Join us for a screening of “The Fracturing of the American Dream,” a short film produced by ICP community members, Maximilian Ihlenburg, Stephen Cummings, Carolina Herrera, and Kenna Beban. After the screening, ICP alumni João Pina will moderate a panel discussion around the considerations journalists face when covering sensitive topics.
About our speakers
Maximilian Ihlenburg (b. 1997, Germany) is a filmmaker and photographer with an academic background in Visual Geographies. His work includes the long-term photo project Not The Amazon, which focuses on research in Europe’s last wild forests, and the documentary Blood Wood about endangered old-growth forests in Romania, which premiered at the UN Environment Program in 2024. Since 2023, he has produced video contributions on forest protection for ARD Germany and the European Parliament. After moving to New York in 2024, he began UNseen Diplomacy, a photo project documenting behind-the-scenes work at the UN Environment Program. Since October 2024, he has been working on The Seaport That Never Was and the short film New York’s Birdman, which addresses the conflict of protecting the endangered Piping Plover in New York.
Stephen Cummings is a photographer and artist based in Brooklyn, New York. He studied painting and drawing at Arizona State University (BFA 2007) and the University of Washington (MFA 2010), and is a recent graduate of the documentary photography and visual journalism program at the International Center of Photography. He has worked in politics, including on presidential campaigns for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and has photographed for campaigns and causes including When We All Vote, Cory Booker for President, and Sunrise Movement.
Carolina Herrera is a multimedia visual storyteller based in New York City, focusing on migration and identity. Her work often centers on Latino families, with a special emphasis on children, while also turning inward to examine her own family history and generational trauma. Through a documentary lens, she weaves the personal with the political, highlighting overlooked narratives with empathy and depth. Born in Buenos Aires to Peruvian parents, Herrera studied Graphic Design and photojournalism before transitioning from to visual storytelling. Her volunteer work has taken her from animal rescue efforts in Argentina to educational support in Kenya and child advocacy in India. She founded Amico, a pet photography studio, in 2021 and contributed to OhMyDog magazine, capturing the connection between public figures and their pets. Her personal projects include Querida Caro, a reflection on her identity, and The Weight We Carry, which explores generational grief in her family. Currently, she is documenting a Colombian family’s asylum journey in A Long Road Home produced as part of the One-Year Certificate Program in Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism at the International Center of Photography. Herrera brings quiet optimism and emotional sensitivity to every story she tells—both personal and collective.
Kenna Beban is a photographer and journalist from the Bay Area, California. She studied Journalism at NYU and is a recent graduate of ICP, where her work focused on the role of church and ritual in forming communities, and the impacts of changing immigration policies on refugee resettlement programs.
João Pina is a freelance photographer born in Portugal in 1980. He began working as a professional photographer at age eighteen, and graduated from the International Center of Photography’s Photojournalism and Documentary Photography program in New York in 2005. Pina’s photographs have been published in D Magazine, Days Japan, El Pais, Expresso, GEO, La Vanguardia, New York Times, New Yorker, Newsweek, Stern, Time, and Visão, among others. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 2017/2018 and is a faculty member of the International Center of Photography in New York, and a regular lecturer and teacher of photography workshops.
