Jul. 9, 2026
16:00 – 17:30 CEST
The VII Foundation
49 Quai de la Roquette,
13200 Arles, France
Solutions visual journalism is rigorous, evidence-based, image-led reporting on how communities are responding to complex social problems.
Our expert panel, hosted by Dr. David Campbell, will explore Solutions Visual Journalism as an approach to visual reporting that supplements rather than replaces conventional photojournalism. At its core, solutions visual journalism shifts the narrative starting point: instead of beginning with the problem or the suffering it causes, it begins with a response to a problem that is already underway, harnesses the emotional power of photography and image-led storytelling to document how people and communities are actively driving positive change.
Critically, solutions visual journalism is not about photographing ‘the solution’ as a static thing, nor is it advocacy, hero worship, or good-news journalism offered as a simplistic counterbalance to negativity.
How Does It Differ from Conventional Photojournalism?
The fundamental distinction is the frame, the starting point from which a story is built. Conventional photojournalism is rooted in a long tradition of bearing witness: documenting conflict, crisis, suffering, and injustice. News is professionally defined as the abnormal or exceptional, which directs coverage toward problems, disasters, and the pain of others.
Bearing witness remains important, but it is not the whole picture. Solutions visual journalism doesn’t abandon that critical, investigative tradition. Instead, it builds on it from a different angle. Where conventional photojournalism asks, ‘what happened and why’, solutions visual journalism asks, ‘what next and how are communities already responding?’ As a result, the subject of the photograph shifts from passive victim to active agent.
This has practical implications for how stories are researched, commissioned, and produced. It requires photographers to engage more deeply with communities over time, to understand the mechanics of a response rather than just capture its visual surface, and to assess evidence of impact, success, or failure.
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