FACING THE WAR, FACING VICTIMS
9 photojournalists winners of the ICRC’s Humanitarian Visa d’Or.
In 2011, in partnership with the International Photojournalism Festival of Perpignan, Visa pour l’Image, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) creates its prize: The Humanitarian Visa d’Or.
Endowed with 8000 euros this distinction is addressed to professional photographers working in zones of armed conflicts.
If “a photo is better than a long speech”, then those awarded by the ICRC jury, describe the war under its main and tragic consequence: the victims.
As for the long speech, it remains that of the right or rather of its violation as the majority of the images show victims who should not be it.
The work of the 9 award-winning photographers to date recalls that those who no longer fight, wounded or captured fighters, those who do not fight, civilians, are protected by international humanitarian law based primarily on the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
196 states adhere to these texts. They are committed to “respect” and “enforce” them.
In “Facing the war, facing the victims”, Catalina Martin-Chico, Mani, Sebastiano Tomada, William Daniels, Diana Z. Alhindawi, Juan Arredondo, Angela Ponce-Romero, Veronique de Viguerie and Abdulmonam Eassa deliver a point of view, often believed but always full of humanity and indignation.
Sign of the times, a growing number of photojournalists cover a conflict or a situation of violence striking their own country making them both witnesses and victims. This is the case for one third of the winners of the Humanitarian Visa d’Or.
Since 2011, three themes have been proposed to candidates:
– respect for the relief mission in times of armed conflict (2011-2014),
– women in the war (2015-2017),
– the fate of the civilian population in the towns fought in the fighting (2018-2019).
“In the face of the war, facing the victims” offers an overview of these works elected among the 300 received by the selection committee in 9 years.
Galerie FAIT & CAUSE
58 rue Quincampoix – 75004 Paris
from Wednesday, November 13 to Saturday, December 21, 2019
