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As every year at the beginning of September, the international photojournalism festival Visa pour l'image makes Perpignan's heart beat in the south of France. Its general manager, Jean-François Leroy, is passionately keen to assert the unique format of this event, which celebrates its 31st birthday this year.
From our special correspondent in Perpignan,
For a budding photographer, penniless but determined to make journalism a profession, the month of September in Perpignan is a good time to make "the" meeting that will change everything. Some grab fast, and make the trip from the beginning, scrutinizing the festival area in search of a curious eye that will agree to look at their shots. And more if we hit it off.
Some come to try their luck without mastering all the codes, but also without cold eyes, trying to demonstrate portfolio by hand that they have the famous "niaque" intrepid wolves that made the legend of this very specific sector of journalism , because of its physical danger but also psychological. The others pause there, go to see the "family".
24 exhibitions and six screening evenings
The program for this 2019 edition of Visa pour l'image , from August 31-September 15: 24 exhibitions and six evenings of projection, rather unique format in the world. Nearly 200,000 people were on the scene last year, including some 1,300 professionals. The saga continues this year, can only see the historical general manager of the event, Jean-François Leroy.
The house specialty: the evenings. From September 2 to 7, crowds flock to Campo Santo, or away to the Archipelago Theater, for a series of giant-screen photography screenings, accompanied by musical themes. The choice to incorporate music is debatable, but seeing one's own work in such dimensions is a unique experience for anyone.
Dialogue between international photojournalism professionals
Visa pour l'image has become an unmissable event for the purpose of exposing and engaging international photojournalism professionals. Aesthetics has a place of choice, photo format requires, but the essential is elsewhere. For Jean-François Leroy, who co-founded the event and is still leading it with a fist three decades later, the " bottom takes precedence over form ".
" I favor exposure or projection that brings information, rather than the technically licked file that teaches me nothing. I choose the information conveyed, it is essential. I'm not doing a festival for artists, I'm doing a festival for journalists. Only after, in addition, the photo quality is added ", confides the one who looks each year each of the thousands of files deposited.
Undaunted, the 31st of "Visa" is again this year the role of the experts of the " magic combination ", able both to unearth useful information, but also to deliver to the public with the brilliance of the photographer of talent. Jean-François Leroy discusses the work of Brent Stirton on wildlife in Africa, or Frédéric Noy, on " the slow agony of Lake Victoria ", also in Africa.
Pascal Maitre, Alain Keler, Christmas Quidu: big names are exposed or projected. And Patrick Chauvel, 50 years of reporting around the globe, plays the leading figures of this 2019 edition. But those who have read his interview in Le Monde have noted his propensity to highlight the generation before, and that following. Notably the work of his son, who opted for the same devotion to him.
New exhibitors
A quarter of the photographers selected in 2019 exhibit for the first time, according to an organizer. " My three axes, decrypts Jean-François Leroy, it's primo to discover young people, put them forward; second, to dedicate photographers who do not need Perpignan at all to be recognized; and finally to rediscover photographers a little forgotten, not enough known. "
In the first category this year: the Polish Kasia Strek, Camille Lepage 2018 award, named after our young sister tragically killed in the exercise of her profession in the Central African Republic in 2014. Kasia Strek had come to be known at Visa there a few years already; she now exhibits at the Dominican Church her work on dangerous abortions.
Highlighted also because new to Visa: Cyril Abad, for his series "In God We Trust", " a journey to the heart of the eccentricities of faith in the United States ", but also Adriana Loureiro Fernández, a Venezuelan based in New York, prize of the City of Perpignan Rémi Ochlik in June, and which presents "paradise lost" to the convent of Minimes.
" I do not think the photo has the power to make a difference," said Mr. Leroy. But I'm sure she can influence a reflection. If leaving Visa for the image, you have one, two, ten people who think that there are things to do, I'm happy. I find that there is a lack of commitment. To engage, to be the tiny grain of sand; there, the photo has its role to play. "
Laura Morton, based in San Francisco, shows a " story " of inequality, " the daily life of two communities living side by side ." Namely the rich Palo Alto, home to Silicon Valley, and East Palo Alto, where residents have been " kept away from these fortunes ." What delight the director of the festival, which does not have the political comment in his pocket.
Does he have a punctual and specific message to convey to the public of RFI? Mr. Leroy, connoisseur of the arcana of the international press, immediately evokes Africa. But more specifically, he wants to talk about the environment. No surprise, then: it is this week to Visa issue of animal suffering, plastic Asia, tourism, the Arctic, Sahel and of course migrations.
" With all the current means, explains the person, people are aware of the difference between the extreme poverty in which they live, and the extreme wealth in which we live. We arrive, I believe, at the end of a system. 30 or 40 years ago, we talked about the East / West equilibrium; but now, we will have to tackle the North / South problem, because otherwise we are going into the wall. "
Encourage vocations
Mr. Leroy encourages vocations, this is the very meaning of Visa for Image, which has become an economically important player for the sector. But it also warns young people: the candidates are numerous, the places are expensive and this career choice difficult (see box). Above all, there are rules, starting with ensuring that the media do not do it anymore. It is death that sometimes awaits the journalist at the turn.
The Frenchman Thomas Morel-Fort will receive on Thursday, September 5th, the Camille Lepage association prize , created shortly after the death of this brilliant photojournalist, to promote his " memory ", his " commitment " and of course his fieldwork. What help this confrere to finish in turn his report on Filipino domestic employees, as a passage of witness.
■ Jean-François Leroy's message to youth
Below, to read, an excerpt from our radio interview with the director general of the festival Visa pour l'image, which will be broadcast on Saturday, September 7, 2019 on the antennas of RFI.
" Young people coming to Perpignan, I see them every year. They want to embrace this career when we know very well that economically, it is extremely difficult. It should not be forgotten, photo budgets are always the first post that is cut when you want to save money in a newspaper. But I think there is still a real desire of all these young people, who come with tremendous energy, to simply be witnesses of the world in which we live. I always say they are my eyes on the world. I would not know, without them, what is happening in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Venezuela. Yes, they are indispensable, even if it's hard.
We decided (eight years ago as part of the festival, Ed), to do an internship called "Transmission". But it's not a photo internship, it's not a technical internship; we bring together a very small group, they are never more than ten, with photographers and also "photo editors", directors of photography, or people who work with photographers. This year, we have a copywriter, Jean-Philippe Rémy du Monde , who is used - it is one of the few to do - to mount his subjects in tandem with photographers. Professor Anthony Feinstein, a Canadian doctor who works a lot on post-traumatic stress disorder, was also brought in.
These people from very different backgrounds give keys to our young people. Olivier Laurent of the Washington Post or Nicolas Jimenez of the World is involved , who explain to them how to present a file. Because if you are a photographer, if you want to submit your subject to Liberation, the World, the Figaro, you do not make the same selection. If you want to work with Match or Geo , you do not make the same selection. So, make them feel that.
One thing has dramatically changed for 30 years, a link in the chain has almost disappeared : the "pictures editors". There is still a newspaper that does it very well, it's National Geographic ; when he decides on a subject, it is a trio that takes over : a photographic, an editor and a picture editor. The latter will accompany the photographer, and tell him as and when the evolution of his subject that it's good, but that it should be seen otherwise. He gives advice, edits, selects photos and helps the photographer to build.
With the disappearance of agencies, we no longer have this "crutch", I was going to say, absolutely essential. And so we see young people who are completely lost, who have made 30 or 40 photos on a subject, who are technically good, but who do not tell a story. It's a big circle, all that. The other day, I received a young photographer who did a really good topic on a lost island in the Pacific. Technically, there is nothing to say; photographically, it's interesting. But why would I make this island lost in the Pacific and not an island lost in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean ?
I will allow myself a little reproach, because I put a lot of energy, a lot of time trying to help young photographers: I am often struck by their lack of photographic culture. When I started in this business, I had photo books. Those I could not afford to buy, I was going to steal them, or at least consult them. Today, you have internet, you can see topics on the sites of all the newspapers of the world. And often, when you ask young people, " What are your favorite photographers ," they answer Nacho and Salgado.
They are very good, but there have been things before Nacho and Salgado! How can we talk about the marriage of little girls without knowing the work of Stéphanie Saint-Clair ? How can we talk about prostitutes in Bombay without referring to Marie-Hélène Marc ? How to make children work? Lewis Hine, in the 1920s and 1930s, made an extraordinary report about working children in the United States. If we do not know his reference, we will miss this topic. "
On the Visa site for the image: projections & exhibitions 2019