VII Academy alumni from the Balkans in Arles, France for Les Rencontres de la Photographie
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.
Dear friends,
Every year in the first week of July, thousands of photographers, curators, and photo editors descend on the Roman city of Arles in the south of France to participate in "Les Rencontres de la Photographie Arles," the world’s pre-eminent photo festival. Exhibitions are curated and installed in churches, old railway sheds, butcher shops, supermarkets, and gardens. Evening events and colloquiums might be held in a Roman amphitheater, or just up the hill in Maja Hoffman’s Luma Foundation Tower, recently designed by Frank Gehry. "Rencontre" in English means "encounter", and the Rencontres is much more than a photo festival; it’s a meeting place. Anywhere there is shade, there are people discussing politics and photography and the politics of photography.
With a generous gift from Jennifer Stengaard Gross and her family, The VII Foundation bought a 200-year-old salt warehouse on a quay overlooking the Rhone river in Arles to house VII Academy. We will formally open our new home in September–and share more about the space with you in a later newsletter –but we opened our doors briefly to friends who visited the Rencontres this year.
Amongst those friends are some of our alumni who joined the legions of young photographers that descend on the town every summer to show their work, seek inspiration from the work of others, and create new networks that will help them further their emerging careers.
It was incredibly moving to be reunited in our new space with three former students of VII Academy in Sarajevo–alumni Petra Slobodnjak from Croatia, Armin Graca from Bosnia, and Vladimir Zivojinovic from Serbia, as well as current student Mitar Simikic–four friends who had shared the long journey to Arles from the Balkans. Through their meeting and engagement at VII Academy and their subsequent friendship and work, they are contributing to building fairer, equitable, and more pluralistic societies in a region still struggling to throw off the shackles of a conflict that ended when they were infants.
They–and our global alumni–embody our conviction that young visual journalists immersed in their communities can advocate change and impact policy. Their work can lead to a better, more inclusive, evidence-based picture of the world. This better picture, in turn, can foster a more democratized global conversation that challenges established gatekeepers and disturbs the daily rhetoric of division and conflict that pours from the hymn sheets of populist politicians.
Wishing you a peaceful summer.
Gary Knight
CEO, The VII Foundation
Arles, France
"Imagine: Reflections on Peace" installed the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
"Imagine" in Sarajevo and Washington
The exhibition of "Imagine: Reflections on Peace" is on show at the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo until 31 July, and is now open in Washington DC at the United States Institute of Peace (tickets are free but must be reserved in advance).
In Washington, the "Imagine Reflections on Peace" exhibition will run from June 2nd through August 1st and will be open to the public on Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm. Admission is free, ticket times must be reserved in advance.
Retired landmine-detecting dog Rico visits "Imagine: Reflections on Peace" at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington, DC.
Visitors to "Imagine"
"Imagine: Reflections on Peace" at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington DC has had many visitors already this summer. They include students from across the United States taking part in education trips to their nation's capitol, as well as retired landmine-detecting dog Rico. Rico worked to clear more than 500,000 square meters of land in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of a team from the Marshall Legacy Institute.
VIIF is hiring
The VII Foundation is searching for a Communications Manager in an active, hands-on role working across the foundation’s international network. Reporting to the CEO, the manager’s primary objective is to develop and focus the foundation’s communications on the key audiences we wish to reach and influence. Applications are now open; check out the details on the position and how to apply. Deadline: 31st August 2022.
VII Academy alumni, staff and friends gather on the top floor of The Alexandra Boulat Campus in Arles, France. July 6, 2022. Photograph by Ziyah Gafic/VII.
VII Academy Alumni in Arles
VII Academy alumni were invited to visit our newly-renovated building, The Alexandra Boulat Campus, during the first week of Les Rencontres de la Photographie Arles. Petra Slobodnjak, Mitar Simikić, Vladimir Zivojinovic, and Armin Graca travelled together from the Balkans, while VII Mentee M'hammed Kilito visited from his residency in Paris. VII Photo Agency photography and VII Academy tutor Stefano de Luigi was on hand to welcome Amine Machitouen, a current participant of our Level 2 Seminar.
Amina Kadous contributed this diptych, including a self-portrait, to our COVID-19 global lockdown project, "Amplifying Student Voices," in 2020. ©Amina Kadous
Amina Kadous wins award at Les Rencontres
Egyptian photographer Amina Kadous has been awarded the Madame Figaro Prize at Les Rencontres for her project, “White Gold.” Exhibited as part of a group show called, “If a Tree Falls in the Forest,” she describes the project as, "an ongoing search for my personal and national identity, [a] cycle of loss and possibilities.” She is now an Artist in Residence at Black Rock Senegal for their 2022-2023 season. Amina is an alumnus of the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop that was held in Kigali, Rwanda in 2019, and also participated in our project, “Amplifying Student Voices,” during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
From the project Land of the Sea, documenting a humanitarian crisis and the effects of flooding along coastal regions in Indonesia. ©Irene Barlian
Leica Oskar Barnack Award spotlights VII Academy participants
Two current VII Academy program participants have been shortlisted for the prestigious Leica Oskar Barnack Award. M'hammed Kilito from Morocco, part of this year's VII Mentor Program, has been shortlisted for his project, "Before it's Gone", which documents oases that provide a buffer to desertification in North Africa. VII Academy Fellow Irene Barlian is also part of the twelve shortlisted candidates for her project, "Land of the Sea," focusing on flooding and rising sea levels in Indonesia and their effects on coastal residents.
Photograph by Joachim Ladefoged/VII.
VII Insider’s online community provides an open platform for public debate and discussion, and we have events coming up in the remainder of July and August.
Joining VII Insider is free thanks to our partnership with PhotoWings. Once registered, members of the VII Insider community get access to weekly live presentations and can view the video collection, which contains more than 100 recordings of educational discussions. We also commission and publish new writing and video presentations on the VII Insider blog that are providing powerful new insights into visual journalism.
VII Insider is a program of The VII Foundation in partnership with PhotoWings and VII Photo Agency.