THE NOOR Foundation

The NOOR Foundation is an international non-profit committed to democratic principles and positive social change through the creative advancement of visual journalism and the documentary arts.

We produce innovative high impact photographic and visual communication projects in partnership with museums, festivals, universities and organisations on critical issues such as global warming, migration, civil rights and equity and justice. We aim to inspire dialogue and action by hosting public screenings and events with activists and experts in visual arts, journalism and politics. Through our immersive workshops and unique master classes, we train hundreds of young photographers and filmmakers around the globe on ethics, creative practice, and the responsibilities of visual journalists to be critical thinkers and compassionate investigators.

We are grateful to Nikon which supports our educational programs and invests in the next generation of storytellers. Since 2007, NOOR Foundation has taught approximately 1000 students in over 70 countries.

 Headquartered in Amsterdam and established in 2007, the NOOR foundation has worked with a diverse group of partners including:

Medecins Sans Frontieres, Free Press International, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Prince Claus Fund, Open Society Foundation, UNFPA, UNHCR, Eindhoven Design Academy, United Photo Industries, Art Works Projects, Amnesty International, East Wing, ICRC, WHO, ICC, SOMO, FAO, Action Aid, Time, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, Channel 4, The New Yorker, L’Internazionale, La Repubblica, The Guardian, Le Monde, Liberation, L’Obs, Vogue, Marie Claire, Docking Station, Gulf Photo Plus, Keystone, Kontinent among many.

Main Partners

Nikon Europe is our main sponsor partner.

Nikon is one of the leading companies in the world for photographic products and imaging solutions. Nikon sponsors NOOR as official digital photographic equipment provider.The partnership has seen Nikon Europe BV supply the member photographers with an expansive range of professional digital camera equipment, as well as film scanners.

Nikon supplied NOOR with grants to realize its Climate Change by NOOR group project in 2009 and 2010, the Brazil by NOOR group project in 2011 and 2012, the Modern Day Slavery group project in 2013, the Food For Thought group project in 2014, and the NOOR on Africa in 2016.

Nikon makes the NOOR Foundation's annual Nikon-NOOR Masterclasses project a reality.

The Nikon-NOOR Academy is a unique opportunity to learn impactful visual storytelling, further develop personal vision, strengthen ongoing projects and gain new knowledge and contacts in an intimate and interactive environment.

The Nikon-NOOR Academy has already trained over 300 students for 10 years in Lagos (2009), Saint Petersburg (2010), Bucharest (2011), Cape Town (2012), Tunis (2013), Istanbul (2014), Bayeux/Belgrade/Amsterdam (2015), Almaty (2016), Amsterdam/Paris/Manchester/Berlin (2017), Brussels/Warsaw/Stockholm/Torino/Budapest/Zurich (2018) and Sofia/Barcelona/ Vienna (2019).

During each of the four-day trainings, 15 participants, together with three NOOR Authors will share experiences, work on portfolios, improve editing skills and learn how to develop visual stories. Participants can get the most out of the experience when they come to the masterclass with a body of work they are currently developing, editing, working on and/or thinking about how to share with audiences.

See the Nikon-NOOR Alumnis

Photographs shot with a Nikon by NOOR visual-storytellers:

Steve Gaudet is Syncrude's manager of environmental services and land reclamation. The company hails their reclamation effort as groundbreaking and claim that they can bring the impacted area back to close to the natural habitat. Periodically Gaud

Shadows of change -Uummannaq ,Greenland -10/17 /09 Stanley Greene (C)NOOR Images- 2009

Visual footsteps of Rockwell Kent , blue house ,abandoned dog sled ,in a frozen harbor ''

KARABASH, CHELYABISKAYA REGION, RUSSIA
OCTOBER 22, �2009

One of the most polluted cities in the world, Karabash in the Chelyabinskaya region of the southern Ural Mountains in Russia, is burdened with the dirty legacy of copper mining, chemical and

Ponderosa pine trees dying from pine beetle infestation on a ranch south of Kamloops in British Columbia, Canada. Warmer temperatures due to climate change has allowed beetle larvae to thrive. More than 34 million acres of pine trees in British Co

Clay Garden, built on the site of a burned down home by a resident across the street, provides urban farming opportunities for local residents. In the background, are the Webster Morrisania public Housing projects which house over 2000 people a

An Organop�nico in Cienfuegos where the men were picking beans manually. The majority of the labor at these small scale, organic farms are done manually. The Organop�nicos are a system of urban organic gardens in Cuba. Organop�nicos provide access

Women pack the classes at Sao Paulo University business school.

Sao Paolo Rising

During the next four years Brazil will host both the 2014 World Cup and the Olympics. These events and the fact that Brazil is world’s fifth largest economy have indeed brought the country into the international spotlight. Sao Pao

Donnell Baines was a brutal pimp who took women as young as 16 years old, and forced them to prostitute themselves out of his upper east side Manhattan apartment and New York hotels. He confiscated their documents, demanded all their money and in

A diamond ring and cufflinks with the signature horsehoe monikor of sex trafficker Alex Campbell was part of the evidence used against him at trial.

Campbell, aka �Daddy�, was found guilty in US federal court of
�Recruiting, exploiting, raping

Three women point in the direction of one of the best restaurants in the entire city of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Photographs from downtown Sao Paulo, Brazil. In the beginning of the 20th Century and until the 1970's the downtown area was a wealthy and w

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 11 May 2012

Rio de Janeiro as seen from an helicopter. The statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) lies atop Corcovado mountain, overlooking the city and the oceanic bay in front.

Child Labor and Exploitation in Bangladesh

Karen Wilm, first time eating competitor, takes a breath during a blueberry pie eating contest. Her boyfriend,
Tony Barriero, 56, Hewitt, NJ, won, and took home the winning prize - a free pie each month for a year, after taking 4 minutes to ea

MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES; JUNE 2103
- Swinging from a wooden post, a young girl makes her way through the flooded, rubbish strewn streets that crisscross the temporary government tenements of Aroma. Originally designated as a short-term resettlement

Africa, Botswana, Gaborone, December 2015
Portrait of 27 years old “Cybok”
I work as a security guard, I started listening to heavy metal in 2008, I liked the way the metal heads dressed and behaved so I started associating myself with them and I be

Land grabbing / extractive industry Mozambique, January - Februa

Tunis, Tunisia, January 2016. Tunisians rallied on the avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Tunisian revolution.

NOOR and The Danish School of Media and Journalism have joined forces to launch a Diploma in Documentary Photography - thereby combining outstanding educational formats and content from DMJX, instruction from the world renowned documentary photographers of NOOR.

The diploma program is approved by the Danish Ministry of Education making it a formal program within the international ECTS-system. At the same time the program is geared for enabling the students to work in the real world, which is a key focus for the partners, who want to refine the skills of those already working with documentary photography, as well as those working with journalism or communication in other ways, whom have some visual media skills and ambitions.

About the Danish School of Media and Journalism:

The Danish School of Media and Journalism (DMJX) is the oldest and largest of the higher educational institutions offering journalism education in Denmark, and has well-established contacts and strategical partnerships both nationally and internationally. DMJX offers well renowned programmes in photojournalism: A four year Danish BA-programme and two international programmes, which each lasts half a year.

See more about the diploma

NOOR is proud to announce its partnership with Creative Europe, The Municipality of Savignano sul Rubicone, Copenhagen Photo Festival and Ad Hoc, for the recently launched project Reconstruction Of Identities.

The Reconstruction Of Identities project aims to promote and protect the richness of both national and European cultural heritage, breathing life into small communities and stimulating cultural activities as an alternative communication method between locals and newcomers, using photography as a cultural strategy.

The project aims to relieve the isolated position of immigrants, many of which are still in the process of seeking asylum.

To enhance communication between foreigners and locals within such communities, the project aims to organise a wide-ranging programme of talks, conferences, guided tours, and book-signings; in order to promote the opening of artists’ residencies, the organisation and circulation of exhibitions, and the lending of artworks to other museums or institutions; it aims at providing young and amateur photographers with educational resources, activities and workshops.

The creative, accessible and inviting nature of photography is key in achieving this, as well as the close cooperation between local organisations, educational institutions, photographic archives, cultural institutions, festivals, museums and professionals in the field.

Look into the project