"Questions Without Answers"
a public symposium with members of the photo agency VII 

CPW invites you to join us on Sunday October 10, 2010 at 1pm for a very special public symposium entitled Questions Without Answers, a unique discussion with the Center for Photography at Woodstock’s 2010 Vision Award honorees, the photo agency VII. 

Founded on September 9, 2001 VII (which derives its name from the number of founding photo-journalists who formed this collectively owned agency) was designed from the outset to be an efficient, technologically enabled distribution hub for some of the world's finest photojournalism.
VII has been responsible for creating and relaying to the world many of the images that define the turbulent opening years of the 21st century.

Questions Without Answers will be a lively exchange between photographers who are committed to documenting conflict – environmental, social, political, violent and non-violent – to produce, as VII’s mission declares, an “unflinching record” of the events that define our time.  The conversation, moderated by renowned collector, curator, and educator W.M. Hunt will  include founding members Ron Haviv and Gary Knight, along with Stephanie Sinclair, and Scott Thode editor of VII The Magazine the agency’s newest initiative.

Time will be allotted for audience questions, and CPW encourages you to participate in what will be an important discussion about the changing landscape of photojournalism and an examination through the lens of a world that has dramatically changed in the past decade this agency has existed.

The panel discussion will be presented in conjunction with CPW's 2010 Benefit Gala where VII will be presented with the 2010 Vision Award for Leadership in the Field of Photography.

Additionally on view in CPW's galleries will be the exhibition Questions Without Answers: A Photographic Prism, 1985-2010, Photographs by VII, on view at CPW from October 7-31. Organized by Tufts University and curated by Amy Schlegel, director of the Tufts University Art Gallery, this exhibition presents photographs from the depicting defining events of the post-Cold War period and their aftermaths, from the Fall of the Berlin Wall and September 11, 2001, to Iraq and Afghanistan, The Balkans and Congo, Chechnya and Gaza, among others. 

About the Participants:
Gary Knight began his photojournalism career in Southeast Asia during the late 1980s and early 1990s, documenting internecine warfare in the region.  Knight went on to Yugoslavia, chronicling the effects of war on civilian populations.  After co-founding VII in 2001, he covered the events in Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.  Knight has exhibited globally, and is the recipient of numerous awards. He is also a founder of the Angkor Photo Festival, a board member of the Crimes of War Foundation, permanent member of the Frontline Club Award jury and a contract photographer for Newsweek Magazine.  Knight is a 2010 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University.

Ron Haviv has produced award winning images of conflict and humanitarian crises around the world since the end of the Cold War.  His work has been featured at the Louvre, United Nations, and the council on Foreign Relations.  A co-founder of VII, his work has been published in magazines around the world.  Haviv has published two critically acclaimed books of his photography Blood and Honey: A Balkan War Journal and Afghanistan: On the Road to Kabul.

Stephanie Sinclair is an award winning photojournalist known for gaining unique access to sensitive gender and human rights issues around the world. She has covered the failure of the death penalty in Illinois and the war in Iraq for the Chicago Tribune, and has worked as a freelance photographer covering topics such as the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, child marriage, and polygamy in America. Sinclair became a full member of VII in 2009. She contributes regularly to National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, TIME, and Newsweek, among other notable publications.

In spring 2010, Scott Thode became the first editor of VII the Magazine, an innovative online project that will give readers unprecedented intimate access and insight to the work of the 29 photojournalists who make up the photo agency VII. Previously Thode was the Deputy Picture Editor at Fortune Magazine. As a photographer Scott was the recipient of numerous photography awards and his work has been exhibited at the Bienalle Internazionale di Fotografia in Turin, Italy, Visa Pour L'Image in Perpignon, France and The Colonnade Gallery in Washington, D.C. He teaches at the International Center for Photography and regularly participates in photo symposia, workshops and has served as a judge for numerous Photography Awards. In 2011 Scott will co-curate the LOOK3 Photo Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia with Kathy Ryan. 

To learn more about the photo agency VII, visit their website, www.viiphoto.com

About the Moderator:
W.M. - Bill - Hunt is a well-known collector, curator and consultant, as well dealer and educator.  
A book on his collection The Unseen Eye will be published by Thames & Hudson next fall. Hunt 
is on the boards of the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund and the Center for Photography at 
Woodstock, which awarded him the Vision Award for Leadership in 2009.