The 2024 WOPHA Congress on Photography at Perez Art Museum

Miami Art week is already brewing as the second edition of the Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) Congress is set to take place at the Perez Art Museum along with parallel events throughout South Florida. The theme of this year’s three-day event is “How Photography Teaches Us To Live Now”, bringing together art historians, theorists, and curators with a goal to enrich and more accurately represent the dynamic history of women and non-binary photographers from the nineteenth century to the present.

The first-ever WOPHA Congress was conceptualized by Latinx art historian and curator Aldeide Delgado in 2021. During this year’s event, photographers such as Susan Meiselas, Carmen Winant, Peggy Nolan, Maggie Steber, Keisha Scarville, and María Martínez-Cañas will use the given space to showcase their contributions to photography history.

The Congress is not only an event that brings together the most prominent theoretical and critical thinkers and photographers worldwide, but it is also an artistic event that seeks to create a meeting place for the international photography community in Miami, contributing to South Florida’s ongoing artistic renaissance and its growing reputation as a global destination for the arts. Among the many topics discussed are the role of collaboration in photography and archival practices, the relevance of the Caribbean in photography history, and current photographic debates around materiality, ecology, and climate change.

The Congress will kick off on Wednesday, October 23, with the WOPHA Assembly: Technologies of Companionship, hosted in partnership with the Norton Museum of Art. Along with photowalks led by women photographers Clara Toro, Rose Marie Cromwell and Nicole Combeau, WOPHA will also hold a group portfolio review session led by Noelle Flores Théard, Verónica Sanchis Bencomo and Éline Gourgues.

Welcomed by Sarah Meister, the Executive Director of Aperture Foundation, the first panel discussion will feature prominent artists from South Florida including Siliva Lizama and Wendy Ewald. Following this, a series of panels will feature speakers from Japan, Canada, Spain and Vietnam, who will discuss topics related to photography, ecology and materiality.

The WOPHA Congress Party will wrap up the event, inviting guests for an evening of celebration. Additional programs and exhibitions will be on display including, “What They Saw: Historical Photo Books by Women Reading Room” at the Miami Dade Public Library and “Women Photographers–Shared Documentary Narratives” at the HistoryMiami Museum. Both will remain on view through 2025.

"How Photography Teaches Us to Live Now" will take place from October 23-26 in the Pérez Art Museum Miami and various locations across South Florida. Guests may attend in-person or virtual.