Riot police are seen with flowers as protesters gave during the anti-coup protest in Yangon, Myanmar on 6 February 2021. © Tam We.
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Marilyn Malimban and Jenny Tiaga watch a video on Marilyn's phone during a hike and camping trip in Mt. Banahaw in Quezon Province on October 26, 2019. Both lost their husbands to the war on drugs and had to work away from home to support their children. © Kimberly dela Cruz for the VII Mentor Program.
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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 Mitrovica to Pristina. © Alexandra Boulat / VII.
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our mission

The VII Foundation is committed to in-depth journalism covering the crucial issues of our time. In a world where beliefs and actions are increasingly out-of-sync with facts and realities, our response is to ensure the truth is documented to enable communities worldwide to make evidence-based choices about the challenges impacting their lives. 

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Long lines for water and flour are made by women of refugee families. © Ebrahim Alipoor for the VII Mentor Program.
Members of a Ukrainian tank crew from the 42nd Brigade eat lunch in a bunker on the frontline in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, December 30, 2023. © Finbarr O’Reilly / VII.
© Ali Arkady / VII.

our work

The VII Foundation empower new voices through education, especially from under-resourced regions where press freedom is limited and journalists are vulnerable. We train practitioners to cover their local communities and global problems, and we produce large-scale and long-term documentary projects that advocate change and detail solutions. We bring new and neglected perspectives to the public agenda and host conversations that campaign for a diverse, safe and viable profession, especially for freelancers worldwide. 

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upcoming event
"Homeland" © Maria Gutu.
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Dec
12
2024

Photo Series Exploring the Meaning of Home

This series showcases recent work from members of our alum network, VII Community. In this episode, we explore three photography projects that examine the meaning of home.
© Joachim Ladefoged / VII.
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Nov
28
2024

Photo Editors Series – Fiona Shields

David Campbell and Ilvy Njiokiktjien talk with experienced picture editor Fiona Shields, who is currently the Head of Photography for the Guardian News and Media Group.
Exhibition “Photo Archives are Sleeping Beauties. The Black Sea Coast in the Photographs of Tengiz Purtskhvanidze,” which was on view at Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum. © Tbel Abuseridze.
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Nov
21
2024

Curator Series - Nestan Nijaradze

A discussion with Nestan Nijaradze, co-founder and Artistic Director of the Tbilisi Photography & Multimedia Museum as well as the Tbilisi Photo Festival in Georgia.

featured stories


A young boy walks on the dry bed of Lake Hamun in Takhtak. The lake, once one of the largest in the world, has now completely dried up due to climate change and environmental destruction, forcing people to engage in dryland farming on the fertile lakebed. Aug. 3, 2014, Sistan & Baluchistan Province, Iran. © Mahdi Barchian.
A young boy walks on the dry bed of Lake Hamun in Takhtak. The lake, once one of the largest in the world, has now completely dried up due to climate change and environmental destruction, forcing people to engage in dryland farming on the fertile lakebed. Aug. 3, 2014, Sistan & Baluchistan Province, Iran. © Mahdi Barchian.
2024 Eyeshot Open Call →
Congratulations to alumni member Mahdi Barchian, whose project “How Does It End?” has been selected as one of the finalists in the 2024 Eyeshot Open Call series category. This series explores the profound impact of climate change and environmental destruction on human life in Mahdi’s home country of Iran, one of the countries most affected by ecological degradation.
Hasti Rezaei,17, is Iran's youngest female motocross rider. She began riding at the age of nine, was Iran's female motocross champion from 2021 to 2022, and has been a national and regional motocross champion several times. Hasti goes to the track every weekend. “Some believe that it is a masculine sport and it is dangerous for women," she says. "They ask me, ‘Aren't you afraid? What if you got injured?’” Injury is only part of the risk. Though women can drive cars in Iran, it is illegal to have a motorcycle license in cities. © Forough Alaei.
Hasti Rezaei,17, is Iran's youngest female motocross rider. She began riding at the age of nine, was Iran's female motocross champion from 2021 to 2022, and has been a national and regional motocross champion several times.
Hasti goes to the track every weekend. “Some believe that it is a masculine sport and it is dangerous for women," she says. "They ask me, ‘Aren't you afraid? What if you got injured?’” Injury is only part of the risk. Though women can drive cars in Iran, it is illegal to have a motorcycle license in cities. © Forough Alaei.
2024 Leica Oskar Barnack Award →
The 2024 Leica Oskar Barnack Award (LOBA) has recognized several talented photographers, including three members of The VII Foundation network. Among the winners and shortlisted photographers are Forough Alaei, an alumna of the VII Mentor Program (2019–2021); contributing photographer Anush Babajanyan; and Ksenia Ivanova, who participated in the 2022 Fellows Program.

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