Residency Program

Artist’s Publications

2024

We are excited to share the work of our 2024 Penumbra Foundation Risograph Publication Residents. Please consider purchasing a book, and supporting the continued growth of this program into the future.

Limited quantities of all publications will be available directly from Penumbra.

I am (not) your mother
Hady Barry

“At 13, I became responsible for the care of my three younger siblings, the youngest of whom was only seven. We had fled the civil war in Côte d’Ivoire and arrived in Senegal in November 2002. Shortly after, my mother left for the U.S. to seek asylum for herself and for us. We would not see her again for three years. During that time, our father was largely absent, traveling frequently for work. What I remember most from that period is not just the overwhelming responsibility, but the profound absence of both parents—leaving me with a deep sense of abandonment that I still carry awkwardly in adulthood.

i am (not) your mother is a confrontation of the trauma I experienced during my teenage years and how it continues to shape my relationship with my mother. It is an attempt to process the complex feelings I have towards her —an unsteady mix of hurt, resentment, admiration, and love. The work interweaves documentary photography, archival family images, journal entries, and transcribed conversations with my mother.”
–Hady Barry

Pages: 96
Binding: Screwpost
Paper: Mohawk Superfine, and Carnival
Size: 6.5" × 9"
Edition: 100
Printing: Risograph (Black, Red, Yellow)
Design: Hady Barry

I (am) not your mother won the Juror’s Special Mention for the 2024 Aperture/Paris Photo First Book Award and at Printed Matter in
January, 2025.

Click here to purchase I (am) not your mother.

Era invierno cuando removimos la tierra /
it was winter when we removed the soil
Maite Mérida

“Combining 35mm film, pinhole photographs, and written and archival material, Era invierno cuando removimos la tierra / it was winter when we removed the soil reflects on the legacy of extractivism & massified monoculture in Chile through the story of my father, who, while working in the forestry industry, fostered my deep regard for the environment. In an editorial gesture, the final book is composed in a shape that resembles a pile of paper—the main product of the industry that the project calls into question.

⁠Despite having lived observing the depredation of these territories, my father asked that his ashes be scattered in the shade of an alerce tree, in the middle of the native forest. As of this paradox, I wonder about the contours between human beings and nature and the limit between the natural and artificial.⁠ Even considering that it was my first time using a riso machine, I was really drawn to it as an artistic resource, so it was a great opportunity to experiment and bring out what I already had in mind. Since my project is based on analog photography, intervention and use of archives, it was interesting to add a third layer of experimentation to it. For me, there’s also value in the fact that riso is much more ecological than other printing techniques used to produce photobooks.” –Maite Mérida

Pages: 70
Unbound, French top folded with photograph insert
Size: 5.5" × 7.875"
Edition: 100
Printing: Risograph (Black, Gold)

Click here to purchase Era invierno cuando removimos la tierra / it was winter when we removed the soil.

Security Matter (C) - A Portrait of Surveillance
Daniela Spector

“Security Matter (C) - A Portrait of Surveillance is a photographic book that draws directly from the nearly 400 pages of my grandmother’s FBI file. My grandmother, Norma Spector, was surveilled between 1949 and 1978 for her involvement in the Communist Party, Federation of Greek Maritime Unions, Women Strike for Peace, Brooklyn Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, and the National Negro Congress. The “C” in “Security Matter C” stood for “communist.”

The book aims to illuminate and critique the government’s surveillance of people, its own citizens, advocating for equality and peace by appropriating pages directly from the file and recontextualizing them through the lens of family history. The left-hand pages feature the FBI’s portrait of my grandmother, and the right-hand pages feature images of my grandmother from our family archive. The book was designed to evoke a government file. Each spread is split in half, forcing the reader to use both hands to engage with the book fully.“
–Daniela Spector

Pages: 63
Binding: Chicago screws
Paper: 80lb Mohawk Eggshell, 130lb Colorplan Bright Red
Size: 7.375” x 10.25” x 0.5”
Edition: 100
Printing: Risograph (Black and Red)
Design: Hemza Hajyousif
Forward: Daniel Spector

Click here to purchase Security Matter (C) - A Portrait of Surveillance.