Welcome to The VII Foundation

The VII Foundation

| Ethnic Albanian Kosovar girls celebrate freedom in front of a burning house. NATO troops had just liberated Kosovo. The house in the background belonged to a Serb family. As an act of revenge, Albanians looted and burnt it. This is on the road from Mitrovia to Pristina. ©Alexandra Boulat/VII

The VII Foundation

The VII Foundation‘s mission is to transform visual journalism by empowering new voices and creating stories that advocate change. In a world where beliefs and actions are increasingly out-ofsync with facts and realities, transforming visual journalism is an urgent task.

| Ghor, Afghanistan, November 07, 2021. Aref, 27 years old, teaches religious lessons to children in a religious school. These classes are held every day in the morning and evening. The roots of the Taliban were planted many years ago in a religious school. Now, after years of the Taliban spreading and gaining power anew, religious schools are receiving more attention than ever before to plant their roots in the hearts of children so that the next generation will grow more and more involved in the teachings of the Taliban and serve their cause and purpose. ©Ebrahim Alipoor for the VII Mentor Program

The VII Foundation trains and equips emerging visual journalists from communities underrepresented in the media. These practitioners have a front-seat perspective on urgent challenges that concern us all. The VII Foundation teaches essential skills and strategies to ensure the truth is documented and made availableto a global audience seeking to make decisions and choices based on facts, not hearsay.

Our training is tuition-free and conducted by leading professional journalists who have worked for decades on the frontlines of some of our societies’ most complex and difficult challenges. In this era of an underfunded, dying global media enterprise, our trainees help ensure the global conversation continues and is fuelled by first-person reporting vs. unsourced, uncredited rumors and factual manipulation. In addition to empowering over 1,200 new voices in journalism from more than 100 countries, we host public conversations and critical debates that ask tough questions about the context, purpose, and impact of images. We create largescale and long-term documentary projects, exhibitions, and films that reveal complex realities; advocate for change; and serve as resources for policymakers, the public, and journalists worldwide.

The VII Foundation consists of VII Photo, acquired in 2023, along with three educational initiatives: VII Academy, VII Community (in partnership with PhotoWings), and VII Insider (in partnership with PhotoWings)

Learn more about The VII Foundation

| A Ukrainian internally displaced person (IDP) who escaped from Irpin, a Kyiv suburb heavily affected by fighting and shelling, arrives with her dog and family at a location before the destroyed bridge leading into the city. The scene was captured in the third week of the Russian invasion on March 12, 2022. ©Byron Smith for the VII Mentor Program

Education at The VII Foundation

VII Academy

VII Academy provides tuition-free courses in visual journalism to practitioners in the Majority World and underrepresented communities in G20 countries. VII Academy is democratizing the information narrative and giving communities the tools to narrate their own stories in regions where media education is poorly resourced.

In the last four years, VII Academy has trained over 1,200 people from 100 countries in nine languages, with more than half of them identifying as female.

VII Academy training is structured as a pathway from the first point of contact to high-level practice. It is done online or in person at campuses in Arles, France, and Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina. VII Academy has three programs:

• The Program for Narrative and Documentary Photography, with courses at Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3.

• VII Mentor Program, which provides a 12-month structured professional environment for emerging new talents in the industry.

• The MA in Visual Journalism, in partnership with the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo, is a two-year course beginning in 2024-25. The MA program will also have a one-year Certificate in Visual Journalism option.

| In the aftermath of a storm, Petrik, one of the residents of Tarczyn, takes on the task of dealing with the consequences of a fallen tree. The tree has damaged the raft, causing the alpaca and sheep to attempt an escape. Petrik comes up with a temporary solution to keep them secure until the workers arrive in the morning. ©Anastasiia Zazuliak for VII Academy

The Program for Narrative and Documentary Photography comprises three course levels, with students completing Levels 1 and 2 before being eligible for Level 3.

Level 1 caters to students with basic photography experience who want to become visual journalists. It provides a solid foundation of practical skills, including camera control, fulfilling a brief for commissions, and writing captions. It also introduces good practices in ethics, video, social media, and running a solo business. Level 1 is taught via a 12-week online seminar for ten students at a time, with at least nine Level 1 courses each year.

After completing Level 1 with a good grade, students can apply to Level 2. These courses equip the best students with additional skills, extending the concepts from Level 1 and adding a writing component taught by a writing tutor. Level two courses are 12-week online seminars led by a VII Photo contributing photographer. They are taught in English to ten students at a time. The academy runs at least two Level 2 courses each year.

Level 3 takes the most accomplished students from Level 2 and brings them free of charge to the foundation’s Alexandra Boulat Campus in Arles for an intensive, interdisciplinary, in-person, month-long program. After their time with us, they go home as accomplished practitioners who are well-versed in contemporary media ethics and journalistic values and can take on complex assignments for leading media, NGOs, and corporations worldwide.

VII Mentor Program

The VII Mentor Program provides a structured professional environment for emerging new talents in the industry, whether trained by VII Academy or not. The program – the first of its kind – was launched by VII Photo Agency in 2008 and is now managed by VII Academy. This hybrid program pairs selected visual journalists with experienced VII photographers. It runs online for 11 months, followed by two weeks in-person in Arles during the professional week of the Rencontres d’Arles festival. The VII Mentor Program has nurtured the careers of many visual journalists who have become leading practitioners.

We welcomed the new cohort of seven emerging visual practitioners selected for the 2023-24 VII Mentor Program. This year’s cohort represents a blend of new talents with familiar faces selected from over 300 applicants spanning more than 42 countries. The 2023-24 VII Mentees are: Ebrahim Alipoor, Fatma Fahmy, Tako Robakidze, Oleksandr Rupeta, Chinky Shukla, Mitar Simikic, and Byron Smith.

Find out more about the 2023-24 VII Mentor Program cohort

| View of a group of passengers from different walks of life and with different destinations in the port district, Alexandria, Egypt, April 2, 2019. ©Fatma Fahmy for the VII Mentor Program

Master of Arts in Visual Journalism

VII Academy has partnered with the Faculty of Political Sciences at the University of Sarajevo to offer a unique university degree that will educate participants to be visually-led journalists equipped to report on global issues in the twenty-first century.

The MA in Visual Journalism is a two-year, interdisciplinary course opening for enrolment in 2024-25. The MA is the summit of VII Academy’s pathway, providing a higher education qualification for those who want to work as documentarians, curators, editors, and university lecturers.

The program will be taught in English and open to Bosnian, regional, and international students with various backgrounds. The program will welcome applications from active and practicing image-makers (i.e., photographers and videographers), people who work or want to work with images made by others (i.e., analysts, editors, and investigators), and those who wish to teach and research visual journalism.

“The Faculty of Political Science (FPN) at the University of Sarajevo, in collaboration with The VII Foundation, is poised to pioneer a groundbreaking MA and specialization program in Visual Journalism, marking a seminal offering in the wider region and standing among the select few of its caliber worldwide.”

| Prof. Dr. Sead Turčalo, Dean of Faculty of Political Sciences, University of Sarajevo

Education Partnership: Nature Through Her Eyes

VII Academy works with Jacqueline Farmer to mentor female African filmmakers so they can document their vision of natural history. This partnership began because we jointly identified a problem, proposed a training solution, and set up a mentoring system. As a result, we have developed new capacity that produces new perspectives.

The NTHE partnership trained the first female African marine biologists to swim and film underwater. In September 2022, it taught natural history filmmaking to emerging Senegalese filmmakers. In November 2022, the second NTHE festival was held in Cape Town, supported by the French and South African governments. NTHE trainees are being commissioned for documentary projects in Asia and Africa.

Nature Through Her Eyes continues to mentor and train

Erica Rugabandana. Erica is Tanzania’s first woman longlens wildlife camera operator and director, following prolonged training on camera and documentary writing and production with the NTHE team. In June 2023, she finished her first feature documentary Kuishi na Simba (Living with Lions), which achieved global release after winning Best of Festival, Best African Film, and Best Storytelling at Pridelands Film Festival in Nairobi.

| Erica Rugabandana shooting her latest documentary film, Kuishi na Simba (Living with Lions), 2023. ©Nature Through Her Eyes

Education Partnership: Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop was established in 2008, and since 2019 it has been led by PhotoWings and supported by VII Academy.

The Foundry Photojournalism Workshop is an event that focuses on teaching participants about visual voice, lessons from the field, the creative process, how to work with photo editors, and general business practices.

In the latest edition, over 90 students from 40 Majority World and underrepresented communities in G20 countries participated in the online event. Foundry offers a unique opportunity for participants to learn from some of the world’s most respected photojournalists and photography professionals. In the 2023 edition, eleven instructors taught in nine different languages in a series of classes and oneto-one sessions. Portfolio reviewers from national and international press, galleries, and agencies also provided valuable advice.

Find out more about Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2023

| A young woman cleans the soil of a newly reclaimed soya field while a Kaiowá Guarani mason gives instructions for the construction of the prayer house, the first and most important building in the new village. Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. March 6, 2023. ©Renaud Philippe, Golden Scarf Winner at Foundry Photojournalism Workshop 2023

VII Community

In the foundation’s education pathway, ongoing support for our alumni is a vital task. To this end, we created VII Community in partnership with PhotoWings .

VII Community is a network of VII Academy alumni and Foundry participants that number more than 1,000 professionals. It supports those who have completed our courses with connections to the profession through online discussions, presentations, reviews, in-person global meet-ups, and a Discord platform for regular exchanges.

“I find myself browsing the VII Community channels all afternoon. It’s a treasure trove of inspiration and motivation.

I love how many resources I can get in one place, and more keep coming. Book recommendations, alumni websites, grant opportunities, amazing events, portfolio reviews, and everything related to documentary photography that you usually can’t find easily. It’s a comprehensive documentary photography resource out there. I love it.”

| VII Academy student and VII Community member

VII Insider

The foundation seeks to elevate the public conversation about visual journalism. For this, we have VII Insider, our free online platform for debate that takes the general audience inside the profession of visual journalism to advance the production and analysis of photography, documentary stories, and visual journalism. Our partnership with PhotoWings makes VII Insider possible.

VII Insider brings people together to see creative presentations, learn from experts in the field, and read analyses of visual journalism. VII Insider offers regular live presentations, an extensive and searchable video collection of more than 120 previous events, and publishes the best writing on the role of images in Dispatches: The VII Insider blog (with 45 articles on Substack and new posts every month).

“The VII Insider programme is truly excellent. I’ve been on many of the sessions, and have just recently been viewing Christopher Morris’ videos on his early photojournalistic experiences, and they have all been truly wonderful. Interesting, insightful and inspiring.”

| VII Insider audience member

View VII Insider’s latest events

| Afghanistan, 1998. Ahmad Shah Massoud above the city of Taloqan. The night before, the Taliban had violated the ceasefire and attempted to take the city. Massoud is pacing back and forth on the roof of a house; he has given orders and is waiting for news of the troops in combat. © Pascal Maitre/VII

In spring 2023, The VII Foundation acquired VII Photo Agency. The non-profit organization is the appropriate structure to provide strategic communication support to our partners and to create assignment opportunities for VII Photo contributing photographers, mentees, and alumni with our nonprofit partners. VII

VII Photo holds long-term agreements with UNICEF, The Global Fund, and UNFPA. We create strategic communications tools for all these organizations, using time-based and still visual media. VII Photo has a substantial cultural program, curating and exhibiting photography exhibitions worldwide. VII Photo runs creative photography, editing, and writing workshops open to all. These workshops enable participants to nurture their passion for non-fiction media practice and have a unique experience in locations worldwide (such as Bosnia, Rajasthan, and Rwanda) while generating revenue for our non-profit mission through the fees workshop participants will pay.

The members of VII Photo are also integral to the foundation’s educational programs — they teach many of the online courses and mentor alumni and other emerging talents — and the foundation’s acquisition of VII Photo strengthens this link and enables new opportunities in the education sector.

Find out more about VII Photo

| A resident taking shelter at the severely damaged Zymnensky Female Monastery walked through the courtyard, as seen in Sviatohirsk, Ukraine, on Monday, October 3, 2022. Part of Sviatohirsk was occupied by Russian forces until September 12, when the Ukrainian military recaptured the town. ©Nicole Tung/VII

How you can support our mission

All our training for the Majority World is free, with every student’s costs paid for by the foundation, because we believe building the capacity of local storytellers is essential to producing a better and more comprehensive understanding of our complex world.

We want to expand our work, and there are many ways to join our existing partners and support the growth of the educational initiatives we have described above.

Become a supporter of The VII Foundation and make a contribution — one-off, monthly or annually — so that we can continue to provide free programs.

To support The VII Foundation by donating to specific projects, please see our Supporting Education presentation.

To discuss making a more significant donation or providing specific funding not listed in the presentation, please get in touch with us directly at donations@ theviifoundation.org.

| My cousin, Mira, wears our grandmother’s tlaba (wool garment) to connect to her family roots and Amazigh culture, reviving the cultural heritage of the Nafusa mountains to keep it from being lost amid the chaos of fashion and imitation in Yefren, Libya. October 28, 2018. ©Nada Harib for the VII Mentor Program