ICP Creative Practices student Joana Toro is celebrating the launch of her new photobook, Rosalina, completed in February 2026 and now available for purchase.
The book is the result of a seven-year documentary project developed in collaboration with the community of San Basilio de Palenque, Colombia, centered on traditional healer Rosalina Cañates Pardo. Through documentary photography, cyanotypes, and texts in Spanish, Palenquero, and English, the project explores ancestral healing, memory, and the preservation of African diasporic knowledge.
"Launching Rosalina after seven years of work fills me with joy and gratitude. It has been a profound honor to witness the life of such a remarkable woman and to be welcomed by Rosalina and her community with such generosity and trust. This book comes from that encounter, but also from a deep sense of responsibility: to help make visible and preserve this visual testimony of healing traditions and community memory."
The launch of Rosalina is a significant chapter in Joana’s practice, bringing together years of collaborative documentary work, bookmaking, and cultural preservation into one publication.
Joana is a grantee of The Pulitzer Center and National Geographic. She is currently completing a one-year specialization in Creative Practices at the International Center of Photography (ICP), where she is working with archives and family memory.
Joana Toro
