Growing Pains is co-curated and co-managed by all three members of the initiative. Together, the team works on the artistic development, fundraising, partnerships, and various project management tasks.
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FOUNDERS
Agata
Bar
Agata Bar is a managing editor and publications producer based in Amsterdam, working primarily in the field of photography, art and culture. She has been part of the organisation and production teams of Photomonth in Krakow and Unseen Amsterdam and managed the production and distribution of Foam Magazine. In the past four years, she worked with Noor Images as an editorial director and coordinated publications for Manifesta Biennale. Next to her freelance practice she is also coordinating the Design Department at Sandberg Instituut (MA) in Amsterdam.
Zhenia
Sveshinskaya
Zhenia Sveshchinskaya is a freelance curator, writer, editor and researcher working primarily, but not exclusively in the field of photography. Under the imprint of Image Matter, she collaborated on various shows with the foundation Paradox, co-curated a co-produced exhibition Undercover for Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, and a series of workshops and seminars on Dutch photographic practices for the foundation FotoDepartament, St. Petersburg. In 2013, she set up Unseen Book Market in Amsterdam, which she ran till 2017. In the past, she worked at Gerrit Rietveld Academie and Sandberg Instituut as coordinator of the Photography (BA) and Design (MA) Departments.
Daria
Tuminas
Daria Tuminas is a freelance curator. Since 2019, she regularly curates for FOTODOK, Utrecht. Between 2017 and 2019, Tuminas worked as the head of Unseen Book Market and Dummy Award at Unseen Amsterdam. Tuminas organised a number of exhibitions and projects in relation to photobooks, among them: a co-curated exhibition Undercover for Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, a symposium The Moving Page for Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; an exhibition Not Bliss But Relief for Galleri Image, Aarhus, etc. Tuminas regularly contributes texts about photobooks to various media. She currently guest teaches the Photography department of the Art Academy Utrecht.
BOARD
Susanne Mooij
Chair
Susanne Mooij is an immigration attorney and a co-founder and partner of Adam & Wolf Immigration Lawyers in Amsterdam.
She specialises in helping creative professionals to obtain residency in the Netherlands. Susanne studied European Law at Maastricht University and European Immigration Law at Queen Mary University in London. Prior to starting her practice as an immigration attorney, she worked for the Advisory Council on Migration in the Hague.
Sara Blokland
Secretary
Sara Blokland is a visual artist, independent researcher, and curator working with photography. Her work examines the ambiguous relationship between photography and (post)colonial cultural histories.
Sara received a BA in photography from the Rietveld Academy, an MFA in photography from the Sandberg Institute in the Netherlands, and an MA in Film and Photographic Studies from Leiden University.
Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is part of several private and public collections. Currently, she is also a lecturer at the Photography department of the Art Academy Utrecht.
Sarvenaz Fassihi
Treasurer
Sarvenaz Fassihi is a consultant and strategist specializing in the social impact sector and creative and cultural industries.
She has expertise in issues pertaining to gender, migration, human rights, civic engagement and social change. Sarvenaz guides and supports organisations and individual makers through fundraising and strategy development; program design and management; training, facilitation and evaluation. Her work takes a storytelling approach, offering unique narratives that reflect individual experiences and social realities.