The Foundation
The Photographic Social Vision Foundation is a non-profit organization committed to the social value of documentary photography and photojournalism.
We organize exhibitions that raise awareness of current challenges and promote photographic creation with scholarships, awards, and professional consulting.
We carry out participatory photography and visual education projects for schoolchildren, vulnerable groups, professionals, and the general public.
We keep 20th-century photographic archives alive, preserving and promoting them through books, exhibitions, and the sale of prints and licenses.
Mission, values and goals
Since 2001, the Photographic Social Vision Foundation has been working to promote documentary photography as a way to build a more conscious and better-informed society.
Our commitment is:
- To foster critical opinion and reflection on current events.
- To raise awareness about social issues through documentary photography.
- To promote photojournalism and good documentary practices as necessary tools in a democracy.
- To support the professional development of documentary photographers.
- To safeguard the right to information without manipulation or censorship.
- To promote visual education among citizens, especially adolescents.
- To convey that images are not objective but an interpretation of reality.
- To facilitate access to photography as a way of expression for personal transformation and social inclusion.
- To keep our photographic heritage alive, as a part of our collective memory.
Our commitment is:
- To foster critical opinion and reflection on current events.
- To raise awareness about social issues through documentary photography.
- To promote photojournalism and good documentary practices as necessary tools in a democracy.
- To support the professional development of documentary photographers.
- To safeguard the right to information without manipulation or censorship.
- To promote visual education among citizens, especially adolescents.
- To convey that images are not objective but an interpretation of reality.
- To facilitate access to photography as a way of expression for personal transformation and social inclusion.
- To keep our photographic heritage alive, as a part of our collective memory.
Join us
+ INFOBe part of this community!
Support our organitzation and help us to build a more conscious and better-informed society.
For over 25 years, the Photographic Social Vision Foundation has championed the potential of documentary photography to inform, raise awareness, and transform people.
By supporting our non-profit organization, you help us keep alive essential photographic legacies that are a memory of our shared history.
You also help us stimulate visual creation and strengthen the photography sector through scholarships, awards, and professional mentoring.
Who we are
+ INFO
A graduate in Communications from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Marina first became a member of the foundation’s communications department after attending a course on exhibition design. She has since gone on to coordinate workshops, events, and exhibitions aimed at the development of documentary photographers.
More recently, she has specialised in the conservation and management of photographic archives, studying at l’Escola Superior d’Arxivística at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the Institut d’Estudis Fotogràfics de Catalunya. Currently, from the professional area of the foundation, she is involved in cataloging and disseminating the work of various photographers.
Valeria is a documentary photographer and workshop leader specialized in cultural and social projects in complex environments. She carries out participatory photography workshops, especially aimed at people from groups that are stigmatized or at risk of exclusion.
Graduated in Journalism, Master in Strategy and Entrepreneurship, and Postgraduate in Documentary Photography, she has worked as a photojournalist in different media and collaborated with different organizations dedicated to the development of inclusive environments and the fight against social exclusion, especially with the immigrant population and children.
Architecture has been the way to understand her environment, and the tool to develop her visual capacity. After training in architecture schools between Barcelona and Milan, photography came into her life unexpectedly in one of the first jobs she found when she returned to Barcelona.
After twenty years working in photographic production, she studied at the Institute of Photographic Studies of Catalonia, and it was then that she put herself behind a camera.
Since 2015 she has been a researcher for the Joana Biarnés Archive from the Professional Area of the Photographic Social Vision Foundation. Her project “Journey to a file” recounts the personal experience of 5 years of work with Biarnés.
She is currently dedicated to research and divulgation of other photographic archives represented by the Foundation.
Collaborating entities
+ INFOPublic and private organizations that trust in the Photographic Foundation by supporting our mission or some of our projects.
Headquarters and gallery: Villa Alegre
Villa Alegre is a welcoming late 19th-century house where the Photographic Foundation team works and where we host both our own and external activities. Furthermore, it is also home to our exhibition gallery (by appointment only), where you can find all the information at www.villaalegrebcn.com.
It features:
- A showroom of photographic work for sale from our represented archives, where presentations and training sessions are also held.
- A library specialized in photography and photobooks, available for free consultation for Photographic Members.
- A courtyard garden, an oasis in the middle of the city, where we hold presentations, talks, debates, photography markets, and other activities.
Press
Check out some of our media appearances here.
CONTACT FOR PRESS & MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Teresa Vallbona
+34 679 802 176
premsa@teresavallbona.com
Press release about the exhibition “Anna Turbau. En veu pròpia” [ES]
Press release about “Make Me Beautiful”, V Star Award photobook [ES]
Press release about the 5th edition of the participatory project “Sensitive Material” [ES]
Press release about the photo of the year of World Press Photo 2026 [ES]
Press release about our digital photo archive platform
Press release about “Visual Literacy and Adolescence” report [ES]
Press release about the 2024 report: photography festivals in Catalonia [ES]
