Photo by Clay Enos

Award-winning photojournalist Ron Haviv has produced some of the most important images of conflict and other humanitarian crises that have made headlines from around the world since the end of the Cold War.

A co-founder of VII, whose work is published by top magazines worldwide, including: Fortune, The NY Times Magazine, Time, Vanity Fair, Paris Match and Stern. He has published two critically acclaimed collections of his photography — Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal, and Afghanistan: On the Road to Kabul – and has contributed his wide-ranging body of work to several other books.

With a special focus on exposing human rights violations, he has covered conflict and humanitarian crises in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Russia and the Balkans. Most recently, he has documented wars in Darfur and the DR Congo.

His often-searing photographs have earned Haviv some of the highest accolades in photography, including awards from World Press Photo, Pictures of the Year, Overseas Press Club, and the Leica Medal of Excellence. He regularly lectures at universities and seminars, and numerous museums and galleries have featured his work, including the United Nations, The Louvre and The Council on Foreign Relations.

Haviv has been the central character in three films. National Geographic Explorer’s Freelance in a World of Risk explores the hazards inherent in combat photography. The Serbian-made documentary Vivisect explores Serbian reaction to the Blood and Honey exhibit. Eyes of the World, which has featured in film festival worldwide, examines Haviv as a witness to war. In addition, Haviv has spoken about his work on The Charlie Rose Show, NPR, Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, CNN, MSNBC and The Best Damn Sports Show Ever.

Ron Haviv @ VII

Ron Haviv’s Blood and Honey

Michael Robinson Chavez recently joined The Los Angeles Times as a staff photographer after working at The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. In addition to photographing local stories and events, he has covered wide-ranging international assignments in over 45 countries including: the Congolese Civil War, the war in Bosnia, Bantu refugees in Kenya, violence in San Salvador, the Zapatista uprising in Mexico, the conflict in Israel/Palestine and the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

From 1994-95 he photographed events in Central America and Mexico for the Associated Press. Michael was twice named Photographer of the Year in 2004 and 2007 by the White House News Photographers’ Association. In addition he was named 3rd place Photographer of the Year in the Best of Photojournalism competition 2004. He has received past awards from the National Press Photographers Association, the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the Society of Newspaper Design and the Pictures of the Year competition. He was recently named a finalist for a Getty Grant.  He won an Award of Excellence: Newspaper Photographer of the Year 2008 in this year’s POYi competition.

His work has been exhibited from his native California to Havana, Cuba to the prestigious Visa Pour l’Image photojournalism festival in France, which showed his 10-year project on Peru. His photos have also been exhibited at the Newseum in New York City and Washington DC, Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Ojo Ajeno in Lima, Peru as well as Washington DC’s Corcoran Gallery. An exhibit of his photographs of Roma in eastern Slovakia is currently being shown at galleries throughout that country. In August 2007 he will have an exhibit at the War Photo Limited Gallery in Dubrovnik, Croatia of his photographs from the Hezbollah/Israeli war of 2006.

He currently lives with his wife and assortment of horses, dogs and cats outside of Los Angeles.

He will be teaching Storytelling with Heart and Power. “I would like to talk to the students about keeping their personal vision alive between sometimes less than adventurous assignment work. Also pushing it and experimenting with their visions, breaking out of their comfort level and trying new approaches and techniques. Think we can all use with a bit of that!”

http://www.robinsonchavez.com/

Eros Hoagland began working as a photojournalist in 1993 covering the aftermath of El Salvador’s civil war.

He has continued to work in countries stained with violence and un-rest across the globe including Iraq, Haiti, Mexico and Colombia. As well as documenting the political climate and social impact of conflict, Eros looks for an emotional narrative when approaching reportage projects. Themes are just as important as issues to Eros’ photography. Subtleties are never overlooked as he attempts to convey a feeling of place, character and a larger historical perspective to his viewers. Eros’ assignments have ranged from political uprisings in Latin America to documenting Mormon communities in Utah and a professional bicycle race in California. He is currently working on a long-term project along the U.S. – Mexico border.

Eros’ clients include Time magazine, the New York Times, Newsweek, Stern and the Fader among others. Corporate clients include Visa, IBM and Wells Fargo. Eros is a native of the San Francisco bay area where he spends his free time surfing the frigid waters of Ocean Beach.

www.eroshoagland.com

Through documentary photography, Andrea Bruce brings attention to people living in the aftermath of war.

For the past eight years she has chronicled the world’s most troubled areas as a staff photographer for The Washington Post. Five of those years have taken her to the Middle East, where she is now based. She writes a weekly column for The Post called “Unseen Iraq.”

Her awards include top honors from the White House News Photographers Association (where she has been named Photographer of the Year four times), the International Pictures of the Year contest, and the prestigious John Faber award from the Overseas Press Club in New York.

She has also been a finalist for The Aftermath Project grant as well as the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship.

Kael covered the US invasion of Iraq and worked there until 2004. Her photography from Iraq focuses on the birth of the Iraqi resistance groups, and the impact of the US invasion on security and the lives of Iraqi civilians. That work was included in the book and exhibition “Unembedded: Four Independent Journalists on the War in Iraq” (Chelsea Green, 2005).

She is currently working on a multimedia project documenting coastal erosion in southeast Louisiana and the impact of environmental degradation on the communities there. The photography is commissioned by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. She has taught writing and photojournalism at the American University in Bulgaria and documentary photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. She is currently a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University and is represented by Panos Pictures in London. Kael has a degree in English Literature from Boston University and a MA in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia.

She was born in Middletown, NY, 1971.

www.panos.co.uk

www.azpix.com.br

Previously he was the Creative Director of U.S.News & World Report, Design Director of National Geographic Books, Associate Director of Layout & Design at National Geographic magazine. Before magazines David honed his journalistic skills at a number of newspapers: The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Hartford Courant, The Everett (Wa.) Herald, and The Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune.

David has been honored by the National Press Photographer Assoc., University of Missouri’s Pictures of the Year competition, Assoc. of Magazine Publishers, Ohio Newspaper Photographer Assoc., the Hearst Collegiate Photojournalism Awards, the Washington Art Directors Club, the Society of Newspaper Design, Print, and Communications Art.

David Griffin was a special guest portfolio reviewer at the 2008 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop.

He started to work as a professional freelance photojournalist in 1988 covering the Intifadah.

In the years after he worked in many conflict areas in Africa, such as Angola, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Liberia and DR Congo. From 1990–1994 he covered the transition in South Africa from apartheid to democracy.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union Kadir covered social issues in different corners of the former empire. He also went to North Korea and Mongolia. In 1997 he embarked on a big project to travel the seven rivers of the world, from source to mouth, covering the daily life along these lifelines.

In 2004 he went back to Angola, Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo to portray the diamond industry, following the diamonds from the mines to the consumer markets in the western world. The exhibition travels not only in Europe and the USA, but also in the mining areas of Congo, Angola and Sierra Leone.

In 2004 he also initiated a photo project together with Stanley Greene and six other photographers on the violence against women in the world. In 2006 he co-founded the magazine The Issue with Stanley Greene.

Recently Kadir has covered the conflict in Darfur, Chad and in Lebanon. Since hurricane Katrina happened he has made several trips to the USA to cover the aftermath and continues his work on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina still today.

In 2006 Kadir started a new project: a visual investigation on migration in the America’s. For this he travels from Tierra del Fuego (Patagonia) to Northern Alaska.

Kadir Van Lohuizen @ NOOR

Sinclair was recently awarded the Alexia Foundation Professional Grant, UNICEF’s Photo of the Year and the Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism Freelens Award for her extensive work on the issue of child marriage. She also earned the 2008 CARE International Award for Humanitarian Reportage for her essay A Cutting Tradition: Inside An Indonesian Female Circumcision Celebration. Sinclair’s other honors include the Visa D’Or from the 2004 Visa Pour L’Image photography festival in France, as well as a first place in World Press Photo and the FiftyCrows International Fund for Documentary Photography’s 2004 Central Asia and Caucasus Grant for her work on women’s issues in Afghanistan. Sinclair earned another World Press Photo award for her coverage of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon and was invited to be part of the prestigious 13th Joop Swart Masterclass organized by World Press Photo.

The Chicago Bar Association’s Herman Kogan Meritorious Achievement Award 2000 was presented to Sinclair for her involvement in a Chicago Tribune series  on the failure of the death penalty in Illinois. The series resulted in the govenor placing a moratorium on capital punishment in the state. Sinclair was also part of the paper’s team that won the Pulitzer Prize for its documentation of problems within the airline industry in 2000.

www.stephaniesinclair.com