Hello. My name is Sofia Valiente and I'm a photographer and storyteller based in Miami. I received my BFA in Art from Florida Int'l University in Miami in 2012 and my MFA in Visual Arts from University of California, Riverside in 2024. My first book, Miracle Village, was published in 2014 by Fabrica, where I had the opportunity of a year-long residency at their photography department. In 2015, I received the World Press Photo award for Miracle Village (1st prize, portraits, stories). I am a two-time recipient of the South Florida Cultural Consortium Artist Fellowship and in 2015, I received Burn Magazine’s Young Talent Award.

In 2019, I self-published Foreverglades and debuted my 41-foot steamboat replica, public art exhibition in downtown West Palm Beach, FL. This work was supported by the Knight Foundation through the Knight Arts Challenge award and the State of Florida through an Individual Artist grant.

I'm currently working on an experimental documentary film that uses collaboration and memory to create a psychological depiction of life inside therapeutic boarding schools. 

I'm available for assignment in South Florida, Southern California and beyond. My work has been published in The NY Times, Time Lightbox, Bloomberg Businessweek, VICE, the Guardian, Internazionale, El Mundo, Smithsonian Magazine, American Photo Mag, Financial Times, Oxford Magazine, the Marshall Project, Quartz, Business Insider, and the British Journal of Photography among other outlets.

For inquires, please email valiente.sofia (at) gmail.com

For print sales from Miracle Village and Foreverglades please contact Daniel Blau Gallery, Munich:

Maximilianstr. 26
80539 München
phone +49 89 / 29 73 42
fax +49 89 / 24 20 48 60

[email protected]

www.danielblau.com

Thanks for visiting my site!



Recent Commissions:

NY Times. They Were Proud Houston Homeowners. Then It All Fell Apart. 

The Washington Post. Diesel big rigs have belched smog for years. California may soon ban them. 

The Washington Post. Unpaid caregivers: How America treats women caring for paralyzed partners 


Publications:

2023 TRBL photozine with Sherman Indian High School students, Native American Boarding School in Riverside, CA

2019 Foreverglades photobook self-published, first edition 2,000 copies

2016 Rooted in the Muck, Stories from the Glades Communities booklet in partnership with Palm Beach County, first edition 3000 copies

2014 Miracle Village photobook published by Fabrica in Treviso, Italy/ First edition 500 copies

Awards:

2023-2021 Gluck Fellowship Max H Gluck Foundation, community service/arts outreach, three consecutive years

2021 South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artist Fellowship

2020 National Geographic Society Storytelling Fellowship, nomination

2021 New York Portfolio Review New York Times

2019 Emergency Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYC

2019 Individual Artist Grant Florida Department of State- Division of Cultural Affairs

2017 Knight Arts Challenge Winner for Foreverglades (book and exhibition)

2016 America's Next Top Neighborhood Grant from the Office of Community Revitalization of Palm Beach County, grant to pay for Rooted in the Muck printing

2015 Inge Morath Award Finalist, Inge Morath and Magnum Foundation

2015 South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artist Fellowship

2015 FujiFilm/Young Talent Award Winner, Burn Magazine

2015 World Press Photo 1st Prize Portraiture Story for Miracle Village

2015 Magenta Flash Forward Emerging Photographer Competition, USA Winner

2014 Magnum Days photo workshop scholarship at Fine Art Work Center, Provincetown

2013 Fabrica, Benetton's Communication Research Center, one-year photography scholarship in Treviso, Italy

Lectures/Workshops:

2022 Stacy Kranitz in conversation with Sofia Valiente, Art in the Park, Los Angeles

2021 Florida Woman X Documentary. Photo Talk w/ Pete Brook and Sofia Valiente, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center

2020 Norton Museum Artist Tour with Sofia Valiente during Art After Dark, West Palm Beach, FL

2020 Norton Museum Storytelling Workshop and Open Studio with Sofia Valiente, West Palm Beach, FL

2019 Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, College of Charleston The Photographer and Uncommon Access Panel

2015 World Press Photo Award Days Presentation, Miracle Village, Amsterdam

Exhibitions:

2023 Leaning on Luck at Book & Job Gallery in San Francisco

2023 Inland Empire at The Fulcrum in Chinatown, Los Angeles

2021 Foreverglades at Paris Photo in Paris, Daniel Blau Gallery Booth

2021 Foreverglades permanent installation at the Lawrence E. Will Museum, Belle Glade, FL. Donated to the City of Belle Glade by the artist.

2021 New Art: 2021 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship Visual and Media Artists Exhibition at the Schmidt and Ritter Art Galleries, Boca Raton, FL

2020 Foreverglades at Paris Photo New York, Pier 94, Manhattan (Canceled)

2019-20 Foreverglades exhibit and installation at the Stub Canal Turning Basin, West Palm Beach, FL

2019 Southbound: Photographs of and about the New South traveling exhibition, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Charleston

2018 Federal Project No. 2 at Photoville Festival at the Bridge in Brooklyn Bridge Park

2017 Miracle Village at Fotodocs Documentary Photography Festival in Munich, Germany

2016 VICE Magazine’s 15th Annual Photo Show featuring images from Foreverglades

2015 Sofia Valiente/Miracle Village at Galerie Meyer, Paris (Photo St- Germain during Paris Photo)

2015 La Fabrica del Presente/Miracle Village at Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Rome

2015 Fabrica: Sofia Valiente. "Miracle Village" at Fotofestiwal 2015 Lodz, Poland

2015 World Press Photo 2015 Photo Contest traveling exhibit, De Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam

2015 AIPAD NYC fair, Miracle Village at Daniel Blau Gallery booth

2015 New Art: 2015 South Florida Cultural Consortium Visual and Media Artists Fellowship Exhibition, FAU Schmidt Center Gallery, Boca Raton

2015 Alternative Contemporaneity: TAZ (group exhibition)at Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami

2015 Jin Jing City and Miracle Village at Daniel Blau Gallery, London

2014 5 UNDER 30 at Daniel Blau Gallery, London

2014 Freshly Squeezed at Dina Mitrani Gallery, Wynwood/Miami

2012 All & Sundry at The Frost Art Museum,Miami

Education:

2021-24 MFA in Visual Arts at the University of California, Riverside

2011-12 BFA in Art (focus in Photography) Florida International University, Miami

2008-10 AA in Mass Communications Broward College, Fort Lauderdale


All Images © Sofia Valiente 2024