September 11, 2001. Photojournalist James Nachtwey is in his New York apartment, packing for a scheduled assignment, when he pauses to look out his window. From his vantage point near Wall Street, he witnesses something he is entirely unprepared for.
Just days earlier, Nachtwey and six other photographers had joined forces to launch VII Photo Agency, dedicated to documenting the defining conflicts and currents of their time. Suddenly, Nachtwey was facing the most significant terrorist attack in Western history on his own doorstep. He spent the following hours capturing the Twin Towers as they burned and collapsed, and the subsequent weeks documenting the scarred city. This became VII’s first assignment.
VII was named for the number of its founding members, who agreed that photography had become too corporate, dominated by larger companies who would crush any independent spirit.
Emboldened by the new freedom that digital photography granted them, they believed in the dynamism of the collective and vowed to be a disruptive and challenging business, shaking trends in the industry of the time.
VII agency’s focus is on the power of the image to manifest change, and its ethos is to address the complex political, environmental, and social questions facing people globally.
Covering topics such as race, gender and identity, to environmental catastrophes and conflict, they have covered some of the greatest issues of the last decades; from the fall of the Taliban, violence in the Middle East, conflict in Albania and life in North Korea.
“I used to think about my photographs and almost try to imagine them before I would start working on a story. When I took this photograph, I learned that all the plans you can think of don’t matter and the most important is to invest time and open yourself to serendipity.” – Gary Knight
The original members of the VII Photo Agency are: Christopher Morris, James Nachtwey, Ron Haviv, Alexandra Boulat, Antonin Kratchovil, John Stanmeyer and Gary Knight, but membership has since grown to a collective of 29 visual storytellers reporting on issues around the world and that will continue to inspire and provoke new generations of photographers.
“Why we started the agency to begin with is to tell stories, and the tools that we’re using are constantly changing. Every tool will be right for a different sort of situation, but in the end, it’s going to be about your view, your voice, and how you put that all together.” – Ron Haviv
所有图片版权所有 VII Agency