Perpignan (AFP)
From caravans of migrants in Central America to Libyan chaos and the crisis of "yellow vests", the photojournalism festival of Perpignan, Visa pour l'image, presents from Saturday a striking panorama of the upheavals of the planet.
On the menu of this 31st edition of the most important photojournalism festival in the world, more than 1,250 photographs, 24 exhibitions in free access, screenings, meetings, a "coup de chapeau" to the indelible war reporter Patrick Chauvel who celebrates his 50 years of activities. Among many awards, the most coveted, the Paris Match News Golden Visa, will be awarded on September 7th.
Four candidates are vying for this prestigious award from an international jury. In 2018, it was awarded to the French Véronique de Viguerie, first female winner in 20 years and fifth since the creation of the event in 1989.
The Mexican Guillermo Arias (AFP) followed in Central America caravans of several hundred migrants trying to join the "American dream". "His work is just awesome," said Visa Director Jean-François Leroy. Like this cliché of migrants looking, through wooden fence and barbed wire, the stars and stripes floating in a blue sky.
The Irishman Ivor Prickett (The New York Times) has spent nearly a year documenting the end of the caliphate of the Islamic State group in Iraq / Syria with a "very personal, very touching," according to the head of Visa. The reporter was particularly interested in depicting the return of civilians trying to regain possession of their lives in the midst of corpses and ruins.
- "Never be a voyeur" -
In "another civil war in Libya", the Serbian photographer Goran Tomasevic (Reuters), who has been surveying the Balkans and the Middle East for more than 20 years, takes the visitor closer to the fighting. For Jean-François Leroy, "Goran is a warrior, a warrior, he is always great". He had already been nominated in 2017 for his coverage of the Battle of Mosul.
The Italian Lorenzo Tugnoli (The Washington Post / Contrasto-Rea), with his work on the conflict in Yemen, is "very sensitive, intimate, without ever being a voyeur", according to Mr. Leroy.
Over the years, the inevitable professional meeting, also popular with the general public (200,000 visitors on average), has also gone green, incorporating more and more the theme of the environment.
In "The Far Side of Wildlife Tourism", American Kirsten Luce (National Geographic) focuses on the suffering of wild animals transformed into fair-trade animals, in the Amazon, Thailand or Russia.
Brent Stirton (Getty Images) pays tribute, with "Rangers", to those men and women who fight against poaching in Africa, often risking their lives. The South African photographer, who has been documenting the subject for 12 years, has already won the Environment Prize of the renowned World Press Photo 2019.
As for Frédéric Noy, he denounces the slow agony of Lake Victoria, the largest freshwater fishing area of the plantet.
"It is time to react urgently and we will soon be at a point of no return", insists Mr. Leroy.
- "Obvious" choice of "yellow vests" -
French news is also present with two exhibitions devoted to "yellow vests": Eric Hadj (Paris Match) and Olivier Coret (Divergence for Le Figaro Magazine), which has photographed a priest wearing a yellow vest over a cassock, tricolor flag in his hand.
The "yellow vests" to Visa, it is a choice "completely obvious Since May 68, it is the first time that one has an event in France which makes the front page of all the newspapers of the world. a symbol of resistance, we can not ignore it, "says Leroy.
"I received between 150 and 200 subjects on + yellow vests +, an impressive mass.The two photographers I have chosen have both covered the movement since the first day, November 17, in Paris and in the provinces. I did not want to do just the (violence on the) Champs-Elysees ".
© 2019 AFP