The International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (IGVP) - a group of acclaimed humanitarian and cultural photographers - has just launhced its website. The site features galleries and profiles, photo documentaries and a forum, among other things, including information on how to join the exclusive Guild or broader Visual Peacemakers Community. “Through visual peacemaking efforts, our common humanity can become visually seared into the minds of millions, inspiring more compassion worldwide,” said Mario Mattei, cultural photographer and president and co-founder of IGVP. “Many unwarranted fears would evaporate, preemptively subduing fear-based reactions.”

Website: Visual Peacemakers

Press Release

International Guild of Visual Peacemakers launches Website that empowers visual communicators to help break cultural barriers and stereotypes
 
As television screens, YouTube, and news sources are flooded with images of violence and hatred throughout the world, one group of acclaimed humanitarian and cultural photographers is instead choosing to use their craft to bring peace through an organization called the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers (IGVP). The organization’s Website, www.visualpeacemakers.org, launched August 16th, 2010.
 
IGVP is made up of an esteemed group of world photographers—like David DuChemin, Gavin Gough, Matt Brandon, Jeffrey Chapman, and Ami Vitale—who photograph various places and people, telling stories that link humanity—stories of beauty, joy and meaning. Their clients & publications range from National Geographic, Getty Images, Lonely Planet, to various NGOs/non-profits like World Vision.

The organization’s website features galleries and profiles, photo documentaries and a forum, among other things, including information on how to join the exclusive Guild or broader Visual Peacemakers Community.

The Visual Peacemakers Community of emerging and professional photographers is being brought together via the site’s major platform: memberships which integrate social networking and media tools as well as present learning opportunities through Guild members’ world workshops, books, blogs, and podcasts.
 
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the tension between the Middle East and the West has been high. Leaders of IGVP believe that media, especially photography and videography, has played a large role in those tensions and also will play a role in bringing peace and understanding.
 
“Through visual peacemaking efforts, our common humanity can become visually seared into the minds of millions, inspiring more compassion worldwide,” said Mario Mattei, cultural photographer and president and co-founder of IGVP. “Many unwarranted fears would evaporate, preemptively subduing fear-based reactions.”

“Visualpeacemakers.org is leveraged to unite this distinct photographic community of do-gooders,” Mattei said, “… and to promote the Charter for Visual Peace, which calls everyone—east and west—to socially conscious media viewing.”

The Guild and IGVP founders know that to be effective they must equip photographers with resources and education. This has led to a number of attractive opportunities, one of them being IGVP’s partnership with Focus For Humanity, a non-profit organization providing grants to photographers of up to $15,000 and an IGVP-exclusive Private Mentoring Program.

Photographers and media producers can join here. Everyone can show their support by signing the Charter for Visual Peace.
 
For more information on the International Guild of Visual Peacemakers, their Ethical Code, or to schedule an interview with Mario Mattei, president and co-founder, please contact [email protected]

—Marissa Villa, journalist and world traveler.

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