As an aspiring young photojournalist in South East Asia in the 1980’s, Gary Knight (b. 1964, UK) supplemented his meager picture sales by selling his own blood. In the Balkans, he developed his career working on the frontlines in that violent civil war, where he met lifelong friends Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Christopher Morris, and James Nachtwey, who, with Antonin Kratochvil and John Stanmeyer all became founding members of VII Photo Agency. Crisscrossing the globe for Newsweek and building networks everywhere, he saw the demise of the traditional photo agency model and the early signs of decline in print media. His determination and vision led to the creation of VII. As CEO of The VII Foundation and VII Academy, he leads a team which supports fiercely independent journalism and trains and mentors a new generation of journalists in the Majority World, who are best placed to tell their communities’ stories to the world.
