Our founder Amanda Bjorn first went down to Cuba in 2017 as an assistant to a Nat Geo photographer. Two weeks exploring the country, she fell in love with the island and its people. After going back and forth researching, connecting with Cuban artists, and immersing herself into the political complexity of its history, Bjorn realized she had so much interest from both American and Cuban artists in connecting with one another. She realized she had become a sort of cultural bridge and so she decided to bring down her first group of artists. From there, it grew! Selling out the first few trips, she discovered how much women craved these types of experiences —traveling with other women, in real life connection, and creating art.
From Cuba, Bjorn expanded to Guatemala where her mother grew up and where she still has lots of family living. The company has now expanded to include Mexico, Italy, Spain, and more countries coming in 2024!
Meet The Founder
Meet Amanda
Meet Amanda
Amanda Björn
Amanda Björn (b. 1989 Miami, FL) is a multi-disciplinary artist and curator trained with a BA in Art History + Photography and a Masters in Art and Curatorial Practices in the Public Sphere from The University of Southern California. With an interest in the connection between bodies and space, Björn works in images, music, films, and movement seeking to build relationships with the fragile world around us. Her work has been published in Teen Vogue, Vice, I.D., Urban Outfitters, Metal Magazine, Huffington Post, Aire Magazine, among others. She currently lives in Ibiza, Spain with her partner Brando and their baby Rufus.
She is the founder of Women Photo Tours, a sustainable travel company where she leads photography and art trips for women artists in Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Italy, and Spain. The mission of these trips are to create safe, inclusive travel experiences that empower and uplift women through photography and art-making.
“My initial goal for these trips was to create the type of travel adventure that I was seeking as an artist. As a freelancer without a dictated schedule traveling (and life in general) can be isolating. I wanted to create a trip that allows people to create and connect with artists in the places they were visiting.”
Björn for Passion Passport
“Most tourists come and go, visiting countries through polarized windows on air-conditioned buses…there is no cultural exchange. In these scenarios, the tourists just take from the country and move on. The collaboration between artists is crucial to my travel experiences. We have so much to share and learn from one another. This curiosity is the foundation for the art that we make on these trips.”
Björn for Passion Passport