Hasta La Ideas

A view of the Yangon River, March 23, 2012. From Sim Chi Yin’s “Burmese Spring” series.

Beijing-based photographer Sim Chi Yin is the newest member of VII, the photo agency founded in 2001 with the goal of “documenting conflict—environmental, social and political, both violent and non-violent—to produce an unflinching record of the injustices created and experienced by people caught up in the events they describe.” As the collectively owned agency’s nineteenth member, she joins an esteemed group that includes Ron Haviv, Stephanie Sinclair, Ed Kashi, and Marcus Bleasdale, who worked closely with Chi Yin in the VII Mentor Program.

In just a few years, Chi Yin has made a name for herself by tackling stories on migrant labor, income inequality, and urbanization in China. She also shoots regularly for The New York Times and has completed assignments for publications including The New Yorker, Time, The New York Times Magazine, and Le Monde. “I’ve been thrown into the assignment world rather quickly,” says Chi Yin, who became a freelance photographer in 2011. “And now, I would very much like to do more thoughtful, meaningful group projects on global issues, and work on more social/community engagement with photography-based work. VII is already well-known and respected for its ethos: socially-concerned photography, so that befits my personal direction.”

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