Academy’s goal is to create works dealing with complex social, economic, and human rights issues, as well as creating the media space for them. This independent non-profit organization emerged from the VII Foundation, founded by world-famous photographers Ron Haviv and Gary Knight in 2001.
BAFTA Scotland (New Talent) Award-winning photographer and filmmaker Chris Leslie began taking photographs whilst volunteering in the Former Yugoslavia in 1996. This led to the development of his career as a photographer, filmmaker, and communications manager for an international NGO documenting stories across Africa and Eastern Europe.
Almin Zrno’s love for photography started long ago, when, following his intuition, he knocked on the door of the famous CEDUS photography club. This introduced him to the world of his future profession. His career has been marked by various photographic expressions. Today, he finds his expression in nude and portrait photographs.
Dijana Muminović, a Master of Visual Communications, is an award-winning Bosnian-American photographer who, through documentary photography, tells stories about immigrants, human rights, and the consequences of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Džemil Hodžić was just a child when his brother Amel was tragically killed by a sniper during the siege of Sarajevo. Driven by a desire to find photos of his brother, he established the Sniper Alley platform in 2019, with the aim of collecting photographs, particularly those of children who lived through the Sarajevo siege. However, the Sniper Alley project is more than a mere collection of photographs, it is a testimony to survivor resilience.
As part of the interdisciplinary project “PRESENT PAST” organized this year by the Goethe Institute in Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Skopje, a group of artists crafted an artistic response to the cultural and political neighborly relations among their respective countries—past and present. The initiative included four authors from Croatia, five cartoonists from Serbia, two photographers from Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one performance artist from North Macedonia.