© Patrick Robert / Corbis Sygma / Courtesy Visa pour l'Image
Patrick Robert was awarded the Visa d’Or News 1996 for his work in Liberia.
Next month, a discordant crowd of photographers and editors will
squeeze into the small city of Perpignan, France.
It will be the 20th year of Visa Pour l'Image, an ambitious photo festival that has grown into a huge annual reunion for photojournalists.
The festival's professional week runs from September 1 to September 7. It's a few days to mingle, argue, eat, drink and reflect on powerful photography, much of it work unseen by the general public.
Over 20 years, Visa has drawn heavily on conflict coverage, as seen in the festival's historic highlights. (See photo gallery.) Exhibits over the past years include work both contemporary and historic, mixing the likes of Jean-Pierre Laffont in Angola, Phillip Blenkinsop in Laos and Patrick Robert in Liberia.
The schedule for 2008 is much the same as it has been in the past, with a symposium, six nights of evening projections, a small trade show for photo agencies, and exhibitions in historic buildings around the city.
Among the many exhibitions include a Horst Faas retrospective, a tribute to the late Alexandra Boulat, a 20-year look at the photography of Agence France-Presse and the annual exhibition of World Press Photo winners. Solo shows will be presented by five of nine members of the Noor collective, which launched with fanfare at Perpignan last year. (Those with projects on display are Philip Blenkinsop, Stanley Greene, Jan Grarup, Yuri Kozyrev and Kadir van Lohuizen.)
There are some small tweaks to the format this year, partly to mark the 20th anniversary.
A dozen European and American magazines are marking the anniversary by giving "Visa pour l'Image loyal photographers" the chance to shoot projects of their choosing, according to the festival guide.
The overflow area for the evening photo projections has been moved to a much larger public plaza, the place de la République.
A 20th-anniversary projection is planned for the night of Sept. 5.
A new sponsor, Getty Images, makes its debut.
For the first time, the Visas d'Or for News and Features will come with awards of EUR 8,000, sponsored by Paris Match and the Languedoc-Roussillon Region.
The nominees for the Visa d'Or News are:
- Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP : Kenya
- Philip Blenkinsop / NOOR : China Earthquake
- John Moore / Getty Images : Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
- Anthony Suau / Bill Charles : Mexico/US border fence
The nominees for the Visa d'Or Features are:
- Carlos Spottorno / Getty Images : Xinjiang, China's Far West
- Alfred Yaghobzadeh / Sipa Press for the Figaro Magazine : Religious Minorities in Iran
- Brent Stirton / Reportage by Getty Images for Newsweek and National Geographic Magazine : Virunga National Park, Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, July 2007
- Agnès Dherbeys / VIImentor program : Temple of Dooms, Wat Prah Bat Nam Phu, Thailand
