The 31st Visa pour l’Image of Perpignan opened on Saturday.
This year, Jean-Francois Camp will be sharing his journal with the Eye of Photography.
Here is his first day!
A daily section of JFC at the Visa Festival for Image from August 31 to September 8, 2019.
“On Saturday, August 31, 2019, at the sound of the bugle at 9 o’clock sharp, is inaugurated in Perpignan, on the esplanade of the Couvent des Minimes, the 31st edition of the festival Visa pour l’Image. Perpignan big shots ceremoniously congratulated each other under the eye eager to be done with it of its director Jean-François Leroy.
The expected speeches, however, took on a more political character than in previous years, because of the presence of the RN’s deputy, René Alliot and Jean-Marie Gros deputy for En Marche have shared the floor, not without a certain tension … We can feel the municipal elections are getting closer. The new President of the festival Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, presents himself and his ambitions for the future of the event; the mayor of Perpignan Jean-Marc Pujol can not hold a barb to Jean-François Leroy when he addresses a satisfecit to the former president Jean-Paul Griolet adding that ” to preside the association Visa for the Image is much more stressful than running the City Council. ” The Prefect is confused by precedence: to have a former Minister of culture at his side seems to disturb him beyond understanding because every time he turned respectfully towards him, the directional microphone is cut. The only good news is that, like last year, the Ministry of Culture will award 1000 euros to each photographer exhibited at the festival.
To conclude, Jean-François Leroy presented the theme of exhibitions, all more fundamental than the others.
At the end of this presentation, the director of the festival invites the participants to discover the various selected reportages, made by many of his old accomplices, like Patrick Chauvel for whom I also have a deep admiration. The parade takes place in calm, one could say with the monastic sobriety of a convent. But it must be said that, for two years, austerity has been reigning at Visa for l’ Image: there is no more sustenance in the patio of the Minimes at the end of the tour, tastings of local wines to help pass the bitter vision of the political and climatic disturbances of this world, the anchoïades, the trays of seafood and the Rousquilles, local sweets, having been suppressed. The time is no longer for Mediterranean conviviality, but rather for recollection in the face of the shock of photos, which allows everyone to leave quickly the stomach knotted if not satiated.
We are far from the long Arlesian wanderings of personalities in their Sunday best, exchanging at length with the circumstancial authors on the difficulties of their artistic work. It is a choice that some will appreciate while others will remain hungry.
JFC
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.
https://www.visapourlimage.com/en
