For its fourteenth edition, the National Association of Iconographers (ANI) is showing three photographers chosen from among the favourites at the Visa pour l’Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan in 2016. The winners acan be seen at the École de l’Image des Gobelins in Paris from November 6th to December 14th 2017. The ANI has organised a lecture at the same address on December 7th 2017 from 6.30pm to 8.00pm.
Between myth and reality, between modernity and tradition, in both Estonia and Russia, straddling an international border and hardly twenty-two years old, lies the kingdom of Setomaa. This region comprises the oldest, settled, ethnic group in Europe: the Seto, a Finno-Ugric ethnic group close to the Estonians but showing many Slavic influences. During their long history, the Seto have often been scorned and have known the yoke of successive external oppressors. The restoration of Estonian independence in 1991 did little to change that. During the Soviet occupation the administrative borders of the Union had been modified, Estonia did not regain its lost territory. A painful source of tension, this border is the subject of a treaty that has still not been ratified to this day (2016). So, more than ever the Seto manage to conserve, develop and reactivate their cultural heritage. But, sign of the times, the young people prefer to leave the region for the brighter lights of the big cities. Little by little, the villages are becoming depopulated. On the Russian side, there are barely two hundred Seto. There were fifteen thousand in Estonia. The Seto have been protected by Peko, their king and god of fertility. The Seto epic says that Peko reposes in the cellars of the Russian monastery of Petseri (Petchory), and will rouse himself to protect his people if they are threatened.
Jéremie Jung
Born in 1980 in Strasbourg, Jérémie Jung lives and works in Paris. After a career as a graphic designer and web developer, he trained as a photojournalist in 2010 at the EMI-CFD (Paris).
Les visas de l’ANI
Lecture on 7th December 2017
6.30pm – 8.00pm
Gobelins L’Ecole de l’Image
73 boulevard Saint Marcel
75013 Paris
France
