Fishermen have a picnic on the hood of the car. Tsovak, Armenia, April 4, 2025. © Egor Kirillov for The VII Foundation
A scene from Sidon, Lebanon, during Eid El Fitr celebrations. © Habib Saleh for The VII Foundation.
Visitors gather near the shrine of Dargah Hazratbal in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, on Feb. 28, 2025. Many stop to take photos with the pigeons and find a sense of peace and relief in their presence. The shrine is a popular spot where people connect with faith, culture, and the calming presence of birds. © Aakash Gulzar for The VII Foundation.
Previous slide
Next slide

Educate

The VII Foundation provides educational courses, mentoring, and workshops – many of them tuition-free – across a broad spectrum of media practice, including image-making, ethics, filmmaking, research, writing, and media entrepreneurship.

THE VII FOUNDATION FILM LAB

"The Stringer" Director Bao Nguyen and crew. Ho Chi Minh City. March 2024. © Gary Knight.

visual journalism program

A man shows the catastrophic impact and partial destruction of his home left by the Al Haouz earthquake. Like most other houses in Gliz, his home has been declared irreparable under new government safety regulations. Residents must rebuild according to updated national guidelines, replacing traditional earth and stone structures with standardized, 70-square-meter concrete homes. This sweeping change signals not only a physical transformation but also a cultural rupture, as ancient building techniques honed over centuries are being abandoned. Gliz, Al Haouz province, Marrakesh-Safi region, Morocco, on April 3, 2025. © Maroussia Mbaye for The VII Foundation.

vii mentor program

On Victory Day in May 2008, young men in the Pankisi Gorge of Georgia gather to participate in war games using toy guns. Pankisi has no jobs for the young men, and without money, they cannot leave the area. In any case, the Georgian government has not yet provided them with any legal status, so it is impossible for them to search for jobs in the city. © Daro Sulakauri / VII Mentor Program.

our work

We deliver tuition-free educational courses, professional programs, and mentoring at our campuses in Arles and Sarajevo, through our online platforms, and in the field. We have trained over 1,300 young journalists from over 100 countries who report from communities worldwide. We also have a support network for our alums, VII Community, as they develop sustainable careers.  

The VII Foundation’s educational focus is on visual journalism. Whether it be documentary practice, narrative photography, or photojournalism, our goal is to equip practitioners with the skills to make visual storytelling the core around which reporting unfolds. 

The three levels of the Visual Journalism Program and the Mentor Program are tuition-free. Practitioners can also take vocational courses or workshops by contributing photographers. These courses offer training in a broad spectrum of media practice, including image-making, ethics, filmmaking, research, writing, and media entrepreneurship. 

alumni network


North America Latin America & Caribbean Africa Europe Asia Oceania
educators
0
languages
0
Practitioners
0
Countries represented by students
0
Women and nonbinary students
0
Partners
0

Ongoing education and support for our alumni network.

Jeova de Jesus Pena Pantoja separates the berries from the açaí cluster accompanied by his brother-in-law and his daughters. The family depends almost entirely on harvesting açaí. They live in a land that does not belong to them but to a rancher woman who lets them live there in exchange for half the amount of açaí they collect. With the other half, Jeova de Jesus Pena Pantoja has to pay for all the maintenance of the açaí plantation, clean the land, and pay for his brother-in-law João Neto Talino Vieira, who helps him and works. What is finally left from the açaí harvesting is not enough to sustain the entire family so Jeova has to find other temporary jobs to complement his rent. 19 October 2023 Urinduba Community, Marajó, Pará, Brazil. © Pablo Albarenga / National Geographic.

A tuition-free education program focused on natural history filmmaking.

Erica Rugabandana on location in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, 2023. © Nature Through Her Eyes

experienced visual journalists, professors, curators, editors, and other industry professionals.

James Nachtwey meets with workshop participants at The VII Foundation in Arles during the 2024 Les Rencontres d'Arles Photo Festival. July 2024. © Amelie Blanc for The VII Foundation.