© Éric Bouvet / VII.
© Hervé Gloaguen/Gamma Rapho.

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-of-sync with facts and realities, transforming visual journalism is an urgent task.

WHAT WE DO

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 available to 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 large-scale 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 three educational initiatives: VII Academy, VII Community, and VII Insider, along with VII Photo, acquired in 2023.

CURRENT EXHIBITION

April 1975    
Phnom Penh – Saigon 

Currently on view at Prix Bayeux Calvados-Normandie, April 1975, Phnom Penh – Saigon is an exhibition that examines the lives and work of the journalists who covered the end of the wars in Cambodia and Vietnam in April 1975.

A man trying to board an overloaded evacuation plane is stopped by an American official at Nha Trang Air Base in South Vietnam. Nha Trang was captured by North Vietnamese forces on 2 April 1975. On 14 March 1974, South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu ordered a general withdrawal of ARVN forces from Vietnam's central highlands region. This turned into an chaotic situation with masses of military and civilians fleeing southwards. Thousands of refugees believed Nha Trang to be a safe haven, but by 1 April 1975 the general panic of retreat reached Nha Trang, which was abandoned by the South Vietnamese Army one day later, yielding the entire northern half of South Vietnam to the North Vietnamese. April 2, 1975. Photo by Thai Khac Chuong/Bettmann Archive via Getty Images.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Élévations
by Éric Bouvet

Opening on November 13, 2024, at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Élévations by Éric Bouvet is an exhibition of large-format photographs that capture the majestic landscapes of the Alps. While the mountains stand as timeless symbols of natural beauty, Bouvet’s images also serve as a subtle commentary on their vulnerability in the face of climate change and environmental degradation.

Leschaux Needle, Republic Needle, Great Charmoz, and Grepon. © Éric Bouvet / VII.

LONG-FORM DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS

Australian wildlife cinematographer Shannon Benson on location in South Africa. © Russell MacLaughlin.
© Russell MacLaughlin.

LONG-FORM PROJECT

Nature Through Her Eyes is a tuition-free education program focused on natural history filmmaking, providing high-level training and continued mentorship to women filmmakers. The bi-annual festival promotes new narrative projects through collaborations with industry leaders, workshops, masterclasses, and seminars.

© Ron Haviv / VII.
© Ron Haviv / VII.

SIGNATURE PROJECT

Imagine: Reflections on Peace is a book, exhibition, education, and advocacy project. In this signature collection, world-renown journalists and authors take us into societies that have suffered searing conflict—and survived. Funded by the Gross Family Foundation.
 
"Jummah Prayer" by Sabih Sulehri and Zain Cheema.
"Jummah Prayer" by Sabih Sulehri and Zain Cheema.

LONG-FORM PROJECT

Dispatches in Exile provides migrants in Bosnia and Herzegovina with basic media training to tell their own stories in partnership with The International Organization for Migration (IOM).
 
Refugees from Syria rest on the coast of the Greek island of Lesbos on September 24, 2015. 
Thousands of refugees cross the Aegean Sea from Turkey in rubber boats everyday fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Photo by Maciek Nabrdalik/VII
© Maciek Nabrdalik / VII.

LONG-FORM PROJECT

See Through the Noise was the first collective exhibition by VII in Arles, marking the acquisition of VII Photo by The VII Foundation in 2023. The featured photographs are among the most significant images depicting the events and issues they portray. 
 
MVP public exhibition of Danny Wilcox Frazier's work in Leona, Senegal. The exhibition was made possible by the VII Foundation, Blue Chip Foundation, and United Photo Industries. © Danny Wilcox Frazier / VII.
© Danny Wilcox Frazier / VII.

LONG-FORM PROJECT

An initiative of The VII Foundation, Generation Human Rights, and Photoville, the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) Interactive Classroom Program, and Mobile Exhibit Bus Tour was a global human rights learning project.

Yves Saint Laurent having lunch at home in Paris, the day before his last haute couture show in Georges Pompidou Centre, Jan. 21, 2002. The show marked the retirement of Yves Saint Laurent after 40 years of designing haute couture for the rich and famous.



Photo by: Alexandra Boulat / VII
© Alexandra Boulat / VII.

LONG-FORM PROJECT

Yves Saint Laurent by Alexandra and Pierre Boulat is an extensive body of photographic work capturing the most significant moments throughout French fashion and costume designer Yves Saint Laurent’s career.
 

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