It is an abiding commitment to the fundamental power of photography to bear witness to the eternal struggle for human rights and social justice that form the foundational principles of NOOR.
Since its establishment in 2007 as both a photo agency and foundation, the international roster of NOOR’s - an Arabic word meaning "light" - accomplished and award-winning member photographers have documented civil and political unrest, environmental issues, war, famine, and natural disasters throughout the globe: from Africa and the Middle East to the Americas.
NOOR seeks to contribute to a growing understanding of the world by producing independent in-depth visual reports that stimulate positive social change, and impact views on human rights and other issues of global concern.
As a group, NOOR's photographers share concerns, and accept the challenge of expressing these concerns in a language capable of renewing itself, and with respect to the human dignity of their subjects.
NOOR, which is headquartered in Amsterdam, is made up of eleven photographers from seven different countries: Nina Berman, Andrea Bruce, Stanley Greene and Jon Lowenstein (USA), Yuri Kozyrev (Russia), Giancarlo Ceraudo and Francesco Zizola, (Italy), Pep Bonet (Spain), Alixandra Fazzina (UK), Jan Grarup (Denmark) and Kadir van Lohuizen (the Netherlands).
Besides individual photographic projects, collective projects are at the core of NOOR. The photographers produce important and meaningful in-depth photo-essays and pursue long-term projects. They believe that some things simply need to be seen, and have decided to unite their individual visions and capabilities to facilitate this.
In its business and operational model, NOOR is in essence owned and directed by the member photographers. The twelve members - the eleven photographers and Claudia Hinterseer, NOOR's managing director and co-owner - are in NOOR together to direct their professional lives towards achieving their vision by effectively pooling their resources.
The NOOR Foundation is an international non-profit organization creating and distributing compelling photojournalistic works with the aim to raise awareness, enhance an understanding of the world and to contribute to the visual history of mankind. More about NOOR Foundation >
NOOR’s photographers have received the highest honors in the fields of photojournalism and documentary photography.
Combined, the photographers were recognized with over twenty World Press Photo Awards, including two awards in the most recent World Press Photo Contest 2012. In addition, more than ten Pictures of the Year Awards, two Days Japan International Photo Awards, the ICP Infinity Award, a John Faber and a Oliver Rebbot Award from the Overseas Press Club, a John Simon Memorial Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, two Hasselblad Masters Award and three Visa d'Or at the Visa Pour l'Image Festival, amongst other industry recognitions.
The photographers’ concern for human rights have widely been recognized with, amongst other recognitions, two W. Eugene Smith Grants in Humanistic Photography, Amnesty International Media Awards, UNICEF rewards, the 2010 Nansen Refugee Award (awarded by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees). Also the Open Society Institute’s Documentary Grant, the Vic Odden Award (Royal Photographic Society). the WHNPA Grant and the Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship have been granted to NOOR photographers.
NOOR’s pictures were selected for the 2010 Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, exhibited at the 2011 Dublin Contemporary, Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, at the Rijksmuseum and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Amsterdam and at the Maxxi, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome.
NOOR is a registered trademark of Noor Images B.V. and Stichting Noor Foundation. All rights reserved.
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