35th Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan

Is there another executioner lurking ready to destroy photography? Could it be generative artificial intelligence?  Pictures that appear to be real but are actually fake can be seen everywhere on social media, suggesting that there are plenty of people who are happy to deliver the coup de grâce that will finally destroy professional photography.  Could a prompt replace Eugene Richards?  With great respect, perhaps naivety, but also determination, we do not believe this can come about.  Photography did not have to wait for the advent of AI image generators to be confronted with threats, upheavals, manipulation and faking.  There has been digital photography and editing tools, not to mention the disappearance of photo agencies holding their own archives, and the rise of stock agencies operating on a subscription basis (and they, in turn, are now under threat from generative AI);  there is the proliferation of outlets and users and, with smartphones, pictures are not valued as they once were.  Yet photojournalism is still around.  Why?  Because there is the ambition to see the world, the real world, and that is why we get together here in Perpignan.
There is a genuine need and desire for real stories, with people behind them.  News stories that have been checked and validated as authentic are needed even more than in the past.  With the glut of potentially fake content, proper reporting is of greater importance, but is also much more challenging.
There have been calls for a moratorium on the development of generative AI systems, but that seems like wishful thinking, and is no doubt a dubious option given the significant progress that could be achieved through AI in other areas.  But maybe we, the media, are the ones who have to slow down after two decades of non-stop acceleration.
Clear evidence for this can be seen in recent history, e.g. the disappearance of pure players operating free of charge, and the boom in digital subscriptions to recognized established media that still devote substantial resources to news reporting in the field.  Given this new paradigm, media literacy awareness and education will be critical.  This is the approach we have been advocating and following for the past thirty-five years with a program open to the general public and school groups free of charge, featuring the contributions of photojournalists from around the world presenting their work here with us.

Jean-François Leroy
April 25, 2023

 

EXHIBITIONS
James Balog – Photography of the Anthropocene
Ian Berry / Magnum Photos – Water
Nick Brandt – The Day May Break
Michael Bunel / Le Pictorium – Search, Rescue, Protect
Giles Clarkes for UNOCHA and The New York Times – Without water, we die. Somalia, on the frontline of the global climate crisis
Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP – On both side of the front line
Emily Garthwaite / Institute – Winner of the 2023 Ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik Visa d’or Award – Dijlah: A Journey down the Tigris River
Nanna Heitmann / Magnum Photos – Winner of the 2022 Françoise Demulder Photography Grant – War is Peace
Tyler Hicks / The New York Times – Bakhmut, A City at War
Pascal Maitre / MYOP for Le Figaro Magazine and Paris Match – Charcoal, Poor Man’s Black Gold
Sandra Mehl – Farewell Isle de Jean-Charles
Laura Morton – Winner of the 2022 Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award – Wild West Tech
Mads Nissen – Politiken / Panons Pictures for Le Figaro Magazine & FT Magazine [Financial Times] – Sangre Blanca: The Lost War on Cocaine
Ebrahim Noroozi / Associated Press – The World’s Saddest Country and the Worst Country for Women
Darcy Padilla / Agence VU’ – California Dreamin’
Paolo Pellegrin / Magnum Photos – My Visa Years
Mark Peterson / Redux Pictures – The Pas is Never Dead
Rebellion in Iran – You don’t die
Federico Rios Escobar – Winner of the 2023 Humanitarian Visa d’or Award – International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – Paths of Desperate Hope
Cristopher Rogel Blanquet – Beautiful Poison
Natalya Saprunova / Zeppelin – Winner of the 2022 Canon Female Photojournalist Grant – The Evenki People, custodians of the resources of Yakutia
Stephanie Sinclair – What a High-Risk Pregnancy Looks Like after Dobbs
Brent Stirton / Getty Images for National Geographic Magazine – Asian Elephants: Culture, Conservation, Conflict and Coexistence
International Daily Press

 

SAVE THE DATE
EXHIBITIONS > September, Saturday 2 to Sunday 17, 2023
PRO. WEEK > September, Monday 4 to Saturday 9, 2023
EVENING SCREENINGS > September, Monday 4 to Saturday 9, 2023
SCHOOL GROUPS > Septembre, Monday 18 to Friday 22 & September, Monday 25 to Friday 29, 2023

 

THE 2023 Visa d’or Awards, Grants & Awards
Visa d’or International Daily Press > Tyler Hick / The New York Times
Visa d’or Feature Award > Ebrahim Noroozi / AP
Visa d’or News Award > Siegfried Modola / The Globe and Mail
Ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik Visa d’or Award > Emily Garthwaite / Institute
ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’or Award – International Committee of the Red Cross > Federico Rios Escobar
Visa d’or franceinfo Award for the Best Digital News Story > Virginie Nguyen Hoang pour La Libre Belgique
Figaro Magazine Lifetime Achievement Visa d’or Award > Noël Quidu
Canon Female Photojournalist Grant > Anastasia Taylor-Lind
Canon Video Grant Short Film Documentary > Juan Vicente Manrique Gomez
La Saif-Benoît Shaeffer Publishing Grant for a Photography Book > Alfred Yaghobzadeh
Urban Newcomer Photographer’s Grant sponsored by Google > Valentin Goppel
Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award > Paolo Manzo
Camille Lepage Award > Cinzia Canneri
ANI-PixTrakk Award > Karine Pierre
Yves Rocher Foundation Photography Award > Gaël Turine
The Carmignac Photojournalism Award > Anas Aremeyaw, Muntaka Chasant & Bénédicte Kurzen / Noor

 

PORTFOLIO REVIEWS
Are you a Picture Editor, Photo Editor, … and would you like to take part in portfolio reviews? This is where you can register.
You are photographers, for the moment, Registrations are closed.

TRANSMISSION POUR L’IMAGE
Information & Registration

 

CALL FOR ENTRIES
ICRC Humanitarian Visa d’or Award – Internatiànal Committee of the Red Crossd – Deadline June 12, 2023
Visa d’or franceinfo Award for the Best Digital News Story – Deadline July 25,2023
Canon Female Photojournalist Grant – Deadline May 17, 2023
Canon Video Grant Short Film Documentary – Deadline June 27, 2023
Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award – Deadline June 11, 2023
Camille Lepage Award – Deadline May 23, 2023
Yves Rocher Foundation Photography Award – Deadline May 19, 2023
Françoise Demulder Photography Grant – Deadline September 25, 2023

Visa d’or Daily Press Award – Deadline July 3, 2023

 

Looking forward to meeting you in Perpignan for this 35th Visa!