Internship Program

This unique program offers interns the opportunity to gain invaluable artistic and professional skills through direct experience with reputable artists.

WE ARE NOT CURRENTLY ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS.

Applications will open for the 2024-2025 program in August 2024.

Summer 2022 Selected Interns & Artists

RUBY GAUCHMAN

Intern

Ruby Gauchman is a New York City based artist and environmentalist whose work explores themes of familial bonds, personal identity, and the impact of physical space. From family history to the identities impressed upon us, she questions the elements that define her role in life, often bouncing between the processing of a specific defining moment and the exploration of a larger, more universal experience. She sees art as a primarily collaborative experience, striving for open and honest communication between herself and those she is creating alongside. Her practice is born from experimentation and exploration, evolving as she moves through time and space. For her, photography, and art at large, is a space for questioning and contextualizing — for placing knowledge within a larger tapestry of information.

Jenia Fridlyand

Artist

Jenia Fridlyand (Moscow, 1975) is a photographer and educator based in New York City and the Hudson Valley. Her photographs and books have been exhibited in the United States and abroad. The self-published edition of Fridlyand’s book Entrance to Our Valley was shortlisted for the Paris Photo - Aperture First Photobook Award 2017, and a trade edition was published by TIS Books in September 2019. She is represented by Gallery Wouter van Leuween.

Fridlyand is a co-founder of Image Threads Collective, a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring together artists, educators, and bookmakers in communities around the world for a mutual exchange of ideas and experiences. She organized and taught workshops and long-term courses in Ukraine, Georgia, Iceland, Canada, and Cuba, and has been teaching photobook courses at Penumbra Foundation since 2018. Fridlyand studied photography at Centre Iris and Université Paris VIII, and holds an MFA from the University of Hartford’s International Limited-Residency program.

Liz Nielsen

Artist

Liz Nielsen lives and works in NYC. Her works have been exhibited in New York, Chicago, Paris, London, Budapest, Amsterdam and Berlin. Her photographs are printed in the analog color darkroom with handmade negatives and found light sources. Each photograph is unique, ranging in size from 100" x 100" to 8" x 8".

Liz received her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2004, her BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2002, and her BA in Philosophy and Spanish from Seattle University in 1997. Nielsen's works have been reviewed in *Artforum*, *The New Yorker*, *The Financial Times*, *The British Journal of Photography*, *The New York Times*, *LensCulture*, *FOAM magazine*, and *ArtSlant* among others.

Liz is represented by Miles McEnery gallery in New York, SOCO Gallery in North Carolina, Black Box Projects in London, and Horizont Galerie in Budapest. She also has available works with David B. Smith in Denver.

Ella Baum

Intern

Ella Baum is a writer and photographer residing in Brooklyn, NY. She graduated from Vassar College in June, 2020 with a bachelor's degree and honors in English Literature. Her senior thesis was an auto-biographical sister-arts poetry book titled, "The Pillows of Our Palms", featuring verse and photographic images in playful communion. She has been an assistant teacher at the International Center of Photography, ICP at The Point and at the Penumbra Foundation. She is currently helping photojournalist Erica Lansner archive and digitize her extensive inventory of diapositives and negatives. Ella's written work has been featured in Zingara Poetry Review (Somebody Else’s Poetry, May 2019) and Aspire Design & Home magazine (Winter 2020 and Spring 2021 editions). She has curated and exhibited photographic work at the Beacon Artists Union, and the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Ella is a native New Yorker, and dual citizen of the U.S. and Sweden.

Kate ovaska

Artist

Kate Ovaska holds an MFA from Columbia University and a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has taught photography at Columbia University and The New School. She has been awarded the CAA Professional Development Grant, the Fulbright Fellowship to Germany, and Maryland State Arts Council Award in Photography.

Her residencies include Light Work and Pioneer Works.

She is the founder and director of Brooklyn Darkroom, a traveling art residency for analog photographers. She lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

AFRIDA AHMED

Tintype Studio Intern

Afrida Ahmed is currently a Photography student at the Fashion Institute of Technology and long-time lover of analog process, technique, and history. Afrida was first introduced to the analog darkroom at the ICP, and has continued to explore its endless possibilities since. Afrida’s work explores ideas of intimacy, familiar space, and identity. Beyond imagery, they are interested in sociology, fiber arts, paper craft, and archival practices, all of which inform their creative process. Afrida’s excited to explore the world of wet plate, as well as contribute to Penumbra’s rich community and outreach.

About the program

During 3 month cycles, interns are paired with practicing artists based in NYC whose work aligns with their photographic interests and goals. Interns assist, conduct research, and provide administrative and technical support while learning about contemporary art and photographic skills. Participants are encouraged to integrate into Penumbra’s rich photographic community beyond the duration of their internships.

This program is possible thanks to the vision and support of Fujifilm.