The Institute for Photographic Empowerment

The mission of the Institute for Photographic Empowerment (IPE) is to support the study and practice of participant–produced documentary projects in photography, film, and digital media.
The Institute is a resource for people from around the globe—photographers, filmmakers, academics, researchers, and project participants—to share ideas, learn from one another, and develop the field.

The first such Institute of its kind in the world, IPE supports a virtual center on the web, annual conferences, and academic learning and research related to participant–produced photography and film. Additionally, it provides new opportunities for the traditionally disenfranchised to use their own images to communicate directly with policymakers about the social issues that profoundly affect their lives: HIV/AIDS, poverty, environmental degradation.

A unique community–University partnership, created by Venice Arts, a prominent nonprofit leader in the field, in collaboration with USC Annenberg, in recognition of the growing international interest in photographic empowerment, particularly as a component in movements for social change.