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| Type | LLC |
|---|---|
| Industry | Photography |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Founder | Gary Knight, John Stanmeyer, Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Antonín Kratochvíl, Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey |
| Headquarters | New York City |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Photojournalism, photo agency |
| Website | viiphoto |
VII Photo Agency is an international photo agency wholly owned and governed by its membership.
The photographer owned agency was originally conceived by Gary Knight [1] and John Stanmeyer. [2] They were subsequently joined by Alexandra Boulat, Ron Haviv, Antonín Kratochvíl, Christopher Morris, and James Nachtwey [3] [4] [5] 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 [6] 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 [7] 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 [8] / 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. [9] 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.
| Name | Based In | Member |
|---|---|---|
| Ali Arkady |  Iraq | 2020–present |
| Anush Babjanyan |  Armenia | 2017–present |
| Philip Blenkinsop |  UK | 2017–present |
| Jocelyn Bain Hogg | UK | 2007–present |
| Alexandra Boulat (Estate) |  France | 2001–2007 Founding Member (Deceased) |
| Eric Bouvet | France | 2017–present |
| Linda Bournane Engleberth |  Norway | 2018–present |
| Sim Chi Yin |  Singapore | 2014 (interim) [10] – 2016 (full) [11] – 2017 (left) [12] |
| Stefano De Luigi | France | 2007–present |
| Jessica Dimmock |  USA | 2007–present |
| Danny Wilcox Frazier | USA | 2015–present |
| Ziyah Gafic |  Bosnia | 2017–present |
| Mary Gelman |  Russia | 2020–present |
| Ashley Gilbertson |  Australia | 2008–present |
| Lauren Greenfield | USA | 2002–2008 |
| Ron Haviv | USA | 2001–present Founding Member |
| Ed Kashi | USA | 2001–present |
| Gary Knight | UK | 2001–present Founding Member |
| Antonín Kratochvíl |  Czechia | 2001–2018 Founding Member |
| Joachim Ladefoged |  Denmark | 2004–present |
| Paul Lowe | UK | 2017–present |
| Davide Monteleone |  Italy | 2011–2015 |
| Christopher Morris | USA | 2001–present Founding Member |
| Seamus Murphy |  Ireland | 2017–present |
| Maciek Nabrdalik |  Poland | 2008–present |
| James Nachtwey | USA | 2001–2011 Founding Member |
| Ilvy Nijokiktjen |  Netherlands | 2017–present |
| Franco Pagetti | Italy | 2007–present |
| Sarker Protick |  Bangladesh | 2015–present |
| Espen Rasmussen | Norway | 2020–present |
| Eugene Richards | USA | 2005–2008 |
| Stephanie Sinclair | USA | 2009–2017 |
| Daniel Schwarz |  Switzerland | 2017–present |
| Nichole Sobecki | USA | 2017–present |
| John Stanmeyer | USA | 2001–present Founding Member |
| Maggie Steber | USA | 2017–present |
| Anastasia Taylor-Lind | UK | 2014–2017 |
| Sara Terry | USA | 2017–present |
| Tomas van Houtryve | USA | 2010–present |
| Donald Weber |  Canada | 2008–2015 |
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) [13] 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 [14] was produced by Talking Eyes Media [15] and is the first professionally produced piece in the storytelling project.
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. [16] This program was structured as a combination of seminars, panel discussions, hands-on workshops and networking.
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. [17]
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. [18] 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.
In 2010, MSF and VII launched “Starved for Attention,” a multimedia campaign about childhood malnutrition. [19] 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.
| Name | Based In ! |
|---|---|
| Sharafat Ali |  India |
| Juan Pablo Ampudia |  Mexico |
| Ali Arkady (Current Member) | Iraq |
| Debsuddha Banerjee | India |
| Poulomi Basu | India |
| Arthur Bondar [20] |  Ukraine |
| Sim Chi Yin (Current Magnum Photo Member) | Singapore |
| Kimberly dela Cruz |  Philippines |
| Grace Ekpu |  Nigeria |
| Maika Elan |  Vietnam |
| Nada Harib |  Libya |
| Joshua Irwandi |  Indonesia |
| M'hammed Kilito |  Morocco |
| Jošt Franko |  Slovenia |
| Maciek Nabrdalik (Current Member) | Poland |
| Cristobal Olivares |  Chile |
| Marko Risovic |  Serbia |
| Anastasia Taylor-Lind | UK |
| Farshid Tighehsaz |  Iran |
James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and war photographer.
A photographic essay or photo-essay for short is a form of visual storytelling, a way to present a narrative through a series of images. A photo essay delivers a story using a series of photographs and brings the viewer along a narrative journey.
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Marcus Terence Luke Bleasdale is a British photojournalist. His books include One Hundred Years of Darkness (2003), The Rape of a Nation (2009) and The Unravelling (2015). Bleasdale was appointed Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to international photojournalism and human rights.
Gary Knight is an Anglo-American photographer, editor and author. Co-founder of the VII Photo Agency, co-founder and CEO of the VII Foundation and founder and CEO of the VII Academy.
Antonín Kratochvíl is a Czech-born American photojournalist. He is a founding member of VII Photo Agency.
John Stanmeyer, is an American photojournalist based in Otis, Massachusetts. He is one of the founders of VII Photo Agency. Stanmeyer has received the World Press Photo of the Year, Robert Capa Gold Medal, Magazine Photographer of the Year from Pictures of the Year International, and a National Magazine Award for Photojournalism.
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Ron Haviv is an American photojournalist who covers conflicts. He is the author of several photographic publications, is a co-founder of VII Photo Agency, lectures at universities and conducts workshops.
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Solmaz Daryani is an Iranian photographer and visual artist based in the UK and Iran. Her work is particularly known for exploring the themes of climate security, climate change, water crisis, the human identity and environment in the Middle East. Daryani is a member of Women Photograph and Diversify Photo.
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Salih Basheer is a Sudanese photographer.
