Enroll now for the internationally celebrated photography book production workshop “Photobook as Object,” led by Yumi Goto in Miami

WOPHA / 04.09.2023

This summer, we are pleased to launch the WOPHA Institute for Photographic Practices, Criticism, and Historiography by bringing the internationally celebrated photography book production workshop “Photobook as Object” to Miami. Led by Tokyo-based independent photography curator, editor, researcher and publisher Yumi Goto, the first “Photobook as Object” workshop was held in 2014 in Japan. The workshop has been held every May till 2019, with an overseas expedition to the International Summer School of Photography (ISSP) in Latvia in 2018. The workshops in 2020 and 2021 were scheduled but were postponed due to COVID-19 and its travel restrictions. It was finally held in 2022 with participants waiting for it to take place. The books created by the workshop participants have achieved great success in the global photobook scene, including recognitions such as Paris Photo Aperture Photo Book Awards, LUMA Rencontres Dummy Book Award Arles and PhotoEspaña’s annual Best Photography Book of the Year Award.

During the workshop, participants will dive into the storytelling process – exploring ways to incorporate personal experiences into their work. The program includes presentations about the history and possibilities of photobooks, materials, concepts, techniques, editing, publishing, and distribution. Through individual and group discussions and critique sessions, participants will examine the strengths of their proposals, developing their skills to conceptualize coherent projects better and materialize their potential as a publication. 

Date: June 3 – 12, 2023
Time: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm (ET). Please, make sure in advance that you will be able to participate in all days of the workshop.
Location: Miami
Tuition: $1,000
Financial Aid: Scholarship funds are available for two applicants based on financial need, artistic achievement, and submitted application.
Max Seats: 15
Enroll before: Saturday, May 20, 2023.

Register Now

Requirements
Each participant will be required to bring an existing project to work on during the workshop. The first phase of the workshop will be spent examining and deconstructing those projects, editing, and deciding viable ideas for the book. The second phase will focus on layout, material, and final presentation in the form of a book. The outcome is a book dummy as well as new reflective tools and ideas to continue working on other projects.

Eligibility
Local, national, and international authors, artists, image-makers, visual storytellers, curators, and/or cultural producers engaging photography as a professional practice and artistic expression. Applicants should be older than 18 years.

Expectations
During the workshop, we will be working on the creation of a concept, editing, and different bookmaking techniques that can be done. The first day includes presentations about the history and possibilities of photobooks. We will talk about material, concepts, and techniques. Participants will also introduce their work briefly. During the following days, we will work on editing the stories in small groups and start with the layout of the books. We will produce the first dummies with printed pictures. Every participant will create at least a dummy to take home. Presentations about the process for applying to competitions and festivals will be offered. The final results will be presented on the last day in an open-to-the-public session. Each participant will receive a workshop certificate upon program completion to verify their achievement.

Faculty

Professor Yumi Goto is an experienced independent art and documentary photography curator, editor, researcher, and consultant who focuses on developing cultural exchanges that transcend borders. She collaborates with local and international artists who live and work in areas affected by conflict, natural disasters, current social problems, human rights abuses, and women’s issues. She co-founded the gallery Reminders Photography Stronghold in Tokyo and founded the Tokyo Documentary Photography Workshop. Goto often works with human rights advocates, international and local NGOs, humanitarian organizations, and international photo festivals and events throughout Asia. She is a recipient of the Women’s Human Rights Activities Award and the Yayori Journalist Award. She recently participated in the symposium “The PhotoBook Phenomenon: 1999-2021,” organized by Roxana Marcoci at MoMA, New York.

Assistant Professor Paola Jiménez Quispe is a Peruvian photographer working on themes of memory, loss, death, and childhood trauma through photography, archives, video, and text. She majored in photography at Centro de la Imagen (Peru) and is currently pursuing her master’s degree MAPA at LENS Escuela (Spain). Jiménez Quispe has taken different workshops on editing and photobook making with Gonzalo Golpe (2016), Julieta Escardó (2017), Laia Abril (2017), Ana Casas Broda (2017), Valentina Abenavoli (2017), and Jorge Panchoaga (2020). In 2019, she participated in the Reminders Stronghold Photography’s “Photobook as Object” workshop in Tokyo with Yumi Goto and Jan Rosseel (2019). She was Yumi Goto’s assistant in the Photobook Incubator 2019 and “El fotolibro como objeto” workshop at La Hydra + Fotografía in Mexico. Her project, “Rules for Fighting,” won the PHMuseum Women Photographers Grant 2019, the Bird in Flight Prize 2020 and Female in Focus 2021 Award by 1854 Media & British Journal of Photography. It was also shortlisted for the 2022 Paris Photo – Aperture New York Book Awards.