VII - VII Foundation

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.

Learn more about who we are

What we do

We use journalism to create meaningful change through education and advocacy.

With an emphasis on changing policy and educating youth, our high-profile projects narrate lived experiences, document complex problems, and seek sustainable solutions. Our work begins with the programs of VII Academy, the educational wing of the foundation that provides tuition-free courses in visual journalism to practitioners in the Majority World and underrepresented communities in G20 countries.

Complementing our core educational programs are two platforms: VII Insider, a free online space for public debate and discussion of visual journalism, and VII Community, designed to further tuition-free media education and foster exciting opportunities for our VII Academy visual practitioners.

Imagine: Reflections on Peace

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 brutal conflict—and survived. Funded by the Gross Family Foundation.

The Millennium Villages Project

The Millennium Villages Project is a book, interactive classroom curriculum, and traveling museum touring the United States. MVP is funded by the Gross Family Foundation and Blue Chip Foundation.

Dispatches in Exile

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).

Yves Saint Laurent by Alexandra & Pierre Boulat

An extensive body of photographic work capturing the most significant moments throughout French fashion and costume designer Yves Saint Laurent’s career.

HERBARIUM by Ismar Čirkinagić

HERBARIUM by Bosnian-Danish visual artist Ismar Čirkinagič is based on a classical herbarium. Since 2004, he has been gathering, preserving, and identifying plants from the sites of mass graves across Bosnia-Herzegovina and photographing the landscapes in which they were found.

The Frontline Club Charitable Trust Training

As local Ukrainian media practitioners continue to document the stories of the war and defend their democracy, The VII Foundation is working with The Frontline Club Charitable Trust to provide proper hostile environment training to protect them.

Nature Through Her Eyes

Dedicated to advancing women's presence in the documentation of the natural world, Nature Through Her Eyes' mission is to provide access and opportunity through mentoring, masterclasses, and networking during a bi-annual four-day festival.