21st Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan

Even in these difficult times for professional photographers, with the drastic cut in the number of magazine assignments, reductions in rates paid, and the boom in pictures with no royalties or rights, Perpignan is still there, for the 21st festival, and is, more so than ever before, an absolute must for everyone involved in photojournalism, and for everyone who appreciates it.
Visa pour l’Image is a focal point for the best photos produced, discovering them, rediscovering them, presenting them and showcasing them. The mounting success of the Festival attracting the general public is evidence of the genuine interest in the history of the world, even though the major media do their best to show less and less, preferring lighter news and trivia.
One amazing example, and almost a caricature, is the death of Michael Jackson. There’s no need to say yet again that he was a great artist, he was sui generis, a real personality, attractive, endearing and disturbing, a multi-faceted and therefore enigmatic character. He had millions of fans around the world, and they, quite logically, have been in mourning. But for ten or more days, there was no other news. Is that reasonable? Well, at the risk of making a few more enemies, let’s ask the challenging question: is one death in Los Angeles worth the blackout on everything and everyone else in the world? Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Darfur – No, thank- you! Please die discreetly, because the self-proclaimed “King of Pop” has a stranglehold on the news. When Michael Jackson dies, it is obviously a news story, but when it is the only news story, surely things have gone crazy. Where is the hierarchy of news so recently taught in all the best schools of journalism? Does the term “ethics” mean anything? Perpignan presents the world as it is, there in exhibitions and in the evening screening programs.
Welcome to the real world!

Jean-François Leroy
July 13, 2009

EXHIBITIONS
Abbas – Au in Whose Name ?
Walter Astrada – Bloodbath in Madagascar
Alexandra Avakian – Windows of the Soul: My Journeys in the Muslim World
Massimo Berruti – Pakistan – Fact or Fiction
David Burnett – 44 days. Iran & the Remaking of the World
Grand Prix CARE du reportage Humanitaire : Luca Catalano Gonzaga – Child workers in Nepal
Sarah Caron – Talibanistan
Françoise Demulder – Tribute
Miquel Dewever Plana – The Other War
Viktor Drachev – Wit & Gravitas
Stanley Greene – San Francisco. ‘75, Flashback – The Western front. No regrets
Brenda Ann Kenneally – Upstate girls. What Became of Collar City
François Le Diascorn – « Only in America »
Brennan Linsley – Guantanamo
Ulla Lohmann – Ash City. Fifteen Years of Ash: a Story of Survival, Hope and Persistence
Pascal Maitre – Somalia – abandoned by all
Steve McCurry – The Unguarded Moment
Dominic Nahr – The road to nowhere
Eugene Richards – War is Personal
Jérôme Sessini – So far from God, too close to the USA
Callie Shell – Barack Obama
Boris Svartzman – Change in China
Zalmaï – Promises and Lies. The Human Cost of the War on Terror
International Daily Press
World Press Photo

Visa d’or
Visa d’or News Award: Wojciech Grzedzinski
Visa d’or Feature Award: Zalmaï
Visa d’or Daily Press Award: Los Angeles Times (USA)

Awards
Canon Female Photojournalist Award: Justyna Mielnikiewicz
City of Perpignan Young Reporter Award: Massimo Berruti
CARE International Award for Humanitarian Reportage: Luca Catalano Gonzaga
FRANCE 24-RFI web documentary Award: Oeuvre collective du Monde.fr/ Collective work, lemonde.fr
Pierre et Alexandra Boulat Award: Margaret Crow