Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) and Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) present the first-ever WOPHA Congress: Women, Photography, and Feminisms. Worldwide organizations of women photographers, internationally-recognized art historians, curators, and artists from more than 15 countries will convene in Miami to build upon and better represent the dynamic history and contributions of women photographers from the 19th century to date. The Congress will take place at PAMM and online on November 18 and 19, 2021 and is free and open to all. A program of city-wide photography exhibitions and related events will accompany the Congress.

Women, Photography, and Feminisms invites women photography organizations and artists around the world to an in-person and online space for dialogue, celebration, and critical debate about women’s contributions to modern and contemporary art, with the aim of rewriting the established artistic canon and provoking social change.

“I believe in the power of photography as a political force to rearrange the structure of power and domination of society,” says Latinx art historian, and curator Aldeide Delgado, WOPHA Founder and Director who conceptualized the congress. “I have conceived the WOPHA Congress as a space that will render women photographers visible while advancing critical debate about modern and contemporary photography by women and non-binary practitioners.”

More than 25 internationally-recognized scholars and artists from around the world will participate in the two-day interactive congress, including Ariella Aïsha Azoulay, Professor of Modern Culture and Media and Comparative Literature at Brown University; Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Co-founder of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora; Elizabeth Ferrer, writer and curator; Anna Fox, Founder of Fast Forward: Women in Photography; Roxana Marcoci, Senior Curator of Photography at MoMA; Abigail Solomon-Godeau, Professor Emerita at University of California; Maggie Steber, award-winning documentary photographer, and Deborah Willis, Professor of Photography and Imaging at NYU.

Women, Photography, and Feminisms will bring to center stage the idea of photography as a collaborative practice, addressing topics of feminist aesthetics, the decolonization of archives, and curatorial strategies. The program will present seminal and emerging research about women photographers’ work and changes to institutions and their structures and hierarchies in a fundamental way.

In partnership with WOPHA Congress, leading Miami-based and international arts and photography organizations will host a vibrant and collaborative program of photography exhibitions, performances, artist residencies and studio visits as part of the Congress.

Published on Contemporary And website. October 15, 2021.