Documentary Photo Project

Moving Walls 7
A Group Photography Exhibition

Thomas Dworzak | Eric Gottesman | Brenda Ann Kenneally | Pedro Linger-Gasiglia | Jon Lowenstein | Jonathan Moller | Ivan Sigal
Introduction

The seventh Moving Walls exhibit revisits some themes that lie at the core of our mission. Seven photographers document social struggles—from Ethiopia to New York City—and their work reflects OSI's commitment to human rights and justice around the world.

SOURCE

In 2003, the Open Society Institute launched the Documentary Photography Project. Through exhibits, workshops, grantmaking, and public programs, the project explores how photography can shape public perception and effect social change. The Documentary Photography Project supports photographers whose work addresses social justice and human rights issues that coincide with OSI’s mission.

The most prominent activity of the Documentary Photography Project is the Moving Walls exhibition series, an artistic interpretation of obstacles such as political oppression, economic instability, and racism—and the struggles to tear those barriers down. Launched in 1998, this group photography exhibition is shown at OSI offices in New York City and Washington, D.C., cultural and educational institutions in Baltimore, Maryland, and other locations.

In 2006, OSI began an international tour of seven past Moving Walls photographers in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus in partnership with OSI’s Middle East & North Africa Initiative and Arts and Culture Program. At each tour location, the Documentary Photography Project works with local partners to organize a concurrent exhibition by a local photographer and provides a free training workshop for local photojournalists. OSI’s Network Debate Program offers youth media workshops to high school students in each exhibition location, using Moving Walls for the curriculum.

Apart from Moving Walls, the Documentary Photography Project awards distribution grants to individual photographers who—in partnership with an NGO, advocacy organization, or other entity—propose creative ways to distribute completed bodies of work and use photography as an advocacy tool. Since 2005, 19 distribution grants have been awarded through an annual competition.

The Documentary Photography Project’s other grantmaking activity includes production grants to organizations, as well as small discretionary grants awarded on a case-by-case basis to projects with broad impact in the photographic community.

Through the "Photography As Advocacy" public-forum series, the project explores how photography can be used to shape policy and perception, and to advocate for social change.