A daily section of JFC at the Visa Festival for Image from August 31 to September 8, 2019.
Pierre Fernandez, head of Agence France-Presse for the “Valorization of Multimedia Content”, has been a key figure in Visa pour l’Image for nearly 25 years. It is him, among other things, which stages the presentation of the most beautiful stand of the Palais des Congrès. This beautiful showcase of the AFP photo service is the reference to encourage younger generations to engage in the search for truth, understanding and explanation by the image of the events that agitate the world.
The AFP World Photographic Service was created in 1985. Visa is a formidable barometer where we have seen the development of its network and the increasing quality of its production. The turn of the digital era in the late 90s has significantly increased its visibility and AFP is now a major player in photojournalism with its presence in 151 countries and 201 offices.
AFP is focusing more and more on substantive topics. Pierre Fernandez cites as an example the exhibition of Ed Jones, which can be found at the Convent of Minimes and which documents both North Korea and South Korea. The photographer, based in Seoul, makes frequent trips to North Korea to enrich life snapshots on both sides of the peninsula. His cross-portraits of North and South Koreans are staggering. Guillermo Arias’s long-running report on the Caravan is another work in which we feel that the photographer has walked alongside the migrants to allow us to feel the strength, sometimes the discouragement of what drives them to try everything in the hope of a better life. Not to mention the remarkable series of Abdulmonam Eassa, a young Syrian freelancer, who brilliantly returns to his cover in Eastern Ghouta. Exhibition not to be missed at the Palais des Corts.
While waiting for the animated image, Pierre Fernandez is convinced that Visa remains the festival of the news of the world.
We read in his eyes a great passion for his job as a former chief photo editor and he recognizes to Jean-François Leroy the immense talent to allow, every year, this salutary confrontation of people of images.
Jean-François Camp
Jean-François Camp :
Former owner of the DUPON laboratories, sponsors of the Visa pour l’Image festival for 30 years, but also the Rencontres D’Arles, the Images and Nature Festival of La Gacilly, the Bayeux Prize for war correspondents. Vice President of the association Visa pour l’Image, creator and in charge of the International Center for Photojournalism and CEO of DUREV Events dedicated to the promotion of the photographic image in Paris.
