The visual factory

Digital MENTORSHIP

Photographers from The Visual Factory, share their experience, insights, and feedback to help you refine and strengthen your practice. The online program runs alongside in-person sessions, supporting emerging visual storytellers throughout their development process. It is designed to offer direct access to working professionals who are actively shaping contemporary visual storytelling. Rather than standard courses, The Visual Factory is built around small, highly focused mentorship environments that prioritize depth, dialogue, and individual development. Each format is designed to adapt to the photographer’s needs, both in terms of time and the way the work is developed.

The program includes one-to-one sessions and mentorship formats, allowing for both focused feedback and longer-term development of photographic projects.

 

A woman internally displaced (IDP) at the Angola camp in Mayo, on the western outskirts of Khartoum, where approximately 80,000 people are sheltering amid ongoing conflict and displacement caused by clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Sudan, April 6, 2026. © Fabio Bucciarelli
A young girl is pictured after get wounded during clashing after the funeral of Berkin Elvan, the 15-year-old boy who died from injuries suffered during last year's anti-government protests, in Istanbul on March 12, 2014. Riot police fired tear gas and water cannon at protestors in the capital Ankara, while in Istbanbul, crowds shouting anti-government slogans lit a huge fire as they made their way to a cemetery for the burial of Berkin Elvan. AFP PHOTO/BULENT KILIC
Galina, 83, looks at the hole made by a Ukrainian rocket at the roof of her flat in downtown Donetsk, Ukraine, January 2015.
.October 7th, 2011. Jalalabad, Afghanistan 2011. A mental patient is chained in a small cell at Mia Ali Baba Shrine. Patients are chained in Spartan cells around the shrine for 40 days and fed with bread and water . Diego Ibarra Sánchez
When the 20-year war of the Taliban in Afghanistan ended in victory, in the first days of September, I landed in Kabul, bare and surrounded by mountains, almost aged from invasions and conflicts. The first noticeable thing in the city was a heavy and deep poverty, it was not cleaned in any way, the city was like a deep nothingness, with the sewage flowing through the streets. It was the most important and profound reality of this country for drug addicts who stand together in empty buildings, on roadsides, under bridges, and cover their heads with covers because they are uncomfortable with the light. The first sentence that comes to my mind is "This must be the bottom of the world, the bottom of the well". Although I tried to imagine myself being one of them, it was an impossible situation in my mind. I started traveling in Kabul and Kandahar to photograph these people who had been shot many times before me. The most important question I asked myself was that nothing had changed for these people, and many of them did not even know that the Taliban were dominating the country. I named these photos I took "Another Parallel". This picture was taken in a drug treatment center in Kabul, kind of a prison. Most of these people are addicted to methamphetamine. Yes, this postmodern drug that has taken the world by storm is ravaging the streets of Afghanistan as well as the streets of Europe.This poison, which has eroded the war-weary people of Afghanistan, has become one of the biggest threats in the modern world these days. In this file photo taken on October 16, 2021, drug addicts wait to register at the Avicenna Medical Hospital for Drug Treatment in Kabul.
A Detail of a hand of a student in a school attacked on August 2012. Swabi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. February 2, 2013. Diego Ibarra Sanchez /MeMo Destroyed schools, murdered teachers, threats, intolerance and hate are crippling the education system in Pakistan as schools are increasingly targeted by violence. The Taliban's violent campaign to stop girls from getting an education was put back in the spotlight when gunmen attacked Malala Yousafzai, a schoolgirl education activist. The attack was just one small piece of a long campaign against the country's education system.

one-to-one online sessions with the visual factory photographers

Develop your story, strengthen your vision, and build long-term photographic projects through personalized one-to-one mentorship. In 1-hour online sessions, you bring your own questions directly to the mentor—whether that is a portfolio review, specific feedback on an ongoing project, or guidance on your visual direction. Together, we focus on the core of your practice: how your story is structured, how your narrative evolves, how your images are edited and sequenced, and what your project truly requires to move forward.

In addition to single sessions, there is also the possibility of a longer pathway through a 5-session mentorship, strengthening the relationship with a mentor who will accompany you step by step in the development of your photographic project. This format allows for a deeper engagement with your project over time. Each session becomes a moment of direct exchange, where we review progress, address challenges, and clarify objectives, gradually leading to the development of a solid and personal body of work.

 

10-Month Guided Online Mentorship in Documentary Photography and Visual Storytelling

Develop your visual storytelling over 10 months in an online mentorship led by one of the The Visual Factory photojournalists—Manu Brabo, Diego Ibarra Sánchez, or Bülent Kılıç—alongside contributions from the others and from industry professionals who will guide you through every stage of your narrative development.

This long-term program is designed to support the full evolution of your project, offering continuous guidance, personalized feedback, and an ongoing critical dialogue. You will work closely with mentors at every stage of the process — from research and fieldwork to editing, sequencing, and final publications — with the aim of building a coherent and impactful body of work.

The program fosters independent thinking, editorial awareness, and a deeper understanding of ethical visual storytelling. Alongside technical and narrative development, it encourages reflection on the role of photography in documenting social issues, conflict, and contemporary realities.

Participants also become part of a focused community committed to responsible journalism and long-term project building, where exchange and critique are central to the learning process.

Admission is limited and based on selection, ensuring depth, continuity, and a high level of individual attention throughout the mentorship. Calls for applications and selection announcements will be published on our official channels.

Meet the mentors and choose your program

Fabio Bucciarelli

Fabio Bucciarelli’s visceral images of global news events and their humanitarian consequences, captured over the past 15 years, have established him as one of today’s leading international photojournalists. His images of conflict aim to transcend mere documentation, highlighting the emotion and raw humanity of these moments. His work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal.

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Manu Brabo

Manu Brabo is a Spanish photojournalist whose work documents human violence and its enduring aftermath, spanning armed conflicts and migration crises across continents. A Pulitzer Prize winner, he has built a body of work that combines frontline reporting with a deep visual reflection on memory, testimony, and the long-term human consequences of war.

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Diego Ibarra Sánchez

Spanish visual journalist based in Lebanon, longtime NYT contributor. His long-term work explores conflict, education, and the human cost of war through immersive storytelling—author of the photo book “The Phoenician Collapse.” In 2026, he was awarded at the World Press Photo for his project Hijacked Education.

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Bülent Kılıç

Bülent Kılıç, a Kurdish photographer of Turkish origin, is an award-winning photojournalist working as a freelancer across Europe and the Middle East. He spent 16 years with AFP before transitioning to freelance work. He is a multiple WPP winner and has also served as a jury member for the competition. His work has been recognized with the Visa d’Or and POYi. He collaborates with de Volkskrant, Paris Match, and Le Monde.

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