Guatemalan photographer Jaime Permuth returned home for an immensely popular photography workshop entitled “Artistic Identity and Transcendence.” It was a homecoming for Permuth who hails from Guatemala City. He has been a member of the faculty at New York Film Academy since 2011, having taught the majority of the courses offered in the Photography program at one point or another.
Over a series of three intensive sessions, participants explored the intersection of who they are as artists and how to find the right context for their practice in the photographic marketplace. For attendees, there were two avenues of exploration. The first looked at personal and artistic identity and featured writing and visual literacy exercises along with group dynamics. The second segment was more practically focused about how to place artwork within the context of the marketplace.
Prior to the workshop, Permuth was invited by La Fototeca – the sole photography school in Central America – to present an Artist Talk. La Fototeca was founded in 2009 and is known, in large part, to their prestigious triennial called GuatePhoto, which draws talented photographers worldwide. Jaime’s event saw over 350 people reserve seats in advance. Due to the overwhelming interest, organizers had to switch venues and hold it in the building’s parking garage instead. Clearly in popular worldwide demand, in December, the New York via Guatemala photographer will lead a workshop in Cuba for Camera Voyages. His work can currently be seen at Harlem’s El Museo del Barrio in the exhibition “nasty women / bad hombres.”
“New York City taught me to work professionally at the highest level. But Guatemala is where I learned to see and feel the world and the life around me. My native country is never far from my mind,” Permuth says proudly. “As a Guatemalan who has lived abroad more than half of his life – I worry that people back home have ceased to think about me. Or worse even, that I have ceased to be relevant to the cultural life of the country. And yet, coming back to a standing-room only-crowd at my talk and a sold-out workshop reassures me that perhaps this is not the case.”
We can confidently say it most certainly is not the case.
Over the course of his career, Permuth’s work has also been featured on NPR, TimeOut, ArtNet, FeatureShoot, and many other publications. His photography has been displayed all across New York City in the Museum of Modern Art, Queens Museum, The Brooklyn Museum, The Bronx Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, and many other museums. Along with being NYFA faculty, he teaches at the School of Visual Arts in their Digital Photography program. To learn more about Jaime and his work, check out his website.