28th Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan

Last year in Perpignan, there was a feeling of bubbling energy. Lamentations about the press not producing enough photojournalistic reports appeared to be a thing of the past. We felt a genuine sense of enthusiasm: new ways to keep on working had to be found, and while there were no rm or concrete solutions, there were still ideas aplenty, and promises aplenty. There were more grants and awards, including Visa pour l’Image awards. In 2015, photographers received prize money totaling more than 133 000 euros [US$153 000].
And we have further evidence of this level of vitality when we look at the number of proposals received for the 2016 Festival.
This year has been dominated by two major and recurring stories.
Terrorist attacks: in Beirut, Istanbul, Ouagadougou, Bamako, Baghdad, Mogadishu, Paris, Brussels, Orlando or Nice (Alas, the list is not complete.) And reports have featured the same pictures, the same scenes of horror.
And migrants. We would need to go back to the crisis in Kosovo to find similar numbers of reports on such a humanitarian disaster. The figures are simply staggering, but it is impossible to reduce everything to statistics.There are those who have managed to cross the Mediterranean, ending up in sprawling camps and intolerable conditions. There are those, and so many of them, who have died in their bid to reach Europe. And Western powers have stood by, powerless to deal with the dramatic situation.
At a time when certain self-appointed observers have announced the end of an era, the end of “pieces of cardboard called prints,” and are advocating concepts or visual storytelling,Visa pour l’Image provides evidence to prove that simple witnesses are incredible photographers, that news stories around the world have absolutely no need for any concept to mark our minds as we see through the eyes of photojournalists doing an honest job, without indulging in artifice or concept; but then some find it hard to accept that argument.

Jean-François Leroy
July 15,2016

EXHIBITIONS
Niels Ackermann – White Angel
Claire Allard – Backstage
Juan Arredondo – Born into conflict: Child soldiers in Colombia
Peter Bauza – Copacabana Palace
Yannis Behrakis – Paths of hope and despair
Valerio Bispuri – Paco, a drug story
Felipe Dana – The Zika virus
Marie Dorigny – Displaced, Women in Exile
Laurence Geai – Trouble waters
David Guttenfelder – Coming home
Yuri Kozyrev – Kurdistan: the other Iraq
Frédéric Lafargue – Escaping ISIS
Catalina Martin-Chico – The last & the lost : the Brave Nomads of Iran
Aris Messinis – War in Peace
Dominic Nahr – Fractured State
Frederic Noy – Ekifire, half-dead
Andrew Quilty – Afghanistan: after enduring freedom
Marc Riboud – Cuba
Anastasia Rudenko – Internat, Institutions for the mentally disabled in Russia
Brent Stirton – Ivory wars
International Daily Press
World Press Photo

Visa d’or
Visa d’or News Award: Aris Messinis
Visa d’or Feature Award: Peter Bauza
Visa d’or Daily Press Award: Dnevnik (Slovénie)
ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’or Award – International Committee of the Red Cross: Juan Arredondo
Figaro Magazine Lifetime Achievement Visa d’or Award: Stanley Greene
Visa d’or franceinfos: Award for the Best Digital News Story: Magnus Wenman

Awards
Canon Female Photojournalist Award: Darcy Padilla
Ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik Award: Niels Ackermann
Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award: Ferhat Bouda
Prix Photo – Foundation Yves Rocher Award: Phil Moore
Camille Lepage Award: Pauline Beugnies
Ani-PixPalace Award: Ingetje Tadros