International Photography Conference, founded in Miami, focuses on women

When was the last time you took a photo? Sometime today, right? Maybe within the last hour?

In today’s world, everyone has a camera in their pocket.

“I think it’s the most accessible medium,” says Aldeide Delgado, co-founder and director of the Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA). “I mean, we interact with photography every moment in our lives, every day. When we think about these discourses that have been key for the history of art, like closing that gap between art and life, or thinking of accessibility, how to reach wider audiences, how to bring the artwork outside the museum – photography does all of that.”

Delgado believes firmly in the power of photography to change society – especially when it comes to changing how women and people of color are seen. That’s part of the reason why she co-founded WOPHA, which this month will host an expansive international photography conference in downtown Miami.

With its home base at the Pérez Art Museum Miami and at sites across South Florida, the WOPHA Congress, the second edition of the event following a 2021 session, aims to bring together artists, scholars, and enthusiasts from around the world to discuss the past and future of photography for women.

WOPHA begins Tuesday, Oct. 22 and runs through Saturday, Oct. 26.

In fact, according to Delgado, the theme of this year’s congress “How photography teaches us how to live,” is focused on ensuring the medium’s future through education.

“I took as a starting point the idea that more than 75 percent of photography students around the world are women. However, still there are no educational programs specifically addressing the history of women photographers. So that’s why I created this particular edition of the Congress focused on pedagogies, to propose this kind of new model, to propose an academic curriculum, and also to launch the WOPHA Institute.”

Education is central to Delgado’s previous work as well. As an art historian at the University of Havana, she played a key role in boosting the profile of women photographers at home in Cuba. In 2013, after she noticed a lack of female representation in the country’s photographic history, she helped build a catalog of female photo artists dating back to 1853. When she immigrated to Miami in 2016, she found a similar mission to take on.

“I noticed that there were no spaces for photography in the city,” she says. “And also, I noticed the lack of spaces for promoting the work of women photographers.”

Delgado knew that there were institutions around the world interested in preserving and promoting photography by women. She sensed that something similar could be built in Miami, and that she could leverage the city’s identity in order to build it.

“I decided to take the challenge, to fill that gap of, let’s say, approaching the field from feminist and decolonial perspectives, taking the strategic or the geopolitical position of Miami at the crossroads of the Americas as a key component for the organization, or how I envision WOPHA.”

That international vision certainly holds true for WOPHA’s programming, much of which is free to attend with registration. Speakers and panelists from across the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America – some are even traveling from as far away as South Africa and Japan – will present on various photographic topics.

Programming at WOPHA also includes a “photowalk” through Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood and downtown Miami hosted by local photo artists, networking lunches, and even yoga classes.

Throughout the Congress, iconic photographers such as Susan Meiselas, Carmen Winant, Peggy Nolan, Maggie Steber, Keisha Scarville, and María Martínez-Cañas, are given the space to highlight their contributions to photography history.

In tandem with the congress, WOPHA has also curated a series of exhibitions at various institutions in Miami. These include “What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women Reading Room” at the Miami-Dade County Main Library, and “Women Photographers – Shared Documentary Narratives” at HistoryMiami Museum. Featured artists include Steber, Elisa Benedetti, RemiJin Camping, Peggy Levison Nolan and Sofia Valiente. The show is curated by Delgado. It opens Friday, Oct. 18 and runs through May 4.

Locals are also in the mix at WOPHA. One presentation at the congress comes from local artist and educator, Isabella Marie Garcia, who won a WOPHA research fellowship. She’ll discuss her project “The Photography Care Matrix” at the congress, based on her work teaching photography in juvenile correctional and residential rehab facilities in and around Miami.

“I was able to learn a lot just from meeting with students and seeing how much they really need it, especially in facilities like juvenile detention,” she says. “They don’t have a lot of stimuli. I mean, they have school, but they don’t get a lot of access to create things. I saw how much more willing they were to talk about what they were going through when they were able to make things, and a lot of things that they thought about photography that were very much condensed to what they know about phones.”

Garcia, who has exhibited her artwork at local galleries such as Tunnel Projects, an artist-run studio and exhibition space in Little Havana, also had to navigate the complicated rules each facility put in place. For instance, she had to adapt her teaching to the fact that the students, as underage wards of the state, could not photograph each other or themselves. “That’s also something else to think about, how do we process identity through photography when you can’t really even show yourself in the work, not even your self-portrait or a portrait of somebody?”

Garcia’s work perfectly exemplifies the idea of photography as a source for change – even politically, as Delgado says.

“Having control over representation is a political act. So, for sure, in a context where women have been shaped by photography, where Black people have been shaped by images as well, it is important to have control of that representation, and in that sense, provide visual justice.”

If you go:

WHAT : WOPHA Congress 2024

WHERE : Pérez Art Museum Miami, 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Miami

WHEN : Various times beginning Tuesday, Oct. 22, through Saturday, Oct. 26

COST : Free with registration at wophacongress.org

INFORMATION : See the complete schedule at wophacongress.org

COMPANION PROGRAMMING: “Women Photographers – Shared Documentary Narratives” at HistoryMiami Museum , 101 West Flagler St., Miami, through through May 4, “What They Saw: Historical Photobooks by Women Reading Room” at the Miami-Dade County Main Library , 101 West Flagler St., Miami, through Jan. 3, “ In Between Sentiments,” Nicole Combeau and Sue Montoya, curated by Amanda Bradley, WOPHA associate curator of programming, Miami International Airport, through Feb. 2.

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