Penumbra Foundation

Tonight at the opening of Turm und Taxis, a solo exhibition by Witho Worms, on view in our Exhibition Space through July 31st.

Witho will be leading a carbon printing demo next Tuesday, June 2, from 5-8pm, for those interested in learning more about the process. He’ll share methodologies and formulas for each step of the technique, before giving a live printing demonstration using pre-sensitized tissue and paper negatives. Attendees will be invited to participate, working together and seeing results in real time.

Learn more about the exhibition / register for the demo at the link in bio.

These prints & photograms were developed in homemade chemistry mixed from instant coffee & ingredients you might already have at home ☕️

Curious about this process? Join us for our one-day workshop with Brittonie Fletcher on Sunday, June 7th, and learn how to make paper developers from scratch. During class, we’ll explore how different chemical components influence tone, contrast, and color palette, and compare the results of DIY formulas to commercial options.

All materials will be provided. No prior darkroom experience is required to join.

Sunday, June 7 | 10am-6pm | *2 spots left!

Register at the link in bio.

Prints by Brittonie Fletcher and Penumbra students.

Working on a new project or revisiting past work? During our 6-week course with Patricia Voulgaris (), students will refine their visual language, gain confidence in discussing & critiquing work, and begin the development of their next photographic project. ⁠
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This course is open to artists of all levels with work ready for discussion, whether that be an idea accompanied by a few images, a work in progress, or past projects that need refinement. Topics include practical strategies for sustaining a long-term project, organizing images, creating visual cohesion and narrative, and understanding how photographs communicate with one another. ⁠
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At the end, each student will leave with the beginnings of a focused, edited body of work and tools that they can continue to apply to their practice.⁠

Thursdays, July 9 - August 13 | 6-9pm

Learn more at the link in profile.

The cuprotype process is a nineteenth-century photographic printing method that uses copper salts to create richly toned prints. The process is activated by ferric ammonium citrate, the same light-sensitive catalyst used in cyanotype, making cuprotype similarly accessible while offering a broader tonal range. Through chemical toning, practitioners can achieve an expanded palette of colors, ranging from buttery golds and soft pinks to coppers, deep purples, and neutral tones.

Our 4-week online course with Anne Eder () guides students through the cuprotype process from start to finish. Topics include creating digital negatives, mixing chemistry, coating paper, calculating exposure, and clearing and toning prints for both stability and color control. The course also introduces ferroblending, a hybrid approach that combines multiple photographic processes. By the end of the course, students will have the learned the foundational skills necessary to continue making cuprotypes on their own.

Thursdays, July 9 - 30 | 6-8pm

Learn more at the link in bio.

What happens when you skip developer? Lumen prints are a cameraless photo process where gelatin silver paper that is exposed to light is placed directly into fixer.

Ethereal pastel tones emerge in the process, determined by the time of exposure, the type of light, and the kind of paper used.

will be teaching two upcoming workshops on this technique in June and August, open to all ages and levels of printing experience.

✶ Saturday, June 27 | 10am-5pm | *One spot left!
✶ Sunday, August 9 | 10am-5pm

More info on our website under Workshops.

Image 3 © Rachelle Bussières. Images 2 & 5: prints by previous students.

During Intro to Alt Process: Siderotypes with Morgan Post (), we learned a range of iron-based printing techniques, starting off with cyanotype + toning variations on week 1, van-dyke brown and process-layering on week 2, platinum palladium on week 3, and inkjet layering with platinum during week 4.

Swipe through to see a recap of what we explored 🫶

✶ In June, Morgan will be leading another 4-week course on alternative processes. This time, however, we’ll be diving into salt & silver-based processes, including salted paper, albumen, and collodio chloride. This course runs on Tuesday evenings, June 9-30 and is open to students of all printing levels. Tap the Workshops link in our bio to learn more.

All prints by Penumbra students.

Thank you to our sponsors: Hahnemühle (), Art Craft Chemicals, & .

🗓️ Opening next week! Turm und Taxis, a solo exhibition by renowned Dutch artist Witho Worms, opens on Thursday, May 28th, in the Penumbra Exhibition Space. We welcome you to join us for the reception from 6-8pm.⁠
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A conceptual and material departure from his previous industrial studies, Turm und Taxis offers a profound mediation of the cooling towers in Germany and England, reframing these giants of the coal-fired and nuclear era as symbols of a new, data-driven world order. ⁠
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The title, a linguistic interplay connecting the German word Turm (tower) with the Greek τάξις (order), alludes to a critical shift in global history: the transition from the heavy industrial age to the AI-driven information age. While cooling towers served coal-fired and nuclear power stations, Worms posits that their massive, hollow forms now stand as precursors to the cooling systems required by the vast server farms powering artificial intelligence. ⁠
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Turm und Taxis will be on view from May 28th—July 31st, 2026. Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, from 2-6pm.⁠
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Penumbra’s Exhibition Space is supported in part by the Lawrence Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and Joy of Giving Something.⁠
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Images © Witho Worms

Passed by our tintype booth and interested in learning the process for yourself? Join us for an intro wet plate workshop with studio photographer Sam Dole () this spring & summer.

There is one spot left in this weekend’s class and limited seats in our one-day workshop ⁠.

✶ Intro to Wet Plate ⁠
Saturday & Sunday, May 23 & 24 | 10am-6pm ⁠
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✶ Plein Air Tintypes at Brooklyn Film Camera
Saturday, June 6 | 10am-6pm ⁠
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✶ Intro to Wet Plate ⁠
Saturday & Sunday, July 25 & 26 | 10am-6pm ⁠

What is wet plate collodion? Invented in 1851 by Frederick Scott Archer, the wet plate collodion process was originally used to prepare glass plate negatives for making reproductions on paper, salted paper, and albumen prints. ⁠
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Ambrotypes and tintypes are two variations on the wet plate technique made to produce direct positive images — both of which you can learn at Penumbra.

Ambrotypes, which were first patented by James Ambrose Cutting in 1854, are created by underexposing a glass negative and placing it against a darkened background, such as black fabric or painting the back of the plate with black lacquer. When the underexposed image is placed against this dark background, it appears as a positive. Similarly, tintypes also appear as a positive image, except iron plates blackened by Japaning are used instead of glass. ⁠

Plates by Penumbra students

🗓️ This Thursday! Join us for an online conversation on the creative collaboration behind making a photobook with Martín Bollati, founder & director of .editorial, photographer María Eugenia Cerutti, and graphic designer Ricardo Báez.

This conversation will be held online in Spanish with English subtitles.

Online | Thursday, May 21st at 5pm

RSVP at the link in bio.

✶ SED is an Argentinian publishing house with specific focus on the enigmatic characteristics of the photographical image and its mutilple possibilities of discourse. The photographical image understood not in its specular condition but in its mirage curse: what we see is a product of our needs and desires. We crawl through the desert, seeking that drop of water and so we see it appearing, radiant and impossible, far away. For a moment its illusion hides the desert.

SED’s work methodology implies a collaborative development between authors, designers and publisher, building a horizontal line of work where dialogue, production and circulation of the published proyects is produced by shared responsability and means. The act of reading and its hyperlinking subject are fundamental axes of this system.

Each book is a latent unit that hides (besides an oasis and the treasure of possibility) a commited, profesional and affective team, that works in the passionate and complex task of editing, publishing and reading in Latin America.

SED’s catalog can be viewed at the Penumbra Project Space, open Monday—Friday, 2-6pm.

Images © SED Editorial