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| Mariana, Natalia, Walter, Camilo and Juliana with Alejandro Cartagena in Mexico City as part of the event Folio 002 in May 2019 |
In January 2020, fototazo celebrated its ninth anniversary, giving us our annual opportunity to take a look back at the past year and ahead at plans for 2020.
This is also the "yearly report" required as part of fototazo's 501(c)3 non-profit private operating foundation status.
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| Thomas Locke Hobbs shows photobooks to Mariana, Lina, Camilo, Sofía and Daniel during the fototazo Book Dummy Workshop in April 2019 |
SITE MISSION
The organization's primary mission is to support young, emerging Colombian photographers through microgrants. In 2019, fototazo continued to focus the microgrant program on offering workshops and photography-oriented travel experiences for groups of photographers.
All content on the site works to create viewership to fund the site's primary mission.
In 2019, the microgrant program raised $2,600. Thank you to those who have contributed – this non-profit continues because of your contributions!
The majority of those funds were used to send a group of eight emerging photographers from Medellín to a photography intensive workshop in Mexico in May 2019 at the Centro de la Imagen with Julian Barón, Mariela Sancari and Alejandro Cartagena, as well as to visit museums, galleries and photographer studios while there. This grant benefited a group of eight emerging photographers from Medellín. They are Juliana Henao Alcaraz, Mariana Betancur, Natalia Lopera, Walter Londoño, Lina Piedrahita, Camilo Pérez, Sofía Rojas and Andrés Sánchez.
In addition, Thomas Locke Hobbs joined us in Medellín in April 2019 to offer a book dummy workshop at my home for nine participants: Sofía Rojas, Walter Londoño, Mariana Betancur, Camilo Pérez, Lina Piedrahita, Byron Pazmiño, Natalia Lopera, Daniel Gallego and Juliana Henao.
The group learned four binding techniques on the first day, and on the second day, they printed and bound their work.
When the opportunity arises, fototazo also offers individual grants by pairing photographers with used equipment donated to fototazo. In 2019, Mariana Betancur received a used Nikon Coolpix L830 and Daniel Ochoa received a used Sony DSC-WX80 through this program.
CONTENT
I would like to extend a thank you to all of the 2019 contributors of images and words for their help in providing content for the site.
Over the last few years, I have produced fewer posts as I dedicate more time to the real world projects fototazo is involved in. In 2019, content continued to reflect a focus on Latin America as I actively work to use the site to serve as a bridge between Latin American photographers and an international audience through an English language platform.
In addition to Latin American posts, I also plan to continue to occasionally post essays, interviews and short series.
I would like to extend a thank you to the fototazo Board of Directors composed of business leaders Yaron Ben-Zvi and Raphael Crawford and photographer Amani Willett and also to the fototazo Advisory Board, which includes photographers Laura McPhee and Gabriel Mario Vélez, for another year of service in their roles.
Finally, thank YOU for being a part of this project whether as a reader, contributor, or donor.
We look forward to taking another step in 2020.
All the best,
Tom Griggs