Sarajevo Campus
The Bosnia campus of the VII Academy is located in the heart of Sarajevo, at Ferhadija 25. It represents a return to the beginning for VII, as many of the founding photographers first met and worked together during the Balkan conflict in the 1990’s.
Welcoming photographers from around the world at events like VII in Sarajevo: Festival of the Image 2019, the VII Academy will provide a meeting point for those engaged in visual journalism across the Balkans and surrounding region.

O Nama - VII Akademija
Strategija VII Akademije je promocija, obrazovanje i njegovanje visokokvalitetnog međunarodnog novinarstva kroz obrazovno usavršavanje profesionalaca i studenata iz većeg dijela svijeta kroz process stipendiranja, a u manje zastupljenim zajednicama u zemljama G20, obrazovanje se vrši u medijskoj praksi, vizuelnom novinarstvu, narativu, etici, poslovanju i preduzetništvu, te je cilj dugoročno stvoriti kulturu u kojoj se narativna informacija demokratizira.
VII Akademija je obrazovna grana Fondacije VII, a finansiraju je Jennifer Stengaard Gross i Peter Stengaard iz Fondacije Blue Chip, The William Jeff i Porodična fondacija Jennifer Gross. Fondacija VII je nezavisna, dobrotvorna medijska i obrazovna neprofitna organizacija. Fondaciju su osnovali Ron Haviv i Gary Knight tokom 2001. godine, kada su prepoznali da se izvori za finansiranja dugoročnih medijskih projekata smanjuju. Kako bi nastavili sa stvaranjem medijskog prostora i radova koji se bave složenim socijalnim, ekonomskim i ljudskim pravima, pokrenuli su VII Fondaciju kao nezavisnu neprofitnu strukturu kako bi osigurali podršku za nastavak dokumentarne prakse i obrazovanja.
Sa kampusima na dvije strateške lokacije, VII Akademija nudi najviše obrazovne standarde u području izučavanja oblasti fotografije, novinarske etike, poslovne prakse i treninga u stvarnom svijetu. Kroz stipendiranje obrazovanje se vrši učešćem u programima, seminarima i radionicama na kampusu VII Akademije, te događajima poput „VII u Sarajevu: Festival slike“, VII Akademija stvara važnu mentorsku mrežu između iskusnih veterana i talentovanih i predanih mladih fotografa.
Information
Events
In 2020 the Sarajevo campus will again organize “VII in Sarajevo: Festival of the Image.” A full program of workshops and seminars throughout the year is also planned.
How to apply
Please refer to our individual program pages for information on how to attend one of our events or how to apply to one of our programs. We recommend you read our FAQ before completing an application.
Our Team in Sarajevo

Hasnija Zulić
Manager of Operations

Lejna Čelebičić
Program Coordinator
News
Review: Lecture: The Breakup: Photographs from 1991-2000
November 19, 2019
Presenters Ron Haviv and Christopher Morris
For the first time ever, photographers Christopher Morris and Ron Haviv spoke together about their images from the dissolution of the Former Yugoslavia. Moderated in conversation by Image of War Zagreb Director Danilo Gregovic, the discussion touched on some of the most famous images of the various wars and the stories behind them.
Review: Sarajevo Seminar for Narrative and Documentary Practice Session 1
September 21-28, 2019
Lead Instructors: Dr Paul Lowe and Ziyah Gafic
Sixteen students attended the introductory week of the multi-session training program in independent journalism.
Partner: USM Modular Furniture
Thank you USM Switzerland for the chic and modern office furniture now installed in the VII Academy premises in Sarajevo!
The VII Academy thanks USM Modular Furniture for their generous donation to outfit the Sarajevo campus.
Check out the journey from Switzerland to Bosnia where installation was finished in time for the Sarajevo campus to open its doors to 15 students from the greater Balkan region.
Review: No Man’s Land: A Workshop for Women
May 9 – 11, 2019,
Instructors: Nichole Sobecki, Linda Bournane Engelberth, Sara Terry
In this special workshop that took place during “VII in Sarajevo: Festival of the Image”, Sara Terry, Nichole Sobecki and Linda Bournane Engelberth worked with twenty-one women photographers to elevate their work to the next level by highlighting women’s unique perspectives. Spanning three days and aimed at committed visual journalist and artists, the workshop was entirely free to chosen participants. The group facilitated discussions on the challenges facing female photojournalists and how to overcome them to carve out careers in this demanding industry, advice on professional networking, how to edit portfolios, and strategies for finding and creating paid work.
Review: After the Image 2019
This three-day “After the Image” workshop with VII Photo Agency’s Philip Blenkinsop and Daniel Schwartz in Sarajevo addressed the critical period between the end of a photographic project and the moment when a designer genius embarks on squeezing your images and vision into a book that will neither make you proud nor rich, or when an artist-turned-curator hijacks them to illustrate his agenda. In other words, the period when you need to exercise an author’s authority but still want to listen to those with experience in making books and exhibitions. Generally, it is a period marked by mental exhaustion, self-doubt, and disappointment. Nothing you had envisaged in the field seems to work on pages or walls.
Review: VII in Sarajevo: Festival of the Image 2019
In May 2019, the VII Academy, the educational arm of the VII Foundation, hosted “VII in Sarajevo: Festival of the Image”: two workshops, thirty-one students, nine presentations, panel discussions on the state of the media in the Balkans, conversations with VII Photo Agency photographers, and an exhibition “Her Take: (Re)Thinking Masculinity,” featuring the work of the seven women photographers of VII. There were 200 festival participants from thirty-seven countries, including fifty-six scholarships for students from the region!