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Foundry Photojournalism Workshop

Foundry Instructor Michael Robinson Chávez exchanges introductions with his students at the start of Foundry 2012. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2012
Foundry provides more than just photojournalism classes. It creates an international hub for new connections. "That’s what we want, we want people who wouldn’t normally be able to come to come and learn and tell their own stories," says Eric Beecroft. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2011
Outdoors at Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Chiang Mai, Thailand, instructor Magie Steber works one-on-one with a student. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2012
Alison Morley points to the cover of LIFE as she teaches. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2011
Henrik Kastenskov points to his diagram on "building a soundscape" during his multimedia class at Foundry Photojournalism Workshop. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2011
Maggie Steber addresses her class at Foundry 2011. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2011 Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2011
Foundry Instructor Ron Haviv reviews student work during Portfolio Review Night At Foundry 2011 in Argentina. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2011.
Foundry students enjoy a snack while signing up for portfolio reviews. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2012
Maggie Steber works with a student during a portfolio review in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2012
Portfolio reviews run into the evening at Foundy Photojournalism Workshop 2012. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz, 2012
The full moon presides over Foundry Photojounalism Workshop 2012 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2012
To capture the excitement of Foundry for posterity, Andrea Bruce has her students leap into the pool for their class photo. Courtesy, © Suzie Katz 2012

Foundry 2023

Foundry: Bringing top-tier, affordable photojournalism education to the world

Deadline to apply: October 23, 2023 at 23:59pm EDT

November 1st: Welcome event with special presentations

November 2nd to December 2nd: Four online sessions comprising three small group classes (no more than eight students per class) and a one-on-one meeting with your teacher. Schedule dependent on Teacher

December 8th-10th: Presentations followed by Q&A, student presentations, awards, portfolio reviews, and social mixers. We’ll learn and then celebrate!

Foundry Photojournalism Workshop provides majority world students who could not otherwise afford it, a chance to learn from some of the world's most well-respected photojournalists and photography professionals. During the pandemic, PhotoWings will partner with the VII Academy to offer an online version of the Workshop.

Following up on a conversation on the Lightstalkers website, an online community of photojournalists and travelers, Foundry first came into being in 2008 when Co-Founders Eric and Sharon Beecroft, asked some of the top working photojournalists to donate a week of their time to the project. They wanted volunteer teachers with real world experience whose enthusiasm and passion for photography, and skill in teaching the craft, would ignite their students’ desire to tell the stories of their own communities. The response was overwhelming.

Today Foundry instructors still volunteer their time and talent, coming to the workshop from the region and abroad, bringing with them a commitment to a better future through responsible visual journalism. Past instructors have included Ben Bohane, Paula Braunstein, Andrea Bruce, Oscar Castillo, Michael Robinson Chavez, James Whitlow Delano, Edward Echwalu, Andrew Eisebo, Ashley Gilbertson, Ron Haviv, Natalie Keyssar, Sebastian Liste, Kirsten Luce, Jared Moossy, Ashima Nahrain, Daniel Schwartz, Smita Sharma, Nichole Sobecki, Maggie Steber, John Stanmeyer, Sarah Waiswa, and Adrianna Zehbrauskas, among others.

Foundry Photojournalism Workshops have been held in Mexico City (2008), Manali (2009), Istanbul (2010), Buenos Aires (2011), Chiang Mai (2012), Sarajevo (2013), Antigua (2014), Bali (2015), Cape Town (2016), a return to Mexico City for the 10th year anniversary (2017), Kolkata (2018) and Kigali (2019). Foundry students have gone on to successful careers, publishing stories for National Geographic, The New York Times, Time, Stern, Paris Match and have won prestigious awards ranging from the Pulitzer Prize to POY to World Press and more. Some have returned to Foundry to teach the next generation.

In our 10 years as a Foundry partner, PhotoWings has created an archive of Foundry faculty interviews, Lessons In The Field, evening presentations and photos to educate and inspire the Foundry community and beyond. Our extensive online content and lessons on our website are available to all.

Foundry 2021 operated from
November 10 to December 12, 2021.

About Foundry
Watch: Interviews and InSights

Foundry 2023 Instructors
Ali Arkady , Michael Robinson Chavez , Manoocher Deghati , Marko Drobnjakovic,Stephen Ferry ,
Stefano De Luigi , Kirsten Luce,Smita Sharma , Maggie Steber , and Adriana Zehbrauskas .

Foundry 2023 Welcome Presentation
Suzie Katz, PhotoWings President and Founder

Renowned photo editor Alison Morley provides insight into her process for editing photography books, and how she carefully selects and sequences photos.

Alison Morley is a photo editor, consultant and educator. She is Chair Emeritus of the Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism Program at the International Center of Photography in New York where she led a wide range of international students since 2000. As a photo editor, she has been the Photography Director of The New York Times Sophisticated Traveler, Audubon, Civilization, Esquire, Mirabella, Elle, and The Los Angeles Times Magazine. Currently, she works as a book and portfolio consultant and educator for photographers and partnering institutions globally. She has written on photography for magazines and books and has lectured and led workshops in the United States as well as in Argentina, Bangladesh, China, Colombia, Hungary, Italy, Peru, The Philippines, Spain, Thailand and Uganda.

PhotoWings proudly helps support the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop as part of our mission to highlight and help facilitate the power of photography to influence the world. PhotoWings and Foundry share a mutual conviction in the importance of photography being better understood, created, utilized, seen and saved.

PhotoWings believes the insights, skills, thinking, and perspectives from successful members of the photographic world are translatable and transferable into education, work, and life in general. Year after year, Foundry’s remarkable instructors and staff demonstrate the value of these qualities, and we are honored to share this content with the world.

PhotoWings sat down with six of the esteemed instructors at the 2014 Foundry Photojournalism Workshop and asked them a simple question: What is it about photography that you find so powerful and important? They share heartfelt thoughts about their experiences and the work they have dedicated their lives to.

2023 Instructors

Ali Arkady

[Individual Classes taught in Arabic and Kurdish]

Ali Arkady is an artist, photographer, and filmmaker from Iraq. In 2009, Ali joined Metrography, the first Iraqi photo agency; in 2014, he joined VII Photo Agency as part of the VII Mentor Program. In 2017, Ali had to flee Iraq with his family when his life was threatened after photographing Iraqi armed forces committing war crimes. He sought refuge in Europe, where he was granted asylum and has subsequently built a new life.

His photographs of war crimes in Iraq were published worldwide by international media and put pressure on the Iraqi government to acknowledge the crimes committed by their soldiers. For this work, he won the prestigious Bayeux Prize for War Correspondents in 2017 and the Free Press Unlimited Most Resilient Journalist Award in 2019 for his exceptional courage and persistence. In addition, his work was shown as part of the Venice Biennale 2017.

Ali’s work focused on armed conflict and the daily life of his fellow citizens during the American occupation and the rise of the Islamic State. For over 18 years, he has portrayed the conflicts that Iraq has experienced and the consequences of that conflict with sensitivity and an unflinching eye. His work in Iraq also includes illuminating the Yazidis’ plight, the Islamic State’s violence, and the ensuing displacement of internal populations. He has also worked in Syria, Turkey, Tunisia, and Europe.

He became a teacher in a UNHCR program for several Yazidi girls fleeing Islamic State who wanted to train to be photojournalists. He continues to mentor several of the students seven years later, and, in addition, he teaches young men and women from the Arab-speaking world through programs at the VII Academy.

Michael Robinson Chavez

[Classes taught in Spanish]

Michael Robinson Chávez, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning photographer for The Washington Post, became seduced by photography after a friend gave him a camera before a trip to Peru in 1988. A native Californian and half Peruvian, he previously worked with the Associated Press, The Boston Globe and The Los Angeles Times and is a graduate of San Francisco State University. Robinson Chávez has covered assignments in over 75 countries including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the collapse of Venezuela, violence in Mexico, tsunamis in Indonesia and Chile, the Egyptian revolution, gold mining in Peru and the 2006 Hezbollah/Israeli war.

He was part of a team from The Washington Post awarded a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the January 6th coup attempt on the US Capitol and for Explanatory Journalism in 2019 covering climate change. He is also a three-time winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Photojournalism and was named Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year International in 2020. His photographs have been exhibited in France, Australia, Peru, United States, Croatia, Georgia and Spain. He teaches photo workshops through the Leica Akademie.

Manoocher Deghati

[Classes taught in Farsi]

Manoocher Deghati has been photographing news, conflicts and social issues around the globe since 1978, starting with the Iranian revolution and subsequent war between Iran and Iraq.

After being exiled from his native country in 1985, he worked for several major agencies (Black Star, Sipa, Keystone, AFP) and important international magazines, such as Time, Life, Newsweek, Paris Match, GEO, and National Geographic Magazine. In addition, he held management positions and photographed for the United Nations on four continents.

In 2002, he founded the AINA Photojournalism Institute in Kabul. After directing the photo operation for The Associated Press in the Middle East for four years, he decided to teach and work as an independent photographer from his home base in Southern Italy.

Stefano De Luigi

[Classes taught in French]

Stefano De Luigi began shooting in 1989 after studies at ISF (Instituto Superiore di Fotografia) in Rome. In 2000 he received the Honorable Mention of Leica Oskar Barnack Award. That same year he started Pornoland, a photographic journey on pornographic movie sets around the world. In 2004 Pornoland became a book with 16 pages of text by Martin Amis. Pornoland has been published by Thames & Hudson, Knessebeck, La Martinière and Contrasto. and has been exhibited at REA gallery (Paris 2004), Santa Cecilia gallery (Rome 2005), Lanificio (Naples 2006), Festival Transphotographiques (Lille 2007), and the New York Photo Festival (NY 2011).

He has held personal exhibitions at WHO Headquarters (Geneva 2010), VII Gallery (New York 2010), 10b Gallery (Rome 2010), Museum of Modern Art (Rovereto 2011), Photofestival (Athens 2011/15), Fondazione Stelline (Milan, 2013) FotoIstanbul (2015) , Candiani Cultural Center (Venice 2017) Plenum Gallery (Catania 2018) Museum of Palazzo Ducale (Genes 2019) Image Gibellina 2021, Photolux (Lucca 2022) Planches Contact (Deauville 2022).

From 2003 to 2010, he worked on Blindness, his main work, which lasted 8 years as a photographic project on the life condition of blind and low vision people around the world. Blindness received the patronage of Vision 2020- World Health Organisation and won the W.E. Smith Fellowship Grant in 2007.

In 2006 he began project Cinema Mundi, a World Cinema exploration of the alternative cinematographic scene external to the Hollywood dream factory including China, Russia, Iran, Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea and India. Cinema Mundi has been also transformed into a 7-minute short movie screened at Locarno International Film Festival on August 4th, 2007.

He has been awarded in the World Press Photo contest four times in different categories (1998-2007-2010-2011). In 2009, the Moving Walls of Open Society Foundation exhibited his work in Washington and New York. In 2010 He was the recipient of the Days Japan International Photojournalism Award and the Getty Grant for Editorial Photography, Syngenta Prize 2015, CNC grant for the documentary”Mare Amarum” 2019, Planches Contacts grant 2022.

He has published 5 books: Pornoland (Contrasto 2004), Blanco, (Trolley book 2010) iDyssey, (Edition Bessard 2017) Babel with Michela Battaglia (Postcart 2018), and Pornoland Redux (Self-published 2021). His newest book is Il Bel Paese, which will be presented in ParisPhoto next November.

Marko Drobnjakovic

[Classes taught in Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian]

Marko Drobnjakovic is a freelance documentary photographer based out of Belgrade, Serbia. He graduated from Belgrade University with a B. Sc. and M. Sc. in Engineering. His photography focuses on post-conflict societies, and includes stories related to the Iraq conflict, the turmoil and escalation of conflict in Ukraine, the rise and fall of ISIS in northern Iraq, the refugee crisis in Europe and the aftermath and consequences of the Yugoslav wars.

Marko worked on feature assignments for publications and clients that include The Associated Press, NBC, MSF, International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, Der Spiegel, El Pais and The New Yorker. Awards and grants include the Magnum Foundation Grant, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Breaking News Photography, Yunghi Kim Grant, Aftermath Project Grant finalist, Ochberg Fellowship, Logan Nonfiction Fellowship, Alfred Toepfer Fellowship Grant.

Stephen Ferry

[Classes taught in Spanish]

Since the late 1980s, Stephen Ferry has traveled to dozens of countries, covering social and political change, human rights, and the environment. He has contributed to the New York Times, GEO, TIME, National Geographic and many other publications. Stephen has also worked as a visual investigator with Human Rights Watch.

His first book, I Am Rich Potosí: The Mountain that Eats Men (Monacelli, 1999) documents the historical legacy of the Spanish Conquest on the Quechua miners of Potosí, Bolivia. Violentology: A Manual of the Colombian Conflict(Umbrage/Icono, 2012) is the result of over ten years of documentation and investigation into Colombia’s complex armed conflict. Violentology received the first Tim Hetherington Grant, awarded by World Press Photo and Human Rights Watch for the long-term documentation of human rights issues. In 2018, Stephen and his sister, the anthropologist Elizabeth Ferry, published LA BATEA(Icono/Red Hook Editions, 2018).

Stephen’s work has received numerous prizes in international photographic contests, and has received grants and fellowships from the National Geographic Expeditions Council, the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, the Alicia Patterson Foundation, the Howard Chapnick Fund, the Knight International Press Fellowship, the Getty Images Grant for Good grant, the Open Society Foundations and the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund, among others.

Kirsten Luce

[Classes taught in English]

Kirsten Luce is an independent photojournalist based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a regular contributor to The New York Times and National Geographic. She is best known for her documentation of immigration and law enforcement on the US/Mexico border and a cover story for National Geographic looking at the dark side of wildlife tourism.

She began her career at the American newspapers The Monitor in McAllen, TX, and The Birmingham News in Alabama and remains a huge proponent of community-based journalism.

She was an adjunct assistant professor of photojournalism at Columbia University from 2013-2017 and she has taught photojournalism at Foundry Photojournalism Workshops and National Geographic Photo Camps around the world.

Smita Sharma

[Classes taught in Hindi/English]

Smita Sharma is a Delhi based award winning photojournalist and visual storyteller reporting on critical human rights, gender, social justice and environmental issues in her own community as well as in the Global South on assignments for Human Rights Watch, National Geographic Magazine, TIME and other publications.

From documenting the effect of pregnancy on girl’s education in Kenya to child marriage in Nepal, and sex-trafficking in South Asia, Sharma is committed to representing people with dignity and telling underrepresented stories with impact.

Smita is a TED fellow, TED Speaker and an IWMF reporting fellow. For Stolen Lives, her in-depth work documenting minor sex trafficking in India and Bangladesh for National Geographic Magazine, she received the Amnesty International Media award for photojournalism and the Fetisov Journalism Award for Outstanding Investigative Reporting. Smita also received the Indian Of The Year award 2017, Exceptional Women of Excellence award 2018, Las Fotos Advocacy 2021 award and One World Media UK award for her short film Rebels with a Cause.

Smita is actively engaged in public speaking, victim advocacy and international public education and her work has been exhibited and shown globally, including at the UN Headquarters in New York. She recently published her first photo book We Cry In Silence documenting cross-border trafficking of underage girls in South Asia published by FotoEvidence and is organising a campaign in the region aimed at educating and raising awareness amongst the communities most vulnerable to human trafficking.

She is a member of The Photo Society, a community of National Geographic Magazine photographers and part of Women Photograph and Diversify Photo community. She has taken HEFAT training in Mexico City and is available for assignments and public speaking globally.

Sharma is a graduate from the photojournalism and documentary photography program of International Center of Photography, New York and has a post graduate diploma in Journalism from University of Pune.

Book – ‘We Cry in Silence’ published by FotoEvidence in September 2022.

Watch Smita’s TED talk presented at TEDWomen 2021.

Maggie Steber

[Classes taught in English]

Maggie Steber, a documentary photographer specializing in humanistic stories, has worked in 67 countries. Her honors include a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation in 2017, 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.”

In 2013, Steber was named as one of eleven “Women of Vision” by National Geographic Magazine with an exhibition that traveled to five cities. Steber served as a Newsweek contract photographer and as Assistant Managing Editor of Photography and Features at The Miami Herald, overseeing projects that won a Pulitzer. Her work is included in the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Foundation Collection, and The Richter Library. She exhibits internationally. Clients include National Geographic Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, AARP, The Guardian, and Geo Magazine. Steber teaches workshops internationally including at the World Press Joop Swart Master Classes, the International Center for Photography, Foundry Workshops, and the Obscura Photo Festival.

Adriana Zehbrauskas

[Classes taught in Portuguese]

Adriana Zehbrauskas is a Brazilian documentary photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona. Her work is largely focused on issues related to migration, religion, human rights, underrepresented communities and the violence resulting from the drug trade in Mexico, Central and South America. As a documentary photographer the core of her work is aimed at moving, challenging and connecting people through the stories she works on.

She contributes regularly with the The New York Times, UNICEF, CNN, The Washington Post and The Guardian. Her work has been widely published in outlets such as The New Yorker, Stern, Der Spiegel, Le Monde, Libération, Folha de S. Paulo, Bloomberg and El País, among others.

She is the recipient of a 2022/23 Robert Capa Gold Medal Award Citation, 2021 Maria Moors Cabot Prize , 2021 Anja Niedringhaus Courage In Photojournalism Award Honorable Mention, a New York Press Club Award in Feature-Science Medicine and Technology in the Newspaper category for the article “Zika’s Legacy: Catastrophic Consequences of a Continuing Crisis (NY-2018) and a POY International (2019). She was a finalist for the Premio Gabo (2018) and received two Honorable Mentions at the Julia Margaret Cameron Award (2018).

Adriana is one of the three photographers profiled in the documentary “Beyond Assignment” (USA, 2011, produced by The Knight Center for International Media and the University of Miami. She’s a recipient of the first Getty Images Instagram Grant (2015) and was awarded Best Female Photojournalist in her native Brazil (Troféu Mulher Imprensa). Her mobile photography work was selected by Time Magazine for the “29 Instagrams That Defined the World in 2014″ and her project on Faith in Brazil and Mexico was awarded a Art & Worship World Prize by the Niavaran Artistic Creation Foundation.

She’s an instructor with the International Center of Photography (ICP- NY), the World Press Photo Foundation, Gabriel García Márquez’s Fundación Gabo, the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop and serves as a jury member to dozens of grants and awards worldwide, including the World Press Photo, POY LATAM and Premio Gabo.

Image Gallery

Interviews and InSights

PhotoWings and Foundry Photojournalism Workshop teamed up to bring you interviews with some of Foundry’s instructors. Click on the videos below to see the instructors’ InSights into some of photography’s interesting and important topics.