What is Dispatches?
Dispatches is where you will find the best writing on the role of images in our world, along with new and diverse visual stories from around the globe.
We focus on non-fiction photography, documentary storytelling, and visual journalism. In a world where beliefs and actions are increasingly out-of-sync with facts and realities, we believe that analyzing, debating, and promoting high-quality visual reports is an urgent task.
Who are we?
Dispatches is the blog of VII Insider and edited by David Campbell.
VII Insider is a free online platform that takes you inside the profession of photography, documentary storytelling, and visual journalism to advance the production and analysis of new stories. In addition to publishing Dispatches, VII Insider offers regular live presentations online and an extensive video collection of those previous events.
VII Insider is a program of The VII Foundation in partnership with PhotoWings.
The ‘VII’ in our name is the Roman numeral for seven and, therefore, pronounced as ‘seven.’ It comes from VII Photo, which was originally established in 2001 and became one of the leading photojournalism agencies in the world.
In 2023, VII Photo was acquired by The VII Foundation, making it one of the pillars of the foundation and part of the non-profit VII ecosystem instead of being a separate entity. The mission of The VII Foundation is to transform visual journalism by empowering new voices and creating stories that advocate change. In addition to VII Photo, The VII Foundation comprises VII Academy, VII Insider, VII Community, and VII Films.
Why subscribe?
For starters, you’ll never miss a post. Every new article goes directly to your inbox. Automatically. And you can download the Substack app to make reading easy on all your devices.
We publish two new items each month, which will increase as our contributor list grows. We’re also hoping to begin podcasting here before too long.
As a Dispatches subscriber, you will get some of the best writing about the function, power, and impact of images today. We will cover important questions of ethics, politics, and representation related to the visual. We will analyze the ongoing revolution in the media economy and the challenges image makers face in producing and distributing their reports. We will also be bringing you new and diverse visual stories. We aim to take you inside the profession and be the space for deep dives and debates about photography, documentary stories, and visual journalism.
Although we are launching on Substack in October 2023, we have had a blog on VII Insider since 2021, and we have imported that archive to this site. As a result, there are 44 previously published articles you can enjoy here. From now on, all our articles will only published on Substack.
Who contributes to Dispatches?
We have writers from around the world who are authorities on their subjects. We are looking for more contributors–whom we pay–so if you are interested or know someone who could be, reach out to us at vii-insider@theviifoundation.org with details or a pitch.
Any questions?
If you have additional questions, please contact us at vii-insider@theviifoundation.org.
