Sofia Valiente with Mike Belleme

Sofia Valiente

Wednesday, January 13th, 7pm EST

Florida based documentary photographer, Sofia Valente joins Mike Belleme for a conversation focusing on her two main long term projects both centered in the same region of South Florida around Lake Okeechobee. The first, Miracle Village, is an empathetic and moving look at a small community of sex offenders focusing on humanity and relatable daily activities in the village. The second, Foreverglades, which culminated in a book and public art exhibition in 2019 is about the community of Belle Glade, Florida. The book portrays the complexity of Florida’s pioneer origins and the diversity of a small agricultural town that was once at the forefront of the development of South Florida.

This will be the first in a series of talks centered around our theme Boundaries. The talk will be followed by a dynamic community conversation designed to help us deepen and expand our thematic focus.

Sofia Valiente is a documentary photographer living in Belle Glade, Florida- a small town off the coast of Lake Okeechobee. She received her BFA in Art from Florida Int'l University in Miami in 2012. Her, book, Miracle Village, was published in 2014 by Fabrica, where she had the opportunity of a year-long residency at their photography department. In 2015, she received the World Press Photo award for Miracle Village (1st prize, portraits, stories) and is also a recipient of the 2015 South Florida Cultural Consortium Artist Fellowship and Burn Magazine’s 2015 Young Talent Award.

Over the past five years, Valiente developed Foreverglades, the photo book and public art exhibit. This work, which debuted in November 2019, was supported through the Knight Foundation and the State of Florida through an Individual Artist grant.

Her work has been published in Time Lightbox, Bloomberg Businessweek, VICE, the Guardian, Internazionale, El Mundo, American Photo Mag, Financial Times, Oxford Magazine, the Marshall Project, Quartz, Business Insider, British Journal of Photography, and several other outlets.