’s work has been published in numerous esteemed books and catalogs which include, Puertas a la Imaginación (2011), Reflections: The Sensationalism of the Art from Cuba by Alexis Mendoza (2009), Espacio C: Arte Contemporaneo (2006) among others. 

Noelle Flores Théard has been the senior digital photo editor at The New Yorker since 2021 and serves as the producer for Photo Booth, the magazine’s photography column. Previously, she was the program officer at Magnum Foundation from 2016 to 2021. She co-founded FotoKonbit (2010), a nonprofit organization that supports and empowers Haitians to tell their own stories through photography.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Guest: Chris Renois 

About the Artist

Chris Renois is a Miami-based stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and content creator. He has gained over 150k followers across social media, with 120k from TikTok. His skits have been featured on Right This Minute and Access Hollywood. A rising talent, Renois was a semi-finalist on Stand Up NBC, a film set on LMAOF on OFTV, and regularly performs at the Miami Improv. His acting debut in “Mountains” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, earning a Special Jury Selection.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speakers: Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, and Laura Wexler
Moderator: Aldeide Delgado 

Collaboration is a groundbreaking publication co-authored by five leading thinkers and practitioners in photography—Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, Leigh Raiford, and Laura Wexler—in dialogue with hundreds of photographers, writers, and scholars. The book challenges dominant narratives of photographic history and authorship by emphasizing collaboration over the “single creator” tradition. In this panel, three authors will explore how Collaboration functions as a pedagogical tool for photography practitioners and scholars, revealing the process behind gathering over six hundred photographs that trace the relationships, exchanges, and interactions central to the event of photography and photographic archives.

About the Speakers

Wendy Ewald is a photographer who’s projects work with children, families, women, workers and teachers as documentary investigations of identity and cultural differences. Ewald asks her collaborators to alter her images by drawing and writing on them, questioning the conventional definition of individual authorship, artist’s intentions, power, and identity. She has published multiple photography books including, The Devil is Leaving His Cave (2022), Portraits and Dreams (2020), and America Border Culture Dreamer: The Young Immigrant Experience from A to Z (2018), among others. 

Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer based in New York. She is the author of multiple books including Carnival Strippers (1976), Nicaragua (1981), Prince Street Girls (2016), Carnival Strippers Revisited (2022). Meiselas is known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America, with works held in North American and international collections. A MacArthur Fellow (1992) and Guggenheim Fellow (2015), she received the Women in Motion Award and Deutsche Börse Photography Prize (2019), and the Erich Salomon Award of the German Society for Photography (2022). Mediations, a survey exhibition of her work from the 1970s to present, was initiated by Jeu de Paume and traveled internationally to multiple institutions. She has been President of the Magnum Foundation since 2007, advocating for diversity in documentary photography

Laura Wexler studies the social life of photographs, exploring how gender, race, class, sexuality, and nationalism intersect in U.S. visual culture. She is the Founder and Director of Yale’s Photographic Memory Workshop, and the Principal Investigator of Photogrammar, a web-based system to visualize 180,000 photographs from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information from 1935 -1943. Her publications include Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism and Pregnant Pictures. She is the Co-editor of Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography. At Yale, she is Director of Undergraduate Studies for American Studies and Acting Co-director of the Public Humanities Graduate Program. Wexler is also a founding member of the New England Public Humanities Consortium and FemTechNet.

Location: Green Space Miami. 7200 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33138
Hosts: Amanda Bradley, Keisha Scarville, and Kosisochukwu Nnebe

The 2024-2025 WOPHA Artists-In-Residence Program is supported by the Pérez CreARTE Grant Program by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation and Green Family Foundation. Cultural partners are El Espacio 23 and Green Space Miami.

This program is free and open to the public.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speakers: Éline Gourgues (Co-director and Curator of La Station Culturelle) and Vanessa Selk (Executive & Artistic Director of Tout-Monde Art Foundation)

About the Speakers

Éline Gourgues is an independent curator and cultural engineer based in Fort-de-France, Martinique. She has carried out various assignments at renowned institutions such as the International Center of Photography in New York, the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Rencontres d’Arles, where she held positions in exhibition production and collections management. Since 2019, she has been co-directing Station Culturelle with Éléna Arnoux, an association based in Fort-de-France, dedicated to supporting, developing, and disseminating the emerging Caribbean art scene through residency, exhibition, and cooperation projects. She also contributed to the development and production of exhibitions for the international biennial Rencontres Photographiques de Guyane. Today, as a member of the scientific committee of the Maison de la Photographie Amazonienne (MAZ), she participates in artistic and scientific programming while developing international strategies to enhance the visibility of the Guyanese-Caribbean art scene. Her projects focus on creations that express new perspectives or original myths, liberated from pre-established norms, dominant cultures, and representations.

Vanessa Selk is a German-Guianese creative practitioner, art director, and consultant focusing on Caribbean contemporary and activist art. She is the Founder and Executive & Artistic Director of the TOUT-MONDE Art FOUNDATION. Selk directed, curated and produced various cultural programs focusing on visual and performing arts in the Caribbean, such as the Tout-Monde Art Festival in Miami. Recently, she co-curated “The Open Boat”, a group show launching the ATLANTIC ARTHOUSE, a collective for galleries and artists featuring artworks from the Caribbean Mid-Atlantic, co-founded with Lisa Howie. Following her diplomatic tenures at the United Nations specializing on Human, Cultural and Indigenous People’s rights, and later as the Cultural Attaché/Head of the Cultural Office of the French Embassy in Florida (today Villa Albertine), Selk has focused her work and research on the interconnections of art and politics experienced by underrepresented communities, with a particular emphasis on ecological contexts and disaster situation in colonial/postcolonial settings. Recent essays on this subject were published in The Power of the Story: Writing Disasters in Haiti and the Circum-Caribbean edited by Vincent Joos, Martin Munro, and John Ribó, as well as in Forgotten Lands: Neo-Carib Visions (Volume 6). As an independent advisor and consultant, she is accompanying emerging collectors, artists, and institutions from the Caribbean and beyond to better navigate and access the international contemporary art market.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker: Keisha Scarville, 2024 WOPHA Artist in Residence

How can the photograph conjure presence and activate latent narratives which reside within the interstices of time and place? How does the camera assist us in documenting the elusive Black body? This presentation will discuss how these questions have shaped the artist’s practice across various projects. Using the Caribbean limbo dance as a framework for discussion, Meditations From the Threshold will operate as both a slideshow and spoken-word piece about photography and performance.

About the Speaker

Keisha Scarville explores themes of loss, latency, and the elusive body. She has exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem, ICA Philadelphia, and The Brooklyn Museum. Her work is in the collections of the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and the Detroit Institute of Art, among others. A recipient of the Creator Lab Photo Fund and the Saltzman Prize (2023), she is currently a Visiting Professor at Harvard and faculty at Parsons School of Design. Her first book, lick of tongue rub of finger on soft wound, was shortlisted for the 2023 Aperture/Paris Photobook Awards. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speakers Emilie Boone and José Antonio Navarrete
Moderator Tatiana Flores

This program is presented thanks to generous support from The Caribbean Cultural Institute (CCI) at Pérez Art Museum Miami. 

In this panel discussion, two presentations will explore the intersection of photography, anthropology, and cultural representation in the Caribbean. Boone repositions Haiti at the center of global photographic history, challenging reductive depictions of Vodou and poverty. Her research demonstrates how Haiti’s photographic history, shaped by international influences, contributes to a broader understanding of the medium. Navarrete examines the 1957 Santería ritual at La Laguna de San Joaquín in Matanzas, Cuba, where photographers and anthropologists documented sacred offerings to the Orishas. Through these visual archives, Navarrete highlights the cultural significance of the ritual and its anthropological value. These presentations will reveal how photography serves as both a historical document and a cultural lens in the Caribbean context. A moderated Q&A with Flores will follow, engaging the speakers in further dialogue.

About the Speakers

Emilie Boone is an assistant professor of African American/African Diaspora Arts in the Department of Art History at New York University. Her research focuses on vernacular photography and global encounters in the African Diaspora. Following the publication of A Nimble Arc: James Van Der Zee and Photography (2023), Boone is currently advancing a manuscript tentatively titled, Haiti Chooses You: Notes on a Caribbean History of Photography. This project examines how Haiti, and its history of photography, can illuminate the nature of photography’s sweeping force on various interlocutors across time.

José Antonio Navarrete is a Cuban-born independent curator and researcher in visual arts and culture, based in Miami. He has contributed to numerous newspapers, cultural and academic magazines, and published several books, including Ensayos desleales sobre fotografía (1995), Fotografiando en América Latina (2009, 2017), and Escribiendo sobre fotografía en América Latina (2018). He has delivered lectures internationally, including at the Getty Center and The New School, and curated exhibitions such as Remaking Miami (2020) and Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (2022). He currently develops the curatorial program at Artmedia Gallery in Miami.

About the Moderator

Tatiana Flores is the Jefferson Scholars Foundation Edgar F. Shannon, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Art History at the University of Virginia. A scholar of modern and contemporary Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx art, she authored Mexico’s Revolutionary Avant-Gardes: From Estridentismo to ¡30-30! (2013) and curated Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art of the Caribbean Archipelago (2017). Her work includes The Routledge Companion to Decolonizing Art History (2023) and the article Latinidad Is Cancelled: Confronting an Anti-Black Construct (2021). Flores is President of the Tout-Monde Art Foundation and senior editor of ASAP/Journal.

Location: Verde Restaurant at PAMM

As the morning session concludes, we invite participants to recharge and reconnect during lunch. This is an opportunity to interact with other artists, professors, and curators, explore PAMM’s current exhibitions, visit the WOPHA Congress listening room, or participate in a podcast recording presented by our partner Concept Aware, in a relaxed and inspiring environment on the second floor.

Additionally, authors Susan Meiselas, Wendy Ewald, and Laura Wexler will be signing copies of their book Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography for Congress attendees at the PAMM bookstore.

Attendees can purchase drinks or food at Verde Restaurant at their own cost.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Artist: Claudia Claremi, CCI + WOPHA Fellow

La Memoria de las Frutas is a large-scale research project exploring Caribbean fruits and the deep emotional connections they evoke. Structured as a series, each chapter focuses on a specific community or context. To date, the project has been produced in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and their respective diasporas, archiving dozens of fruit varieties through personal memories. This unique inventory of ‘forgotten’ fruits serves as a record of flavors, places, plants, and cultural histories, while also highlighting the economic and colonial forces behind disconnection and oblivion. The project collectively restores memories and honors these fruits in the process.

About the Artist

Claudia Claremi is an artist and filmmaker whose work spans video, analog film, photography, installation, sound, and text. She graduated from the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba and the University of the Arts London. Claremi has been an artist in residence at Beta-Local, Centre for Artists in Residence at Matadero Madrid, Visual Studies Workshop, and The Clemente. Her films have been screened at Ann Arbor Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, among others. Her work has been exhibited  widely, including Museo CA2M, and Museo Reina Sofía, among others. 

The CCI + WOPHA Fellowship supports emerging to mid-career women and non-binary photographers based in Miami, the Caribbean, or its diasporas, whose projects would benefit from access to PAMM and WOPHA’s institutional resources.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker :Mariko Takeuchi

Since the 2000s, Japanese photography has gained recognition in the West, but the history of Japanese photography, both domestically and internationally, remains dominated by men. In 2024, I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now was published alongside an exhibition to highlight Japanese women photographers’ overlooked contributions. Artists like Yurie Nagashima, Lieko Shiga, and Miwa Yanagi have expanded into other mediums, exploring the intersection of photography and the nature of being a woman. This cross-genre approach demonstrates the experimental spirit of Japanese women photographers and reveals the educational potential of photography, particularly in a world shaped by generative AI. 

About the Speaker 

Mariko Takeuchi is a writer, curator, and professor, serving as the head of Art Studies at Kyoto University of the Arts. She received a Fulbright Grant for research on photography education in the U.S. Takeuchi curated the Spotlight on Japan at Paris Photo (2008) and co-curated I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now (2024). Her publications include Silence and Image: Essays on Japanese Photographers (2018), among others.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speakers: Hiền Hoàng, Rosell Meseguer, and Kosisochukwu Nnebe
Moderator: Siobhan Angus

In Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography, Siobhan Angus traces the history of photography through the minerals that underpin the medium. Challenging the notion of photography’s immateriality, Angus highlights the deep ties between image-making and resource extraction, showing how the mining of bitumen, silver, platinum, iron, uranium, and rare earth elements is fundamental to photography’s existence. This panel analyzes the importance of materiality and nature in the artists’ work, examining the intersections between photography, colonization, labor, and environmental degradation and revealing how the medium’s very foundation is intertwined with broader histories of extraction and ecological impact.

About the Speakers

Hiền Hoàng Born in 1990, Hoàng is a Vietnam-born, Germany-based multimedia artist working across photography, installation, performance, film, VR, and object art. Her work explores cultural narratives, human-nature relationships, and identity complexities by pushing boundaries of perception through immersive, emotive landscapes. Recognized with the 2024 Paul Huf Award and European Commission grants, Hoàng has exhibited at Rencontres d’Arles, Robert Capa Center in Budapest, and Centro Cibeles in Madrid, among others.

Rosell Meseguer is a visual artist working in archive, photography, painting, installation, publications, drawing, and video. Her research explores the intersection of science, technology, and art, focusing on history, war, coastlines, and mining within landscapes and change processes. She has received commissions and scholarships from various institutions, including Fundació Miró Mallorca, the Botin Foundation among others. Her work is in the permanent collections of Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, AENA Foundation,the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome among others.

Kosisochukwu Nnebe is a Nigerian-Canadian conceptual artist, curator, and writer whose practice is informed by postcolonial and Black feminist thinkers. Working across installation, lens-based media, and sculpture, she explores Black visibility, embodiment, and spatiality, as well as foodways and language as counter-archives of colonial histories. Her practice centers on anti-colonial world-building, challenging colonial logics, and imagining speculative pasts, presents, and futures. She is the recipient of the 2023 G.A.S. Fellowship and has been commissioned by Plug In ICA and the Mozilla Foundation.

About the Moderator

Siobhan Angus works at the intersection of art history, media studies, and environmental humanities. Her research focuses on the visual culture of resource extraction, emphasizing materiality, labor, and environmental, economic, and social justice. She is an assistant professor of media studies at Carleton University and holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Culture from York University. She is the author of Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography, ( 2024). Her research has been published in Environmental Humanities, Capitalism and the Camera ( 2021) and October.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker: Candice Jansen, 2024 WOPHA Research Fellow  

Awarded research project selected through an open call. 

The 2024–2025 WOPHA Research Fellowship is supported by the Pérez CreARTE Grant Program by The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation and The Betsy Hotel. Cultural partners are Contemporary& and the Caribbean Cultural Institute at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM).

Inspired by Saidiya Hartman’s essay “Venus in Two Acts” (2008) and an archival encounter with a Venus from a second-generation colonial South African photographer, this lecture offers an audiovisual meditation on Jansen’s research project “Dark Room Girls.”  The work questions how Black womxn photographers can be adequately recognized in history, whether the camera is the only means of photographic authorship, and queries the role of the darkroom as a critical space for memory and time. What is the significance of photographers whose work may not appear in history and what occurs when supremacy of visibility ceases to be the foundation of photographic history.

About the Speaker

Candice Jansen is a memoirist, photographer, writer, editor, curator, scholar, archivist, and educator on photography. She is currently a New Archival Visions Digital Curatorial Fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape. Her dissertation, Coloured Black: The Life & Works of Cedric Nunn & Ernest Cole (2019), was completed at WiSER with support from a pre-doctoral fellowship at Northwestern University. Jansen was the Curator of Research and Exhibitions at the Market Photo Workshop (2019–21) and editor of Black Photo Libraries (2021). She has written and lectured on photography for Aperture Magazine, Tate Modern, the Toronto Photography Seminar, MoMA, among others.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Artist: Arsimmer McCoy with invited guests

About the Artist

Arsimmer McCoy is a Miami-based international poet, educator, interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker. Her work has been published in Venice Magazine, The Lighthouse Review, RootWork journal, The O, Miami trilogy series, and several others. She has been featured on Sundial (WLRN), Artsy, & The Miami New Times. Arsimmer has been an artist-in-residence for the Atlantic Center of the Arts, Pioneer Winter Collective, Locust Projects, Artist-in-Residence-in-the-Everglades, and Bakehouse Art Complex. She has been a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator at Cornell University, the University of Miami, Florida International University, and the University of South Florida, and Harvard Divinity School. McCoy’s international performances include Leeds, England (Leed Young Authors), Bangkok, Thailand (Lyrical Lunacy), Accra, Ghana (The Cholewote Festival), The Dominican Republic (Edgezones Performance Art Festival), and Venice, Italy, for AIRIE & the European Cultural Center (ECC) Personal Structures exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Arsimmer is the 2023-2024 Marjory Stoneman Douglas Poetry Award Winner for O, Miami and is currently working on her passion project The Carol City Museum where she has been working  to turn her home into archive and art space in the heart of Miami Gardens, FL

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker: Aldeide Delgado

The WOPHA Institute for Photographic Practices, Criticism, and Historiography offers conferences, educational courses, and experimental workshops with leading multidisciplinary experts to build the foundation for a decolonial and non-patriarchal photography academic program.

Location: Main Auditorium at PAMM
Speaker: Deborah Willis

In this presentation, Deb Willis reconsiders how contemporary women photographers and image makers draw upon migration stories, art historical images, and memories of home in their work. She frames this scholarly and artistic exploration as “an experience of borrowing,” where photographers and artists engage with historical photographs and inherited narratives to offer fresh, nuanced perspectives in their contemporary creations. Willis will discuss the complexity of a gaze that remains active, questioning both the past and present. 

About the Speaker

Deborah Willis, Ph.D., is a photographer, professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at NYU Tisch School of the Arts as well as Director of the Center for Black Visual Culture at New York University. She has received the MacArthur Fellowship (2000), Anonymous Was A Woman Award( 1996), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2005), among many others. Willis is the author of The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenship (2021) and Posing Beauty: African American Images from the 1890s to the Present (2021), among others. She has curated and exhibited widely, including at the International Center of Photography, New York, and the African American Museum in Philadelphia.

Location: JW Marriott Miami. 1109 Brickell Ave, Miami, FL 33131

An evening of music and networking to connect with peers, discuss Congress highlights, and explore future collaborations. Attendees will also have the opportunity to view Tide of Memory, a solo project video installation by visual artist Julia Zurilla. This large-scale installation merges nostalgia with environmental critique, featuring a bird’s-eye view of the turbulent Atlantic Ocean near Miami’s coastline. Amidst the restless waters, mid-20th-century family vacation films in 8mm format are projected, contrasting idyllic memories with the harsh environmental realities threatening the past. Tide of Memory sparks reflection on memory’s ephemerality and the impending transformation of our landscape.

About the Artist

Julia Zurilla is an artist known for her contemporary experimental approaches that blend the written word, photographic imagery, contextual art, and interdisciplinary research. Her work explores the intersection of narrative and visual language, utilizing video and technological media to transform written stories into powerful visual experiences. Since relocating to Miami in 2017, the city’s environmental dynamics have profoundly shaped her practice, driving her to delve into themes of memory and belonging in relation to ever-changing landscapes.

Tickets are required for entry. This program is free for WOPHA members. To join WOPHA membership, visit wopha.org/join-give/

Location: JW Marriott Miami. 1109 Brickell Ave, Miami, FL 33131
Instructor: Gina Tolon

Experience balance and rejuvenation as you connect with your mind, body, and spirit through this integrated fitness, yoga, mindfulness, and meditation session. Designed to prepare you for the day ahead, this session will enhance muscle strength, flexibility, mobility, and endurance while helping to release stress, anxiety, and tension throughout the body.

All fitness levels are welcome to join.

About the Instructor

Georgina Tolon, better known as Gina, is a Holistic CPT, Certified Yoga Teacher, Mindful Meditation Coach, Speaker, and CEO of FWG Activewear. Since 2015, she has transformed lives, helping over 500 busy women, leaders, professionals, and entrepreneurs collectively lose more than 30,000 lbs—all without stepping foot in a gym. Gina’s mission is to empower busy women to become F.I.T. by prioritizing their health and well-being, elevating the quality of their lives in all areas. She provides expert fitness and mindset coaching, along with accountability, community, and unwavering support.

Social Media IG :@fitwithms.gina FB: @fitwithms.gina TikTok @fitwithms.gina www.fitwithmsgina.com www.fwgactivewear.com.

Tickets are required for entry. This program is free for WOPHA members. To join WOPHA membership, visit wopha.org/join-give/

Location: Miami Dade Public Library (Main Branch). 101 W Flagler St, Miami, FL 33130

Foto Féminas Mobile Library (La Biblio Móvil) consists of a customized wooden structure that Verónica Sanchis Bencomo, the founder, wears while displaying photo books. This performance aims to introduce Foto Féminas’ collection, engage in dialogues with the audience, connect artists, and promote their publications. The collection began with donations from artists, and through these performances, Foto Féminas continues its mission to celebrate and archive the work of women and non-binary Latin American photographers. To date, the library has been displayed at several photo book fairs in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and New York.

About the Artist

Verónica Sanchis Bencomo is a Spanish-Venezuelan photographer and photo-editor. She obtained her BA in Photojournalism in 2010. In 2015, Veronica founded Foto Féminas, an online platform to promote the works of Latin American and Caribbean women and non-binary photographers. For this, she has organized and produced photo exhibitions in Argentina, China, Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Mexico. In 2016, she started Foto Féminas’ library. Veronica lived in Hong Kong for nearly six years where she contributed to different international media outlets. She is now based in New York City.

This program is free and open to the public.

Location: Miami Dade Public Library (Main Branch). 101 W Flagler St, Miami, FL 33130
Speakers: Amanda Bradley and Zonia Zena

WOPHA, in collaboration with 10 x 10 Photobooks and Miami-Dade Public Library, presents What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women Reading Room, a hands-on touring exhibition highlighting historically significant yet under-recognized photobooks by women. This exhibition reexamines photobook history through a female lens and features works from 1843 to 1999 that span continents, cultures, and artistic expressions. It includes classic books, portfolios, personal albums, zines, scrapbooks, and unpublished works, addressing gaps in photobook history, particularly the underrepresentation of non-Western women and women of color. This Miami iteration, which is presented as part of the 2024 WOPHA Congress, includes photobooks by contemporary South Florida women photographers. 

About the Organization 

10×10 Photobooks is a community-oriented organization that champions and facilitates thoughtful and passionate engagement with the photobook through a focus on contemporary practice, overlooked publications, stories, and creators. 10×10 is a visionary leader in the photobook field, supporting diversity and creative exchange through public photobook events, including reading rooms, salons, publications, grants, and partnerships with arts organizations.

This program is free and open to the public.

Location: HistoryMiami Museum. 101 W Flagler St, Miami, FL 33130
Artists: Elisa Benedetti, RemiJin Camping, Silvia Lizama, Peggy  Nolan, Maggie Steber, and Sofia Valiente
Curator: Aldeide Delgado

This exhibition celebrates the artistic achievements of three prominent South Florida artists and their mentees, emphasizing the importance of mentorship and the transmission of knowledge and skills across generations. It highlights these women photographers’ impact on the photographic landscape, underscoring the intricate personal, aesthetic, and conceptual connections between them. Spanning artwork from the 1980s to the present, the exhibition offers a unique lens on South Florida’s evolving sociocultural landscape, blending reflective, subjective, and poetic approaches to documentation. By centering on contemporary women photographers, it amplifies their voices and asserts their significant role in the history of Miami photography from a documentary lens.

This program is free and open to the public.

Location: Dale Zine. 50 NE 40th St, Miami, FL 33137
Authors: Wendy Ewald, Susan Meiselas, and Laura Wexler

As the WOPHA Congress comes to a close, join friends at Dale Zine for a special gathering to celebrate the event. Participants and attendees are invited to enjoy exclusive discounts on signed copies of Collaboration, the book presented during the Congress. Explore Dale Zine + WOPHA’s curated photography book collection, available for purchase, and connect with fellow attendees in a relaxed and creative atmosphere. It’s the perfect way to conclude the Congress and take home a piece of the experience.

This program is free and open to the public.