The photobook is an untamable entity: it pulsates, mutates, becomes contaminated, and defies its own limits. Its narrative is not merely contemplated: it is activated by handling it—opening it, turning pages, unfolding it, touching it—and it transforms as it embodies itself with other bodies, times, and spaces. Each part fulfills a function and, at the same time, articulates with the whole.

In this 8-module online program, taught by active professionals from diverse fields and locations, you will explore the universe of the contemporary photobook from multiple perspectives: sensory experimentation, narrative construction and the languages ​​of editorial design, publishing practice, as well as its intersection with film and wall exhibition.

Throughout the classes, you will combine critical reflection and practical processes to think about and create photobooks in an expansive, active, and context-conscious way.

Students of all levels are welcome.

• Modality of the class: Online via Zoom

• Length: Eight Saturdays (2 hours each)

• Dates: Saturdays, March 7 - April May 16 (skip April 4 & May 2)

• Time: 11am-1pm (ET)

• Coordinator: Verónica Fieiras (Argentina)

• Teaching Artists:

  • Oleñka Carrasco (Venezuela/ France)

  • Faride Mereb (Venezuela / USA)

  • Fosi Vegue (Spain)

  • Sonia Berger (Spain)

  • Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo (Chile / France)

  • Azul Aizenberg (Argentina)

• Language: Spanish

About the Coordinator:

Verónica Fieiras is a visual worker, teacher, and founding editor of Riot Books and Chaco  publishing houses. She has been involved in visual projects and photobooks in progress  for over fifteen years.Her editorial work has been recognized with the Shannon Michael  Cane Award (Printed Matter, N.Y., 2019), the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation  PhotoBook Award (2013), and the First Prize for Best Photobook at the Latin American  Photography Colloquium in Mexico (2017), among others. She has also been shortlisted  for distinctions such as Les Rencontres de la Photographie Arles – Author Book Award (2015 and 2016), Best Book of the Year – Fotobook Festival Kassel (2014), and the Paris  Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Award (2021).Several of the books she has edited  and designed have been exhibited in venues such as the Centre de Cultura  Contemporània de Barcelona, National Library of Spain, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid,  Daegu Photo Biennale, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the MoMA in New York,  among others. Some of the books have also been acquired by public and private  collections including those of Martin Parr, Gerry Badger, Erik Kessels, Joan Fontcuberta,  MoMA, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, and Centro de la Imagen in Mexico, among others.She has curated three  exhibitions focusing on the creative process and the conceptualising of photobooks in  Mexico, Madrid, and Barcelona. After twenty years in Madrid, she has been based in  Buenos Aires since 2019.

About the Teaching Artists:

Oleñka Carrasco is a Venezuelan multidisciplinary artist, visual storyteller, photographer,  and educator specializing in the photobook. Her work has been internationally recognized:  she was a finalist for the Luma Rencontres Dummy Book Award in Arles (2015 and 2022,  with Cartas de París and Casa prestada para un duelo), received the Photo Folio Review  Award at Les Rencontres d’Arles 2022, and was awarded the CNAP Prize for  Contemporary Documentary Photography in 2025. Her published photobooks have also  been shortlisted for the Photobook of the Year Awards in Arles and Athens, confirming the  narrative and visual strength of her work. Alongside her artistic practice, she leads a  strong pedagogical activity through workshops and mentorships, guiding authors through  every stage of the photobook-making journey. 

Faride Mereb is an award-winning Venezuelan art director, book designer, and researcher  living and working in New York City. She has won numerous awards, including the 2024  Grand Prix for best book design in the Latin American Design Awards, and best design  studio (Venezuela). In 2022, she won the 10X10 Research Grant on Photobooks by  Women, supporting her formative research on Venezuela’s first known woman graphic  designer, Karmele Leizaola (1929–2021). Mereb was a visiting scholar at Columbia  (2021–2022) and a guest professor at Yale (Fall 2024) where she taught the module on  Latin America and the Caribbean in Geoff Kaplan’s class, Graphic Design History (A Set of  Alternatives). She is a member of the Bibliographical Society of America and American  Printing History Association. 

Fosi Vegue is an author who works in scenarios where references disappear in order to  become revealing metaphors of the flaws of our society. Publishes in June 2014, XY XX by  Dalpine. Awarded the FotoPres´05 and ´09 (best Spanish grant) and in 2019, a Grant for  Creation and Visual Arts from the Community of Madrid. 

His work has been shown in collectively exhibited such as Blank Paper: Histoires du  présent immédiat, Les Rencontres d’Arles 2017; Photography 2.0, PhotoEspaña'14, Madrid  and Natural Artifice, at Glass Tank Gallery of Oxford Brookes University, England. Having worked as a photography teacher and manager since 2004, his most ambitious  project, Blank Paper School, allowed him to train a whole generation of photographers who  have renovated our visual imaginary and to showcase and promote their work and also  that of other emerging creators. He is currently developing different pedagogical programs  in several national and international training centres. Passionate about photobooks, he co-founded Fiebre Photobook Fest. He edited and  sequenced Woman Go No´Gree, by Gloria Oyarzabal, which won Best Photobook of the  Year at Paris Photo-Aperture Photobook Awards 2020.

Sonia Berger is a Spanish editor and the director of Dalpine, a publishing house specializing in photography books. She holds a degree in Translation and Interpreting from the University of Salamanca and a diploma in Editing and Text Publishing from the University of Deusto, and she later expanded her studies in photography at the Blank Paper School in Madrid. Berger has collaborated with various  publishers, contributing her insight and experience to numerous projects. Through Dalpine,  she has supported the publication of works by both emerging and established  photographers. She has curated exhibitions such as Blank Paper: Histoires du présent  immédiat (2017) at Les Rencontres d’Arles (France) and Jimei x Arles (China); Subida al  cielo by Lúa Ribeira (2023); and Monstrorum historia by Joan Fontcuberta (2025), both  presented at Kutxa Fundazioa in San Sebastián (Spain).In addition to her editorial and  curatorial practice, she is also engaged in teaching, sharing her knowledge and experience  with new generations of photographers and editors.  

Sergio Valenzuela-Escobedo is an artist and researcher whose work  unfolds at the intersection of artistic inquiry, curatorial practice, and education. He holds a  PhD in Photography from the École Nationale Supérieure de la Photographie (ENSP, Arles). 

Over the years, Valenzuela-Escobedo has established his curatorial reputation through  notable exhibitions such as Mapuche at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris; Monsanto: A  Photographic Investigation —winner of the Paris Photo/Aperture Book Award and finalist  for the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2018— and Bosques Geométricos, both  conceived and premiered within the framework of Les Rencontres d’Arles. His trilogy  Mama Coca, Ipáamamu, and Oro Verde, presented at Fotofestiwal Łódź, further reflects his  sustained engagement with critical and ecological narratives. 

In 2025, Valenzuela-Escobedo inaugurated a new chapter in his curatorial trajectory when  he was appointed associate curator of the Porto International Photography Biennale,  where he presented Lightseekers, an ambitious five-part project conceived specifically for  the event. In 2027, he continues this path as associate curator of the Guyane Biennale,  consolidating his role as a key voice in reimagining exhibition formats across the Global  South. 

For several years, he has also served as a mentor to emerging artists, collaborating with  institutions ranging from the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg to the ENSP in  Arles. He has been a jury member for the Discovery Award of the Louis Roederer  Foundation, presented within the context of the Arles Festival. Currently, he is an active  member jof the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) and serves as the artistic  director of Double Dummy. As a critic and researcher, Valenzuela-Escobedo regularly  publishes essays and in-depth studies in journals such as Inframince (France), 1000 Words (UK), Mirà (Monaco), and Letargo (Chile). 

Azul Aizenberg is a filmmaker and teacher. Her work explores archives from an  iconoclastic perspective, the potential history and fabulation of memory. Since 2018, she  has coordinated and taught film workshops and accompanied films in progress at ver y poder, a virtual home for alternative film education. She has served as a workshop leader  and project tutor for festivals and exhibitions such as Cortópolis (Córdoba, Argentina),  Residencia Otro Norte (Peru), Muestra Estéticas de las memorias (Colombia), aTemporal  (Peru), and FICUNAM (Mexico), among others. She directed the short film Las  Picapedreras (2021), which premiered at Jihlava and Festifreak and was screened at more  than 50 international festivals. Her debut feature film, Amor descartable (2025), premiered  at the General Pico Film Festival and Doc Buenos Aires. She served as producer and co screenwriter for Magalí Flaks' feature film “Crotos libres” (2025). She is currently working  on her next film, “Los grandes ausentes,” and is pursuing a Master's Degree in  Contemporary Artistic Practices (UNSAM). She researches, edits, and writes films on a  daily basis alongside others. 

If your desired tuition option is unavailable, please email info@penumbrafoundation.org and we will do our best to accommodate you. If the entire class is sold out, we can add you to the waitlist.

In most cases, our registration deadline is 24 hrs prior to the start time of a workshop/class. If there is a workshop/class you would like to register for but it is not listed or if you have questions, please contact griffin@penumbrafoundation.org.

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