Veejay Villafranca is a photographer and educator with years of practice in photojournalism and documentary photography. He started out in journalism as a staff photographer for the national news magazine Philippines Graphic. After becoming a freelancer in 2006, he worked with several international news wire agencies before pursuing the personal projects that later paved the way to his career as a full-time documentary photographer. He has tackled issues such as changing Filipino cultural and religious practices, the transformation of Filipino gang members, and climate displacement and other environmental issues. In 2008, he was awarded the Ian Parry Scholarship and a residency at Visa Pour l’Image for his project on the lives of former gang members in Manila and in 2013 attended the prestigious Joop Swart Masterclass program of the World Press Photo Foundation.

Veejay’s first book, Signos (2017), garnered the 2018 Invisible Photographer Asia Photobook prize and was exhibited in over 10 countries. He is currently working on his second book, Barrio Sagrado, that delves on Filipino spirituality as a means of survival. He is currently based in Manila, working for international news agencies and selected galleries for his personal work. Veejay is a collaborator of photography collective Fotomoto and recently the jury chair of 2024 World Press Photo Contest.