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
Sílvia Omedes (Barcelona, 1971) graduated from The New School for Social Research in New York. She is an independent curator, editor, photographers’ agent, and cultural manager based in Barcelona.
In 2001, she founded the Photographic Social Vision Foundation, dedicated to promoting documentary photography as a tool for raising social awareness. As its director, she has guided the Foundation through various stages of growth, establishing it as a key reference point for Spanish photography.
Sílvia began her career as an exhibition coordinator and curatorial assistant at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and at the Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB). As a photo editor, she has contributed to numerous documentary publications for Blume Publishers. Since 2003, she has collaborated with the World Press Photo Foundation as an exhibition partner and nominator for the Joop Swart Masterclass. She has also been a tutor for World Press Photo Masterclasses in Europe and Latin America. In 2018, she was appointed Secretary of the Jury of the World Press Photo.
As a photographers’ agent and cultural manager, Silvia offers consulting services to both individual photographers and photographic collections, specializing in management strategies for professional development and the spread of historical photographic archives. Among the first important archives she represents there are the family archive of French photographer Jacques Léonard and the professional archive of Joana Biarnés, Spain’s first female photojournalist.
As a nominator of emerging talent, Silvia collaborates annually with the Albert Camus Incipiens Award and the Leica Oscar Barnack Award, and has served on numerous juries for the POY Latam, Luis Valtueña, FNAC Young Talent, Gabo, Luis Kasado, and Zampa awards. She was also part of the editorial team that created the digital photography archive documenting the effects of COVID-19 in Spain in 2021 and 2022.
Since 2014, she has been an active member of the expert advisory committee implementing the National Photography Plan for the Government of Catalonia, and since 2021, she has been part of the professional platform that supports and promotes the creation of a National Photography Center in Spain.
Graduated in Design with mention in Visual Communication from Bau, Barcelona University Center for Arts and Design, a few years later she completed the Master of Motion Graphics at the same center.
She began her professional activity in design studios that worked for cultural institutions, such as the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona, MACBA, Arts Santa Mònica… both in catalog design, spread and exhibition design. A few years later she began to work independently with institutions and artists. With the help of Inés Casals, she began to collaborate with the projects of the Photographic Social Vision Foundation and became passionate about photography. Since 2017 she has been the art director of the Foundation and responsible for the creative direction of projects such as World Press Photo Barcelona, DOCfield (Barcelona Documentary Photography Festival), Material Sensible or the Joana Biarnés Scholarship.
In addition, she works as a consultant for companies and entities helping brands to have their own imaginary and formal and conceptual coherence.
She combines her professional activity with teaching design at Bau, Barcelona University Center for Arts and Design, and at the Open University of Catalonia.
Anthropologist graduated in social sciences, with a master of research degree from the Université Lumière Lyon 2 in France. Her master’s research centered on the construction of the photographic image in the documentary genre. In 2006 she joined Photographic Social Vision, where she is currently in charge of the Education section and a member of the teaching team of the Punt de Vista workshops, an educational project created more than ten years ago to work with vulnerable social groups. She has been training as a Gestalt therapist since 2009 and currently practices in both individual and group formats at the Escola de l’Esser, while broadening her knowledge of psychopathology through the UNED.
Collaborating entities
+ INFOPublic and private organizations that trust in the Photographic Foundation by supporting our mission or some of our projects.
Our headquarters: 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.
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]
