THE MANUEL RIVERA-ORTIZ FOUNDATION for Documentary Photography & Film is committed to positive social discourse in under-represented communities throughout the world by encouraging emerging and established photographers and filmmakers working in developing nations to keep their lenses fixed on the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Learn about our founder Manuel Rivera-Ortiz.
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation
Arles Exhibition
2020 Documentary Call for Entries
MROF, in association with ChromaLuxe, is excited to announce the 2020 Call for Entries for Outstanding Work in Documentary Photography. Documentary photographers globally are invited to submit documentary work covering disenfranchised communities, war, famine, poverty, religious persecution, political oppression, forced migration, and social issues or injustices impacting populations around the world. The documentary photography grant will be awarded for the completion, or start and completion of a print photographic project. One selected submission will receive EUR 3,000 in funding. Submissions will be accepted through March 31, 2020. See our Photography Grants page for full details.
Exhibition 2020 – LES PIONNIERS
Our hearts and best wishes go out to everyone in these unprecedented time. In spite of the challenges, the MROF team, our dedicated partners and an amazing group of 23 artists and curators are hard at work preparing for our summer 2020 exhibition LES PIONNIERS. This year, with our grand partner ChromoLuxe, we will give voice to men and women who move beyond the boundaries of their own limits, outside society’s established norms of humanity and environment. Portraying faces, sounds, joys and struggles of humanity around the globe, LES PIONNIERS will enlarge your consciousness of the world’s diversity. We will open our doors, and our arms, safely and within all government health guidelines.
Apr-2018
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2016 Photography Co-Laureate – Enri Canaj
Apr-2018
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2016 Photography Co-Laureate – Ismail Ferdous
Apr-2018
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2015 Photography Laureate – Pablo Ernesto Piovano
Apr-2018
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2015 Film Laureate – Laurence Bonvin
Apr-2018
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2014 Film Laureate – Alfonso Moral
Apr-2018
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2014 The MRO Prize Laureate – Camille Lepage
Apr-2017
July 3 – September 23, 2017 | fotofever | EXPO ARLES #1 Art Fair
Apr-2017
July 3 – September 23, 2017 | Tony Gentile | The War – A Sicilian Story
May-2016
July 4 – September 25, 2016 | Rony Zakaria | Men, Mountains and the Sea
May-2016
July 2 – September 25, 2016 | HyongRyol Bak | Slow-Drawing
May-2016
July 2 – Sept. 25, 2016 | Dominic Nahr | Fractured State
May-2016
July 2 – September 25, 2016 | Rubén Salgado Escudero | Solar Portraits
May-2016
July 2 – September 25, 2016 | Patrizia Bonanzinga | Time Lag
July 2 – Sept. 25, 2016 | Pablo Ernesto Piovano | The Human Cost of Agrochemicals Arles, France Exhibit – 2015 Photography Grant Laureate Funded Project
Apr-2016
July 2 – Sept. 25, 2016 | Laurence Bonvin | Sounds of Blikkiesdorp Arles, France Exhibit – 2015 Film Grant Laureate
Nov-2015
India: A Celebration of Life. A decade of photographs from across the India by our Founder & President.

Business Standard: A Photographer Shares His Frames From the Fringes Our Founder and President Manuel Rivera-Ortiz was interviewed by Bengaluru-based correspondent Nikita Puri on the release of his new book “India – A Celebration of Life.” He talks about how his own history informs his bond with Indians on the margins. See the full article […]

Oct-2015
Fisheye Magazine: Mise au Point Fondation – Fondation Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Covering the opening of our new exhibition home in Arles, France and our inaugural Mo Yi Exhibition, Fisheye Magazine journalist Éric Karsenty wrote, “The humanistic approach of Manuel Rivera-Ortiz strongly influences the awarded projects, and his constant desire to support disadvantaged populations to make their […]

La Provence: In Arles, the summer season does not satisfy all the revelers. After the July festivals, the Arles nightlife seems almost non-existent. A few steps from the Place du Forum, in the picturesque Calade street, a bar opened its doors this summer. Outside of the Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation, bass sounds ring. “In early summer, […]

Aug-2015
La Provence: Three Days to Remember Hiroshima. 6-August-2015: La Provence covers an exhibition in our Arles space in memory of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Read the full La Provence article here. With permission: La Provence. David Fathi-Anecdotal

Jul-2015
La Provence: A New Photography Stronghold in Town. The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation offers 11 exhibitions for its first summer 23-July-2015: La Provence highlights the inaugural exhibition in our new Arles home. Read the full La Provence article here. With permission: La Provence. Photo by Valérie Farine

La Provence: Arles strengthened in its rank as capital of photography. The American Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation settles in a mansion on Calade street. 7 March 2015: La Provence covers the renovations of l’hôtel Blain that will be our new home and exhibition space. Read the full La Provence article here. With permission: La Provence. Photo […]
Sep-2014
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2014 Photography Laureate – Mohamed Ali Eddin
Sep-2014
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2013 Film Laureate – Kannan Arunasalam

Aug-2014
FoundationArles Exhibition at Galerie Huit in Arles, France July-August 2014

Jul-2014
ARLES Info Covers MROF Prize Award Camille Lepage awarded the honor of Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation Maryvonne Lepage accepts the first posthumous Medal of Honor of Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundationon behalf of her slain daughter, French photographer Camille Lepage. Camille was killed last May in the Central African Republic.
Jul-2014
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2014 The MRO Prize Laureate – Camille Lepage
Jul-2014
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2013 Photography Grant Laureate – Vivek Singh
Jul-2014
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, Founder & President

Jul-2014
MROF Founder Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Interviewed by Photographie.com

Jan-2013
A Year of Transition A letter from our Foundation President & Founder With the start of a new year, it’s natural to reflect on the receding tide of the one past. And indeed, I’ll do just that as a way to kick off our new foundation blog. I promise that follow on posts won’t […]

MRO Foundation Advisor, Photograoher Stanley Greene on Visa Pour l’Image. Perpignan 2012.

Alex Coghe: Humanitarian Photography: Interview with Manuel Rivera-Ortiz http://www.alexcoghe.com/humanitarian-photography-interview-with-manuel-rivera-ortiz/

Jul-2012
MROF Founder Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Interviewed by Photographie.com
Jul-2012
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2012 Photography Grant Laureate – Gustavo Jononovich

Foundation President Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Selected for List of 50 Great Stories by Columbia Journalism School 2001: Faces of Poverty Columbia University faculty, a group of distinguished judges and alumni voted on the 100 Great Stories from the school of journalism graduates. Manuel Rivera-Ortiz, class of 1998, was selected for his documentary photography work focusing on […]
Jun-2011
The Manuel Rivera-Ortiz Foundation For Documentary Photography & Film 2011 Photography Grant Laureate – Mads Nissen