VII Photo Agency is an international photo agency wholly owned and governed by its membership.

History The photographer owned agency was originally conceived by Gary Knight and John Stanmeyer. They were subsequently joined by Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Antonín Kratochvíl, Christopher Morris, and James Nachtwey and the agency, named after the number of founding members, was launched at the Visa pour l'image Festival in Perpignan, France, in September, 2001. VII was conceived to operate as a means of digital image distribution and representation wholly owned and controlled by the photographers it represented in response to large corporations acquiring the small photo agencies present in the industry at the time. Today the agency represents 29 members and 10 mentees.

VII established its reputation for news coverage during the war in Afghanistan that followed 9/11 and during the conflict in Israel/Palestine in 2002 and the invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003. Their first assignment was photographing 9/11. James Nachtwey, one of the founding members of VII was packing his bags to go on an assignment for Time Magazine in the Caribbean. He looked out of his window near Wall Street in New York and saw everyone in the street looking up at the sky. He saw flames coming out of the World Trade Center just a few blocks from his apartment. Nachtwey spent the next hours photographing as the Twin Towers collapsed, killing thousands of civilians. The other six founding members of the agency flew from Europe to the USA or to Afghanistan, where they covered the fall of the Taliban, and unimaginable to them at the time, the beginning of America’s longest war. VII focused much of its energy in the ensuing years documenting the wars and violence that followed in the Middle East, wars that have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians.

From being principally focused on news for editorial clients, the agency has diversified into social media, live events, video, and creative partnerships with NGOs / colleges / universities, exhibitions in leading museums, featured appearances at major art and photo festivals, and education.

In addition to the member photographers, young photographers are mentored by full members through the VII Mentor Program and represented by the agency.The VII Mentor Program was created in 2008 and is the first mentor program of its kind. Former mentees have gone on to build successful careers in the media. Some of them are now members of VII, Noor, and Magnum photo agencies and are working on assignments for publications like The New York Times, Time Magazine, and National Geographic.

In 2018, VII was named in a story by a journalist, Kristen Chick, which was published in the Columbia Journalism Review detailing accusations of sexually harassing behavior by a founding member, Antonin Kratochvil, against former VII members (Anastasia Taylor-Lind and Stephanie Sinclair), and accusations by them of a toxic culture amongst the VII members which enabled such behavior. Kratochvil subsequently resigned from the Agency. As a result of the accusations, VII instated a systemic change in culture, obliging all members and staff to fulfill online HR, compliance and harassment training with Emtrain and created a strict code of ethics for all members and staff.

Member list Name Based In Member Ali Arkady 2020–present Anush Babjanyan 2017–present Philip Blenkinsop 2017–present Jocelyn Bain Hogg 2007–present Alexandra Boulat (Estate) 2001–2007 Founding Member (Deceased) Eric Bouvet 2017–present Linda Bournane Engleberth 2018–present Sim Chi Yin 2014 (interim) – 2016 (full) – 2017 (left) Stefano De Luigi 2007–present Jessica Dimmock 2007–present Danny Wilcox Frazier 2015–present Ziyah Gafic 2017–present Mary Gelman 2020–present Ashley Gilbertson 2008–present Ron Haviv 2001–present Founding Member Ed Kashi 2001–present Gary Knight 2001–present Founding Member Antonín Kratochvíl 2001–2018 Founding Member Joachim Ladefoged 2004–present Paul Lowe 2017–2024 (Deceased) Davide Monteleone 2011–2015 Christopher Morris 2001–present Founding Member Seamus Murphy 2017–present Maciek Nabrdalik 2008–present James Nachtwey 2001–2011 Founding Member Ilvy Nijokiktjen 2017–present Franco Pagetti 2007–present Sarker Protick 2015–2017 Espen Rasmussen 2020–present Eugene Richards 2005–2008 Stephanie Sinclair 2009–2017 Daniel Schwartz 2017–present Nichole Sobecki 2017–present John Stanmeyer 2001–present Founding Member Maggie Steber 2017–present Anastasia Taylor-Lind 2014–2017 Sara Terry 2017–present Tomas van Houtryve 2010–present Donald Weber 2008–2015

Projects

Newest Americans: Stories From the Global City Newest Americans is a three-year longitudinal study at Rutgers University–Newark that will document the lives and communities of students at the university and take an in-depth look at immigration and the idea of American identity. It is a collaborative effort involving VII, Rutger's Center for Migration and the Global City (CMGC) and the Department of Arts, Culture and Media. The project, spearheaded by Tim Raphael, director of CMGC, focuses on immigrant experiences in New Jersey with Newark as the hub where these different stories converge. Notes for My Homeland was produced by Talking Eyes Media and is the first professionally produced piece in the storytelling project.

Evolution Tour For the Evolution Tour, photojournalists from VII Photo Agency, along with technical specialists from AbelCine, presented an examination of the evolving business, technology and craft of visual storytelling. This program was structured as a combination of seminars, panel discussions, hands-on workshops and networking.

European Workshops Series In 2015, Ed Kashi, Ron Haviv, Marcus Bleasdale, Stefano De Luigi and John Stanmeyer, all members of VII Photo Agency led photography workshops in four European capitals: Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam and Berlin, as part of the Eyes in Progress's workshops program.

Fatal Neglect Through a partnership between VII, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders), and UNION HZ, Fatal Neglect was a multi-part documentary film project, to tell the stories of the millions of patients left behind by the global health revolution. In Fatal Neglect: The Global Health Revolution's Forgotten Patients, VII documented the impact of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and some of the deadliest neglected tropical diseases: “kala azar,” and “sleeping sickness.” Ron Haviv and John Stanmeyer traveled to capture the stories of frontline health workers trying to fight diseases that affect millions of people and kill hundreds of thousands each year yet garner little attention from drug developers, policy makers or the mass media.

Starved for Attention In 2010, MSF and VII launched “Starved for Attention,” a multimedia campaign about childhood malnutrition. Petition signatures were collected from people around the world who joined the partnership in demanding that donor nations stop supplying nutritionally substandard food to malnourished children.

People who have been involved with the VII Mentor Program Name Based In ! Sharafat Ali Juan Pablo Ampudia Ali Arkady (Current Member) Debsuddha Banerjee Poulomi Basu Arthur Bondar Sim Chi Yin (Current Magnum Photo Member) Kimberly dela Cruz Grace Ekpu Maika Elan Nada Harib Joshua Irwandi M'hammed Kilito Jošt Franko Maciek Nabrdalik (Current Member) Cristobal Olivares Marko Risovic Anastasia Taylor-Lind Farshid Tighehsaz

References

External links

VII Photo Agency MSF Fatal Neglect http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/05/vii-photo-rises-to-challenges-of-changing-photographic-landscape-with-dynamic-new-agency-model/