Claire Bergkamp is the CEO of Textile Exchange. A global non-profit driving positive impact on climate change across the fashion and textile industry, Textile Exchange is guiding a growing community of over 800 brands, manufacturers, and farmers to holistically understand, measure, and reduce the impacts of the raw materials they use. Since joining in 2020, Claire has helped the organization to drive forward a collective climate strategy for the industry, grounded in holistic systems thinking on the interconnected impacts of climate, soil health, water, and biodiversity. Prior to Textile Exchange, Claire was the Worldwide Sustainability and Innovation Director at Stella McCartney, leading the global environmental, human rights, and innovation strategy for the brand. Beyond placing Stella McCartney at the forefront of sustainable luxury, she shaped sustainability policies and practices for its former owner–the luxury group Kering–where she helped to define core tools such as its Environmental Profit and Loss. Claire also serves on the steering committee for the British Fashion Council’s Institute of Positive Fashion and has also been an instrumental part of the United Nations Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action since its inception. Her influence and expertise on environmental strategy within fashion have cemented her as a core voice in the sustainability conversation over the last ten years, as well as a leader in the call for collective, connected action.
Sonia Jeunet is the Education Director at Magnum Photos in London. She develops photography workshops and masterclasses and has worked with leading industry professionals and institutions such as the London College of Communication, Fujifilm, FUTURES, Photo Australia, among others. Prior to Magnum, she worked at Panos Pictures in London and NOOR in Amsterdam, as commissioning editor, photo editor and project manager. She teaches regularly about professional practice and has given lectures at Westminster University, Photofusion, Minority Rights, Anadolu Kültür and the Photography Foundation, among others.
Yessenia Funes is an independent environmental journalist and writer. She serves as editor-at-large of Atmos, a magazine covering climate and cultures. She covers the justice beat, examining how our various ecological crises harm communities of color across the globe. She's written for i-D, Vogue, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, and more.
Emily Chan is the Senior Sustainability & Features Editor at British Vogue and covers all things related to sustainability in fashion and beyond, from designers championing eco-conscious practices to industry-wide issues. Prior to that, she was the Sustainability Editor at Vogue Global Network. In her role, she regularly speaks at industry roundtables and events, including at the United Nations, British Fashion Council and Copenhagen Fashion Week.
Lindokuhle Sobekwa (b. 1995, Katlehong, South Africa) is of a generation of South African photographers born after the first democratic elections of 1994. Through his participation in the Of Soul and Joy photography education programme from 2012 he realised that the medium of photography could be a very important tool to tell stories that concern and interest him. Sobekwa’s early projects dealt with poverty and unemployment in the townships of South Africa, as well as the growing nyaope drug crisis within them. His ongoing works revisit these early themes but from a more inward-looking perspective, examining his own life. For example, the body of work I carry Her photo with Me explores his relationship with his sister, Ziyanda, who died after becoming estranged from her family. His experimental documentary approach has evolved to include various mediums including collage, installation, video-making, and printmaking. Sobekwa exhibited for the first time in 2013 as part of a group show in Thokoza organised by the Rubis Mécénat foundation. His photo essay Nyaope (2014) was published in the Mail & Guardian (South Africa), in Vice magazine’s annual Photo Issue and the daily De Standaard (Belgium). In 2017 Sobekwa was selected by the Magnum Foundation for Photography and Social Justice (NYC) to develop the project I carry Her photo of Me. In 2018 he received the Magnum Foundation Fund to continue with his long-term project Nyaope. In 2020 his hand-made photobook, I carry Her photo with Me, was included in African Cosmologies at the FotoFest Biennial Houston (2020), curated by Mark Sealy. The following year he completed a residency at A4 Foundation in Cape Town which culminated in a two-person exhibition with Mikhael Subotzky titled Tell It to the Mountains. In 2022 he opened his first museum show at Huis Marseille (Netherlands), featuring the body of work Umkhondo. Tracing Memory as part of the summer programme The beauty of the world so heavy. Sobekwa became a member of Magnum Photos in 2022. He was awarded the inaugural John Kobal Foundation Fellowship 2023.
Peter van Agtmael was born in Washington DC in 1981. He graduated from Yale University with a BA in History in 2003. Since 2006, his work has largely concentrated on the United States and the post-9/11 wars. He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, the W. Eugene Smith Grant, an ICP Infinity Award, the Aaron Siskind Grant, the Lumix Freelens Award, a Pulitzer Center Grant, a Magnum Foundation Fellowship as well as multiple awards from World Press Photo. His first book, 'Disco Night Sept 11,' on the USA at war in the post-9/11 era was shortlisted for the 2014 Aperture/Paris Photo Book Award and named a ‘Book of the Year’ by The New York Times Magazine, Time, Mother Jones, and Vogue. His second book, ”Buzzing at the Sill," about the USA in the shadow of the wars, was shortlisted for the 2017 Rencontres D’Arles Book Award and Kassel Book Award and was named a “Book of the Year” by Time, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Mother Jones, and Internazionale. His third book, “Sorry for the War,” about the vast dissonance between the United States at war and the wars themselves was published in 2021. Peter is a mentor in the Arab Documentary Photography Program, a founder of Red Hook Editions, and a member of Magnum Photos
Aditi Mayer is a visual storyteller, sustainability activist, and frequent speaker on topics of social and environmental justice. Her work explores the intersections of style, sustainability, and social justice. She has become a voice in the larger sustainability movement, approaching her work from multiple domains: from grassroots organizing in Downtown LA’s garment district to educating folks on the importance of diverse perspectives in building an equitable future. In 2020, she was named a Fulbright x National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow and spent 2022 in India documenting the intersections of agriculture and artisan culture in relation to fashion. Her work has been celebrated in the likes of Vogue, National Geographic, The UN, The Guardian, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, and more.