Images inspire people to act. Examples of socially rousing photography permeate our history: Vietnam, Rwanda, 9-11’s Ground Zero. Unfortunately, mainstream media narratives often work to envelop public perspective on these seminal issues by presenting limited viewpoints and images. Due to that fact that the focus of these media corporations is on creating profits rather than social justice, the many answers that we demand as conscious global citizens become conditional.

FiftyCrows Foundation eschews these media politics and prioritizes social awareness by using arrestingly real, timely photographic images as a catalyst for education, cultural understanding and social action. Founded in October of 2001, FiftyCrows couples visual stories from world-class documentary photographers with action and media campaigns in order to affect change. We leverage our gallery, website, television and various programs and partnerships to unite communities to work together in confronting current social, political, and environmental challenges around the globe.

GOALS
To accomplish our mission, FiftyCrows Foundation aims to bridge the gap between venues and distribution mediums for documentary photography, and encourage public dialogue on the issues raised through the photography.

Our goals are as follows:

• Redefine the means of distributing documentary photographic essays to reach a large and diverse public through the use of television, the Internet, DVDs and the Web;

• Facilitate interaction among engaged citizens and leverage technology for them to use a variety of communication tools to make their voices heard by those in positions of power (corporate, media, legislative groups);

• Increase access to documentary photographic essays for under-served populations, especially children, minorities and teenagers;

• Expand the distribution and exhibition network of the essays of documentary photographers;

• Foster sustainable careers in documentary photography through financial support and networking.