Penumbra Foundation

Penumbra Foundation Penumbra Foundation is a non profit photographic arts and education organization devoted to teaching

The 2026 Penumbra Foundation Members Gallery is now open for submissions! We are delighted to welcome guest juror , phot...
08/20/2026

The 2026 Penumbra Foundation Members Gallery is now open for submissions!

We are delighted to welcome guest juror , photographer and the Assistant Photo Editor at the The New Yorker.

Three members are selected to have their work featured in an online gallery on our website and social media, receiving exposure and recognition within our international community of artists, photo world professionals, and photography lovers. Selected artists also receive an additional year-long Professional Penumbra Membership.

Any Penumbra member—Individual, Student, Educator, Professional, Pro Studio, & Patron—can submit their work to our Online Members Gallery.

Discounted membership is available for those who are not currently members, but would like to join in order to apply for the Members Gallery. Please email [email protected] to inquire.

Deadline: Monday, September 14th | 11:59pm EST

Learn more at the link in bio. Images © Momo Takahashi

Over 4 weeks, explore a range of salt and silver-based printing processes with Morgan Post (Morgan Post).During Intro to...
08/19/2026

Over 4 weeks, explore a range of salt and silver-based printing processes with Morgan Post (Morgan Post).

During Intro to Alt Process: Salt and Silver, students will learn salt printing, albumen, and collodio-chloride.

Through demonstrations and hands-on practice, students gain experience mixing chemistry, coating substrates, exposing, and processing prints. Each week, students will bring digital files created with any device to be printed as digital negatives and translated into each process.

Swipe to images 3&4 to see how a photograph taken on a phone renders from digital negative to print.

Tuesdays, September 15-October 6 | 5-8pm

Join us at the link in bio.

Upcoming intermediate wet plate workshops with Sam Dole (Sam Dole): ✶ Strobe for Wet Plate *Registration closes this Fri...
08/17/2026

Upcoming intermediate wet plate workshops with Sam Dole (Sam Dole):

✶ Strobe for Wet Plate *Registration closes this Friday!
Saturday & Sunday, August 29 & 30 | 10am-6pm

The ISO of wet plate collodion is less than 1, necessitating exposures that last for multiple seconds in order to yield a proper image. With the advent of modern strobe-based lighting, exposures can now be made instantaneously, opening a new range of creative possibilities. Our two-day Strobe for Wet Plate workshop gives wet plate practitioners the skills and information necessary to utilize strobe lighting in their practice. Students will also learn about options on the new and used market for strobes and light modifiers suitable for the process that are powerful yet economical.

✶ Wet Plate Practice Day
Monday, September 28 | 10am-6pm

Our Wet Plate Practice Day is designed for students with previous wet plate experience who are looking for more practice in a classroom setting. Throughout the day, Sam will be on hand to assist with pouring methods, dialing in exposure times, and answering any outstanding questions about the process.

✶ 8x10 Wet Plate
Saturday & Sunday, November 14 & 15 | 10am-6pm

After attending an intro wet plate course, participants are often eager to try working with larger plates. This workshop provides the opportunity to make tintypes in the 8x10 size, while advancing one’s collodion technique and skill set.

All necessary materials, including cameras, lighting, chemistry, and plates, are provided.

More info at the Workshops link in bio.

Ocean of Images, Map of Maps with Caleb Stein (Caleb Stein) is a 5- week course that takes the abundance of images in th...
08/15/2026

Ocean of Images, Map of Maps with Caleb Stein (Caleb Stein) is a 5- week course that takes the abundance of images in the world as a condition to work with, considering how images relate to systems, how style carries histories and hierarchies, and why a question can be more generative than an idea.

Through a combination of lecture and discussion, the course focuses on ideas like fact and fiction in photography, the potential of low-res imagery, questions of the archive, and labor and its relation to image-making. This course is great for anyone interested in building a framework of questions for their own conceptual projects–whether that be in photography, writing, film, installation, or book form.

Open to photographers, artists, and writers at all levels; no technical prerequisites.

Thursdays, September 24 - October 22 | 6-8pm

Learn more at the Workshops link in our bio.

08/14/2026

In Other Ways of Being, artist Sangyon Joo constructs a decade-long documentation of her external and internal worlds. Following an injury that nearly caused Joo to lose her ability to see, photography became a tool for the re-cognition of once-familiar things now being seen from new perspectives. 

A booklet of text inserted at the end of the book contains Joo’s reflections on photography and the act of seeing. In it, Joo writes that seeing is “not like the gaze of an archer aiming at one’s target; it is the ability to take it in and recognize the whole. It can only be seen when the whole is considered”, a distinction that flows through the structure and experience of her book, another form of creation.

Spend time with Other Ways of Being in our Project Space, presenting the catalog through the end of August. Hours are Monday-Friday, 2-6pm.

Featured: Other Ways of Being by Sangyon Joo, published by Datz Press. Images © Sangyon Joo.

🌀🖌️Cyanotype: Beyond the Basics with is a two-day workshop on the cyanotype technique, invented in 1842 by English chem...
08/13/2026

🌀🖌️Cyanotype: Beyond the Basics with is a two-day workshop on the cyanotype technique, invented in 1842 by English chemist and astronomer Sir John Herschel and used by the photographic pioneer Anna Atkins.

During class, students will experiment with a variety of papers and materials and learn how to refine digital negatives. They’ll also be introduced to a brief history of the medium and work of contemporary artists using cyanotype in unique ways.

Saturday & Sunday, September 12 & 13 | 10am-6pm

Tap the Workshops link in our bio to learn more.

Summer’s not over yet, but fall classes are just around the corner! 🧑‍🔬📸🍂 Here are 10 highlights from our in-person work...
08/11/2026

Summer’s not over yet, but fall classes are just around the corner! 🧑‍🔬📸🍂 Here are 10 highlights from our in-person workshop schedule for the coming season.

Class details in the captions + a guide for selecting tuition at the very end.

Cover image © Caleb Stein

In Cyanotype: Beyond the Basics with , students will learn how to print on a range of materials, including various papers from Doely’s “cyanotype paper library” and fabric. Students will learn different approaches to coating and exposing materials along with ways for refining digital negatives to work with the process that goes beyond the basics.

Saturday & Sunday, September 12 & 13 | 10am-6pm

Ideal for beginners or students looking to refresh their skills, Intro to B&W Film Photography with David Vades Joseph (David Vades Joseph) is a comprehensive introduction to traditional black-and-white photography. Over 5 weeks, you’ll learn how to operate a 35mm film camera, explore different approaches to lighting, process black-and-white negatives, and create prints in the darkroom. During the first week, participants will also have the opportunity to practice camera functions by photographing their peers in Penumbra’s daylight studio. ⁠
⁠
No prior darkroom experience is necessary.⁠

Mondays, September 14 - October 19 (skipping October 12) | 6-9pm

Platinum printing, also known as platinotype, is a highly stable photographic process capable of producing monochromatic images that can last for thousands of years. This technique is known for its exceptional tonal range and subtle, reflective quality, making it a favorite among artists.

Intro to Platinum Palladium with Tricia Rosenkilde (Tricia Rosenkilde) introduces participants to the fundamentals of creating digital negatives and handcrafted platinum-palladium prints. By blending modern digital techniques with traditional analog printing methods, students will learn how to produce enlarged digital negatives from their digital files and transform them into stunning contact-printed platinum-palladium images on fine art paper. Participants will leave the workshop with exquisite prints and the foundational skills needed to continue print

With the advent of modern strobe-based lighting, wet plate collodion exposures can be made instantaneously, opening up a...
08/11/2026

With the advent of modern strobe-based lighting, wet plate collodion exposures can be made instantaneously, opening up a new range of creative possibilities.

Intro to Strobe for Wet Plate with Sam Dole (Sam Dole) will give wet plate practitioners the skills and information necessary to utilize strobe lighting in their practice. Students will learn about options on the new and used market for strobes and light modifiers suitable to the process that are powerful yet economical. Cameras, chemicals, and lighting will be provided.

Saturday & Sunday, August 29 & 30 | 10am-6pm

Registration closes soon! More info at the Workshops link in bio.

Plates 1 & 3 © Sam Dole. Plate 2 © Amy Burke (Amy).

One spot left in Paper Positives: In-Camera Color with Morgan Post (Morgan Post), where you’ll learn how to create 8x10 ...
08/02/2026

One spot left in Paper Positives: In-Camera Color with Morgan Post (Morgan Post), where you’ll learn how to create 8x10 direct-positive color prints in camera using darkroom paper and the RA4 color reversal process.

Saturday, August 22 | 10am-6pm

Register at the Workshops link in bio.

Address

36 E 30th Street
New York, NY
10016

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 6pm
Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm

Telephone

+19172880343

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