Exhibition: "A Brief Guide to Investigating War Crimes” by Ron Haviv - VII Foundation / 17.10.2025 / 19:00 / Barabar Centre - Grand 4th Floor /
Photo: © Ron Haviv – VII Foundation / Young Darfuri girls leave a camp for internally displaced persons to gather firewood. Girls as young as 8 have been raped, attacked and killed trying to get wood. Darfur, Sudan, 2005
Exhibition: “A Brief Guide to Investigating War Crimes” by Ron Haviv
World-Renowned Photojournalist Ron Haviv Presents “A Brief Guide to Investigating War Crimes”
Internationally acclaimed photojournalist and co-founder of the VII Foundation, Ron Haviv, in collaboration with the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), presents the powerful exhibition “A Brief Guide to Investigating War Crimes.”
Curated by Haviv himself, the exhibition draws from the GIJN’s definitive guide for journalists covering war crimes, and features evocative and hard-hitting imagery by members of the prestigious VII Foundation. Through a compelling visual narrative, the exhibition explores the brutal realities of armed conflict, the mechanisms of war crimes, and their long-lasting human and societal impacts.
“A Brief Guide to Investigating War Crimes” underscores the critical role of investigative journalism, human rights advocacy, and legal accountability in uncovering the truth. It stands as both a tribute to courageous reporting and a call to action for justice and transparency in times of war.
RON HAVIV
Ron Haviv is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and an award-winning photojournalist. He co-founded VII Photo Agency and The VII Foundation, where he currently serves as a director. He is dedicated to documenting conflict and raising human rights issues around the globe.
Haviv’s first photography book, Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal, was called “One of the best non-fiction books of the year,” by The Los Angeles Times and “A chilling but vastly important record of a people’s suffering” by Newsweek. His other monographs are Afghanistan: The Road to Kabul, Haiti: 12 January 2010, The Lost Rolls and Shadow of Memory.
Haviv has produced an unflinching record of the injustices of war covering over twenty-five conflicts and his photography has had singular impact. His work in the Balkans, which spanned over a decade of conflict, was used as evidence to indict and convict war criminals at the international tribunal in The Hague. President George H.W Bush cited Haviv’s chilling photographs documenting paramilitary violence in Panama as one of the reasons for the 1989 American intervention.
His work is in the collections of The Getty, Eastman House and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston amongst others and has been seen in numerous other museums and galleries, including the Louvre, United Nations, Council on Foreign Relations, Fotografiska, and the International Center of Photography.
Haviv has co-created multi-platform projects for Doctors Without Borders’ DR Congo: The Forgotten War and Starved for Attention, Unicef’s Child Alert for Darfur and Sri Lanka and the International Committee of the Red Cross’s World at War. His commercial clients include Ad Council, American Express, BAE, Canon USA, ESPN, IBM and Volkswagen.
Haviv is the central character in six documentary films, including National Geographic Explorer’s Freelance in a World of Risk, in which he speaks about the dangers of combat photography, including his numerous detentions and close calls. He has provided expert analysis and commentary on ABC World News, BBC, CNN, NPR, MSNBC, NBC Nightly News, Good Morning America, and The Charlie Rose Show. He has written opinion pieces for the Washington Post and The New York Times and spoken at TEDx along with numerous other lectures at Universities and conferences.
He is currently co-directing two documentaries, Biography of a Photo and Picasso of Harlem.
Exhibition: "MONUMENTAL": The Dome of the Rock by Ziyah Gafic and Notre-Dame de Paris by Tomas van Houtryve
/ 17.10.2025 / 19:00 / Barabar Centre - Grand 4th Floor /
Photo: © Ziyah Gafić – VII Foundation
Exhibition: MONUMENTAL: The Dome of the Rock by Ziyah Gafic and Notre-Dame de Paris by Tomas van Houtryve
A project of The VII Foundation, MONUMENTAL is an exhibition that fosters discussions on faith, national identity, power politics, social cohesion, colonization, division, and political violence through the symbolism of two of the world’s most important and iconic religious buildings: The Dome of the Rock, in Jerusalem, and Notre-Dame de Paris.
The VII Foundation’s contributing photographers Ziyah Gafić and Tomas van Houtryve had unprecedented access to these iconic religious structures between 2019 and 2023.
The Dome of the Rock was completed in A.D. 691 and is the world’s oldest surviving example of Islamic architecture. Today, it is a political lightning rod between Israel, the Palestinians, and the Muslim world.
Since its completion in A.D. 1260, Notre-Dame has been the stage for grand political statements and expressions of divine human authority. The cathedral has a presence in French cultural and political life that reaches far beyond faith and exceeds that of any other architectural structure in the country.
The exhibition is curated by Yonola Viguerie, Gary Knight and James B. Wellford.
ZIYAH GAFIC
Ziyah Gafic (b. 1980, Bosnia) was born in Sarajevo and grew up during the siege of the city. He briefly became a refugee in Italy before returning home, crawling through a tunnel under Sarajevo airport to his father, a fighter in the city’s resistance. His project “Quest for Identity” is a catalog of objects found in mass graves, a document of crimes, and validation and restitution of the individual lives of his neighbors and countrymen who were murdered by Serbian soldiers and paramilitaries before being buried anonymously in mass graves.
Ziyah is Director of The VII Foundation, Sarajevo and an award-winning photojournalist, author, TED speaker and contributor to National Geographic magazine. His photography focuses on societies locked in a perpetual cycle of violence and Muslim communities around the world. Over the past 25 years, he covered major events in the Middle East, Caucasus, Arabian peninsula, and Asia, and his work has received some of the most coveted prizes in photography from World Press Photo, Visa pour l’image, Les Rencontres d’Arles, Prince Claus Fund, National Geographic Society and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
TOMAS van HOUTRYVE
Tomas van Houtryve is an artist, photographer and author who engages critical issues around the world. His major works interweave contemporary concepts, investigative journalism and metaphor, occupying the intersection between art and pure documentary. Many of his projects push the technical limits of photography, from 19th century chemical processes to thermal imaging and Augmented Reality.
Van Houtryve’s work is included in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography Museum (ICP), the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago (MoCP). He is the author of the book Behind the Curtains of 21st Century Communism. His groundbreaking Blue Sky Days series about America’s drone wars was published in Harper’s in 2014 as the largest photo portfolio in the magazine’s 164-year history.
Van Houtryve has been honored with over a dozen top awards, including the ICP Infinity Award, World Press Photo, POY Photographer of the Year and the Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents. He is frequently invited for public speaking engagements and has appeared on the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, ARTE and France 5. He is a CatchLight Pulitzer Fellow.
Exhibition: "Élévations" by Éric Bouvet - VII Foundation
/ 17.10.2025 / 19:00 / Barabar Centre - Grand 4th Floor /
Photo: © Éric Bouvet / VII Foundation
Exhibition: “Élévations” by Éric Bouvet
Opening on Octobar 17, 2025, at the Barabar Centre, Élévations by Éric Bouvet is an exhibition of large format photographs that capture the majestic landscapes of the Alps. While the mountains stand as timeless symbols of natural beauty, Bouvet’s images also serve as a subtle commentary on their vulnerability in the face of climate change and environmental degradation.
Using 19th century photography techniques, Bouvet slows down the photographic process, allowing the viewer to engage deeply with the subject matter. His images invite reflection on the delicate balance between humanity and the natural world, portraying landscapes that are at once enduring and fragile. The exhibition not only showcases the grandeur of the Alps but also subtly points to the growing environmental challenges these regions face, including glacial melting and the impact of rising temperatures.
Bouvet’s work prompts consideration of our relationship with the environment, highlighting the need for greater awareness and action in the face of global climate change. His photographs stand as both a celebration of nature’s beauty and a call to preserve it, inviting viewers to reflect on the pressing environmental issues of our time.
This exhibition is part of a broader initiative by The VII Foundation in collaboration with FOTOIST – International Photography Festival.
ÉRIC BOUVET
Éric Bouvet (b. 1961, France) lives and works on the edge. When he is not carrying 20kgs of 8×10 large format film cameras on his back to the highest Alpine peaks, he is a tireless photographer of conflict, social upheaval, politics, and culture. His photographic oeuvre is one of the most diverse in VII. Eric is a photographer’s photographer lauded by his colleagues for his courage, humanity, and humility for over 42 years in some of the most aggressive and violent territories, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the war in Ukraine
Exhibition: "USA 3.0" - VII Foundation
/ 17.10.2025 / 19:00 / Grand Squere - Outdoor /
Photo: © Danny Wilcox Frazier / VII Foundation
Exhibition: “USA 3.0” by VII Foundation
Curated by: Ron Haviv and Danny Wilcox Frazier
Featuring: Doug Barrett, Jon Cherry, Jordan Gale, Ashley Gilbertson, Ron Haviv, Brooklynn Kascel, Ed Kashi, Joachim Ladefoged, Christopher Lee, Ilvy Njiokiktjien, Nick Rohlman, Joseph Silva, Nichole Sobecki, Maggie Steber, Sara Terry, Nolan Trowe, Anthony Vazquez, Danny Wilcox Frazier, James Year, Adriana Zehbrauskas
USA 3.0 is a visual journalism project that captures and interprets American history in real time, marking this historical period and preserving a record of the past and present and for future generations.
ABOUT ARTISTS:
Doug Barrett is an internationally recognized photographer and cinematographer in Kansas, covering the Midwest. He works to disrupt narratives that perpetuate inequality and underprivileged voices across race, gender, and ability. The perspectives and experiences of these communities shape a more inclusive world.
Jon Cherry is a photojournalist based in Louisville, Kentucky. Jon was awarded the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography as part of the Getty Images team. Cherry aims to capture the true spirit of America while developing his storytelling craft through analysis of the truths that define our time.
Jordan Gale is an American photographer based in Portland, Oregon, specializing in editorial and narrative photography. His work often examines human relationships, community, and current events.
Ashley Gilbertson is an Australian photographer and writer living in New York City, recognized for his critical eye and unique approach to social issues. For over 20 years, Gilbertson focused on refugees and conflict, an interest that, in 2002, led him to Iraq. His work from that country was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal, and in 2007, Gilbertson’s book, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, was released, becoming a bestseller.
Ron Haviv is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and an award-winning photojournalist. He co-founded VII Photo Agency and The VII Foundation, where he serves as a director. He is dedicated to documenting conflict and raising global human rights issues.
Brooklynn T. Kascel is a queer documentary photographer from Iowa who makes nonfiction photographic essays. Working within the sociological framework of human ecology, Brooklynn interacts with themes of gender, queerness, intimacy, Christianity, and the family unit to study social systems.
A powerhouse of energy and creativity, Ed Kashi is a photojournalist and filmmaker dedicated to documenting the social and geopolitical issues that define our times. In addition to photography and filmmaking, Kashi is an educator and leading voice in photojournalism, documentary photography, and visual storytelling.
Joachim Ladefoged is one of VII’s most inventive and creative photographers. His highly accomplished career has seen him master complex, violent news stories, commercial assignments, daily news, and rich, vibrant, and spectacular feature stories. Joachim is credited with being one of the driving forces behind the new wave of Danish photojournalism.
Ilvy Njiokiktjien is an independent photographer and multimedia journalist based in the Netherlands. She has worked in many parts of the world, focusing on Africa. As a news and documentary photographer, she covers current affairs and contemporary social issues. She was born in the Netherlands, and after leaving school, studied for a year in South Dakota (USA) before returning home to study journalism and photography.
Nick Rohlman is a documentary photographer and photojournalist in Eastern Iowa. He works as a staff photojournalist at the Cedar Rapids Gazette and has covered everything from presidential elections to the local decorative mustard contest.
Joseph Silva is a United States Navy Veteran and a Documentary Fine Art Photographer. Silva has spent time documenting deported veterans, from the Vietnam War to the conflicts of today.
Nichole Sobecki is an American photographer and filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya. Nichole has been recognized by Pictures of the Year, the One World Media Awards, and the Alexandra Boulat Award for Photojournalism, and her work has been exhibited internationally. Sobecki aims to create photographs and films that demand consideration for the lives of those represented–their joys, challenges, and ultimately, their humanity.
Maggie Steber, a documentary photographer specializing in humanistic stories, has worked in 67 countries. Her honors include a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Leica Medal of Excellence, World Press Photo Foundation, the Overseas Press Club, Pictures of the Year, the Medal of Honor for Distinguished Service to Journalism from the University of Missouri, the Alicia Patterson Grant, the Ernst Haas Grant, and a Knight Foundation grant for the New American Newspaper project. Steber has worked in Haiti for three decades. Aperture published her monograph, Dancing on Fire.
Sara Terry is an award-winning documentary photographer and filmmaker known for covering post-conflict stories. She is a Guggenheim Fellow for her long-term project, Forgiveness and Conflict: Lessons from Africa. Her first long-term post-conflict work, After Bosnia: Bosnia’s Road to Peace, led her to found The Aftermath Project on the premise that “War is Only Half the Story.” An accomplished speaker on aftermath and visual literacy issues, her lectures include a TedX talk, “Storytelling in a Post-Journalism World.” Her third documentary, A Decent Home, concerns mobile home parks and the affordable housing crisis.
Nolan Trowe has focused on stories around disability. He suffered a spinal cord injury at the L-1 level and was diagnosed with incomplete paraplegia on June 21, 2016. He is interested in “exploring the mystery of what it means to be a human being, more than any other thing.”
Anthony Vazquez is a photojournalist for the Chicago Sun-Times, concentrating on the city’s south and west sides. Anthony became interested in journalism while enlisted in the Marine Corps, and after his service, pursued journalism at the University of Iowa, where he served as photo editor of The Daily Iowan.
Documentary photographer and filmmaker Danny Wilcox Frazier focuses on marginalized communities in and outside the United States. His work is centered on the Midwest and his home state of Iowa and is born from a commitment and love for his neighbors and community. He photographs people struggling to survive the economic shift that has devastated rural communities throughout the parts of America disparaged and misunderstood by so many in the USA and abroad.
James Year is a documentary and editorial photographer who specializes in still photography. He originates from a rural, working-class background and has six years of professional aviation experience while enlisted in the United States Air Force. He is currently focusing on projects that focus on the intersection of labor, technology, and the environment.
Adriana Zehbrauskas is a Brazilian documentary photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona. Her work focuses on issues related to migration, religion, human rights, climate change, and underrepresented communities. Her photographs have been featured in numerous international publications. She is the Howard G. Buffet Visiting Professor of Visual Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
Exhibition: "The Unknown Albanians" by Ben Blushi
/ 17.10.2025 / 19:00 / Hajde Cultural Centre - Grand 6th Floor /
Photo: © Ben Blushi
Exhibition: “The Unknown Albanians” by Ben Blushi
The Unknown Albanians
On my birthday, January 1, 2022, with a camera in my hands, I stepped out for the first time into the empty streets of Tirana to take photographs. My first shots were all blurry, unfocused, and filled with unnecessary details. That day, I learned how to press the shutter without yet understanding that taking a photo and making a photograph are two very different things. The shutter is pressed by the finger, but the photograph is made by the mind. The eye unites these two actions, across time and space. Unaware of this secret in the beginning, the people who appeared in my photographs were sitting on benches or standing still, because movement is the greatest enemy of young and insecure photographers, as I was at the time. And yet, the lives of these people who entered, one by one, through my camera into my computer, were something wonderful. Suddenly, I had hundreds of new friends. From their faces, I could sense joy, sadness, fatigue, and the quiet impatience of life. These people, whom I didn’t know, had become part of my memory archive. From them, I learned that, unlike a writer, who resembles a still fisherman, a photographer is more like a hunter. One must tire themselves out, run, and stumble through the bushes of uncertainty until they discover a movement, sense a breath, and capture a moment in the endless forest of the world’s colors. This is precisely the magic of photography: the preservation of a fleeting moment. You can press the shutter at any time and take a picture, but only by capturing a moment can you occasionally make a truly great photograph. In photography, no moment is ever the same as another, and no shutter ever produces the exact same image twice. I experienced this magic while walking through cities and villages, along abandoned beaches, inside ruined buildings, and through old neighborhoods, places that evoke a constant displacement of people from one place to another. In search of that moment, and of a better photograph, I will continue walking, pointing my lens at the faces of unknown people. And that is why this exhibition is called Unknown Albanians, a sign of gratitude to those anonymous individuals who taught me how to photograph. (text by Ben Blushi)
Ben Blushi’s exhibition The Unknown Albanians opens a new window onto the complexity and richness of Albanian life, presenting individuals who, though traditionally unknown, are integral to the living history and everyday culture of Albania. Blushi, known for his deep and intimate approach to his subjects, unveils a gallery of characters who remain outside the spotlight, offering a powerful narrative about those who live and act far from the center stage of public life. Blushi creates a visual experience that prompts reflection on the relationship between individuals and their social spaces. These images are simple yet meaningful pauses, a chance to notice what is so often overlooked. With this exhibition, Ben Blushi invites us to look beyond the surface, to deconstruct conventional narratives, and to embrace a broader, richer Albania, where every individual, known or unknown, is part of the country’s cultural and historical fabric. (text by Rubin Kadiu)
BEN BLUSHI
Ben Blushi is an Albanian writer, photographer, and public intellectual whose work spans literature, journalism, and visual storytelling. Known for his deeply reflective novels and essays, Blushi has become one of the most influential literary voices in contemporary Albanian culture. His fiction, often rich in historical depth and political nuance, explores themes of identity, memory, and social transformation. His novel Otello, Arapi i Vlorës was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature in 2014 and translated into multiple languages.
In recent years, Blushi has turned his attention to photography, approaching it with the same humanistic curiosity and narrative depth that define his writing. His photographic work focuses on ordinary people in overlooked spaces, portraying them with intimacy, dignity, and quiet power. His latest project, Unknown Albanians, is both a photographic archive and a personal journey through Albania’s social and emotional landscapes, capturing the invisible presence of everyday lives.
Through both words and images, Blushi continues to document and question the complexities of Albanian society, bridging the personal and the political, the poetic and the real.
Exhibition: "Life in Limbo" by Igor Čoko
/ 18.10.2025 / 19:00 / Barabar Centre - Grand 4th Floor /
Photo: © Igor Čoko
Exhibition: “Life in Limbo” by Igor Čoko
“Life in Limbo”, a striking photography exhibition and book launch by renowned Serbian photographer Igor Čoko, with text by acclaimed writer and journalist Slaven Rašković.
Life in Limbo captures the haunting realities and silent endurance of those living on the margins, refugees, the displaced, and the forgotten. Through raw, intimate black-and-white images, Čoko reveals the emotional and physical scars etched into the lives of individuals caught in long-term uncertainty, statelessness, and social invisibility. Rašković’s evocative text gives voice to their pain, resilience, and longing for dignity.
At its heart, this is the story of Knin during a turbulent time, a visual and literary exploration of war, trauma, manipulation, and wounds that refuse to heal. Life in Limbo confronts the past that many would prefer to forget, offering a profound reflection on (non)belonging, on illusions and stereotypes, and on the conflicting perceptions of shared histories. With an unflinching yet honest approach, the authors have crafted a document of time anchored in witness testimony, stripped of sentimental nostalgia, yet deeply emotional and personal.
Hosted at the third edition of FOTOIST, this powerful exhibition is both a document of our times and a humanistic call for empathy and understanding. It is a testament to photography’s role in confronting uncomfortable truths and telling the stories that are often neglected.
IGOR ČOKO
Igor Čoko was born in Knin, Croatia in 1975. He holds a degree in Ethnology and Anthropology. In his role of visual anthropologist, he uses his camera to capture and explore the sensibility of the street life, its people and life of stigmatized social groups. He is a editor in chief at the Grain photo magazine that showcase street and documentary photography. His photographs are published in leading magazines and newspapers from former Yugoslavia states and Europe, and thematic street photography e magazines and websites around Globe. He exhibited his work in Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Italy, Greece, USA, Spain, Portugal, France and Romania. He lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia