Seeking 25 new talents in photography

Michael Famighetti is the Editor of Aperture magazine. In 2013, he organized a relaunch and reconceptualization of the publication, which won a 2018 National Magazine Award for General Excellence. He is the recipient, with guest editor Sarah Lewis, of the ICP Infinity Award for Critical Writing and Research for “Vision & Justice,” the summer 2016 issue of Aperture.

In addition to editing the magazine, Famighetti commissions and edits books for the Aperture Foundation, including volumes by William Christenberry, Robert Adams, John Divola, Jonas Bendiksen, Kwame Brathwaite and Joel Meyerowitz, among others. He is currently a visiting critic at the Yale University School of Art and a participant in SVA’s Mentors program.

His writing has appeared in Frieze, Bookforum and Aperture, among other publications. He is a member of the American Society of Magazine Editors and has been a guest reviewer and speaker at many international festivals and institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; The New York Times; Vogue Italia; FOAM, Amsterdam; the Art Gallery of Ontario; the Bamako Biennial, Mali; Kyotographie, Kyoto; Museet for Fotokunst, Odense, Denmark; and Fotografiska, Stockholm.

Caroline Hunter is a picture editor for The Saturday Guardian Magazine. Caroline has over 20 years experience of commissioning photography (from concept to celebrity, portraiture, still-life, beauty, fashion and documentary photography) and reviewing photo-essays and proposals. Caroline is regularly invited to review portfolios at international photo festivals and has also acted as a judge for a number of photography competitions.

Michael Foley opened his eponymous gallery in the fall of 2004 in New York after fourteen years of working with notable photography galleries including Fraenkel Gallery, Howard Greenberg Gallery and Yancey Richardson Gallery.

The gallery has since been invited to participate in over thirty international and national art fairs including Paris Photo, Pulse, AIPAD, VOLTA, and the London Art Fair. Gallery exhibitions and artists have been reviewed and written about in numerous publications including The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Artforum, Modern Painters and ArtNEWS.

Foley is the founder of The Photo Community, which offers classes and commentary on contemporary photography. He continues his interest in education by serving on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts and the International Center of Photography where he teaches and lectures on issues in contemporary photography.

Elena Boille is deputy editor and photo editor of the Italian news magazine Internazionale. Boille graduated with a degree in history of art and she co-founded, in 1993, Internazionale. She’s in charge of the photo desk and of the science pages of the magazine. She has judged many photo competitions and participated in portfolio reviews. Boille also teaches photo editing workshops.

Internazionale is a weekly magazine that selects and translates the best journalistic stories from around the world and brings them to an Italian-speaking audience. Every issue features a photographic portfolio, which focuses mainly on long-term projects. Along with photojournalistic and documentary stories, it publishes personal works, conceptual series and more.

Mary Virginia Swanson has dedicated her career to helping artists find the strengths in their work, identify appreciative, responsive audiences, and present their work in an informed, and professional manner. Swanson’s in-depth knowledge, professional experience, reputation, and relationships throughout the photography industry cover a broad range of perspectives on both the making and marketing of lens-based work. A respected contributor to the field, she frequently serves as a Portfolio Reviewer and Judge at contemporary photography and photobook competitions, conducts public presentations at industry festivals and lectures at numerous colleges throughout the year.

Swanson is co-author with Darius Himes of Publish Your Photography Book (Third Edition, Radius Books August 2023) which offers a window into being published and self-publishing photobooks today. The book’s dedicated website is rich with resources and information on their companion online course of the same name through La Luz Workshops: www.publishyourphotographybook.com @ publishyourphotographybook

Ms. Swanson resides in Tucson, Arizona. www.mvswanson.com @ maryvirginiaswanson

Currently serving as the Creative Director of United Photo Industries, Sam Barzilay is also the co-founder of Photoville, a photographic gathering that has rapidly become one of the largest and best-attended photography events in North America. Sam is also one of the founding producers of the T3 Photo Festival in Tokyo, Japan.

Sam holds a Master in Photojournalism from the University of Westminster (UK), where his studies focused on curatorial and photo-editing practices. Over the past decade, he has worked alongside some of the best and brightest minds in the global photographic community in pursuit of developing new audiences for photography. He is interested in devising methods of presentation that further amplify the power of photographic storytelling to help increase public awareness and bring about social change.

Yumi Goto is an independent photography curator, editor, researcher, consultant, educator and publisher who focuses on the development of 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 often works with human rights advocates, international and local NGOs, and humanitarian organizations as well as being involved as a nominator and juror for international photographic organizations, festivals and events.

She is now based in Tokyo and is also a co-founder and curator for the Reminders Photography Stronghold, which is a curated membership gallery space in Tokyo enabling a wide range of photographic activities.

Jim Casper is the editor-in-chief of LensCulture, one of the leading online destinations to discover new contemporary photography from around the world. As an active member in the contemporary photography world, Casper loves to meet with photographers and talk about photography. He curates art exhibitions, publishes books, conducts workshops, serves as an international juror, nominates photographers for key awards, and is an advisor to arts and education organizations.