Noor's founding members span the world and include: Samantha Appleton and Stanley Green (United States), Jodi Bieber (South Africa), Philip Blenkinsop (Australia), Pep Bonet (Spain), Jan Grarup (Denmark), Yuri Kozyrev (Russia), Kadir van Lohuizen (The Netherlands) and Francesco Zizola (Italy). All are known for award-winning photographic expertise, as well as producing images focused on important social, political, environmental and cultural issues. Claudia Hinterseer is the agency's managing director, based in Amsterdam.

Kadir van Lohuizen's work in Chad in 2006 was awarded Perpignan's highest honor, the 2007 Visa d'or in the News category. Noor is the brainchild of Lohuizen and Stanley Green, colleagues previously affiliated with Agence Vu, which both left to pursue the new cooperative venture.

The work of Noor photographers has been characterized as depressing, gory and overly intense by audiences and colleagues. With projects taking place in Baghdad, Sierra Leone, Chechnya, Central America and Bangkok, the politically charged subject matter has been hailed as revolutionary by some. Others predict Noor's eminent demise, claiming the work lacks commercial potential.

Yet the establishing partners plan to pursue editorial sales, combining their individual careers under the umbrella of an agency whose name means "light" in Arabic. Noor will work as a cooperative, with individual photographers both pursuing solo projects and working together. Noor is also forgoing representation by licensing agencies in favor of Digital Railroad, where it will promote, sell and exhibit the work of its members.

According to Claudia Hinterseer, working with Digital Railroad is like being a documentary agency launching in the digital age. "By enabling our photographers to instantly upload and share their images with editors around the globe quickly and easily, Digital Railroad helps our photographers efficiently reach a broader audience," she explained.