Joana Toro is a self-taught Colombian photographer based in both New York City and Bogota, Colombia. Her work explores issues of immigration, human rights, and identity. Her projects has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, World Press Photo Witness, Open Society Foundations, and Photoword China Magazine, among others. She worked as a staff photographer with the major magazines and newspapers in Colombia before she migrated to the United States in 2011 to further her career as a documentarian and artist. In 2019, she published her second monograph, “Hello I Am Kitty” (Tragaluz, Colombia, 2019). Her work was included in the public collection of the Library of Congress in D.C and has been exhibited in international photo festivals all over the globe: Les Femmes s’exposent in France, Photoville in New York, Guate Photo in Guatemala, Just Another Festival in India, the International Photography Festival in Pingyao, China, and more.
In 2020 Joana received the Eyewitness Photojournalism Grant by The Pulitzer Center and Diversify Photo and a National Geographic COVID-19 Emergency Fund grant.
2023 “Hello I am kitty” Pompano Beach cultural center Miami.
2022 “Hello I am kitty” Ojo Rojo fabrica Visual Bogota, Colombia.
2021 “TransLatinas against Covid-19” Queens Museum, and Photoville at Travels park Queens,New York City.
2019 “ Serie Colombia On My Mind" Abbaye Aux Dames Caen ,France exhibit at Forum Mondial Normandie pour la Paix 75 anniversary.
2019 “Hello, I am Kitty”, Exhibition, Jardín Botánico de Medellin Festival Gabo, Fundacion Iberoamericana de Periodismo Gabriel Garcia Marquez Colombia.
2019 “Hello, I am Kitty” Casa Tragaluz, Medellin, Colombia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 New York Now: Home - A Photography Triennial Museum of the City of New York.
2023 Exhibition on migration "looking at the edge" at the Gabriel García Márquez cultural center, Debora Arango room, Bogota, Colombia.
2022 Hello I am Kitty Galeria la Cometa Bogota Colombia.