Becoming Sisters; Women Photography Collectives & Organizations

WOPHA / 09.21.2021

“Becoming Sisters; Women Photography Collectives & Organizations” is an impactful 286-page photobook by editors Aldeide Delgado and Ana Clara Silva that centers around collaborative practices in photography from a feminist perspective. Presented alongside the 2021 WOPHA Congress in Miami, Florida, this publication works as a registry and collective manifesto of 40 international women and non-binary collectives and like-minded organizations and 98 women-identified and non-binary photographers reframing the dominant narratives of photography history. Featuring 120 stunning black and white and color photographic images and compelling statements from each contributing organization, the photobook is contextualized with a foreword by Marie Vickles and Anita Braham, and curatorial essay by WOPHA Founder & Director, Aldeide Delgado.

Purchase price includes a one-year membership to Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) and directly supports WOPHA’s programs that highlight the historic and contemporary role of women in photography.

Shop Now

The creation of collectives or communities of women photographers based on tenets of solidarity and networking has been a fundamental strategy used historically and through the present to highlight the contributions of women in the photographic arts. Since the initial publication of The Woman’s Eye by Anne Wilkes Tucker in 1973, Viewfinders: Black Women Photographers by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe in 1986, and the publication of A History of Women Photographers by Naomi Rosenblum in 1994, several—albeit scarce—books have demonstrated the important role women have played in the development of photography, often by pushing boundaries and defying social conventions. These groundbreaking books, primarily written by women, employ feminist analysis, postmodernism, and postcolonial criticism while surveying crucial debates of the twentieth and twenty-first century.

However, upon reviewing these publications, there are still fertile areas for ongoing exploration. Thus far, the primary discourse has been focused on modern and contemporary women photographers as singular creative subjects, yet it is critical to produce a publication that centers, from a feminist perspective, collaborative practices in photography—by doing so, new scholarship would highlight the communally-shared experiences of women photographers. The concept of a directory and photobook is instrumental in this regard. Presented alongside the 2021 WOPHA Congress, this publication works as a registry and collective manifesto of forty international women and non-binary collectives and like-minded organizations and nearly one hundred women-identified and non-binary photographers doing extraordinary work to reframe the dominant narratives of photography history.

Publisher: Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA)
Publication Date: 2021
Dimensions: 6.75 x 9.76 inches.
Print Length: 286 pages
Images: 120
Binding: Semi Conceal Wire-O
Edition: 500 copies. First edition. November 2021
Original Concept: Aldeide Delgado
Editors: Aldeide Delgado and Ana Clara Silva
Creative Director: Francisco Masó
Copy Editor: Francis Oliver
Editorial Assistant: Andrea Sofía Matos
Design: My Linh Trieu Nguyen of Studio LHOOQ
Printed: Point B Solutions
Essay: Aldeide Delgado
Foreword: Marie Vickles and Anita Braham
Cover Image: Nereida García Ferraz (in collaboration with Laura González Flores and Eugenia Vargas Pereira). El Picnic, 1989. Courtesy of the artist and Catálogo de Fotógrafas Cubanas.
Item Weight: 2.0 pounds
Language: English
ISBN: 978-0-578-98820-7
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021947274

The WOPHA Congress and its accompanying publication “Becoming Sisters: Women Photography Collectives & Organizations” are made possible by co-presenters Women Photographers International Archive and Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) with lead project support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and official hotel partner, JW Marriott Marquis Miami. Major support is provided by Arts Connection Foundation, Green Family Foundation, María C. Bechily, Miami Downtown Development Authority, One Sotheby’s International Realty, and The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation. Programs are made possible with support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. Support was also provided by Beth Rudin DeWoody, Cindy and Robert Friezo Foundation, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, Duvin Collaborative, Hotel Beaux Arts Miami and Boulud Sud Miami, the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, Leica Store Miami, Maya Ibars, Esq., and Oolite Arts. Cultural partners include 1854 Media – publishers of the British Journal of Photography, Lucie Foundation, El Espacio 23, Faena Art, Green Space Miami, Rubell Museum, and The Betsy Hotel. Media partners include Artishock Revista, Contemporary And, Cultured Magazine, and Photoworks UK. The WOPHA Congress is an initiative presented in association with the Feminist Art Coalition.