For the last 24 years, the celebrated French magazine PHOTO dedicate its September issue to the Visa pour l’Image festival. This year is no exception, and for the occasion, Agnès Grégoire and her team gathered testimonials from professional photojournalists about the festival in Perpignan. Here’s a sample of their responses:
• David Douglas Duncan, Photojournalist
Visa pour l’Image was born from a dream more than 20 years ago, thanks to Roger Thérond and Jean-François Leroy. With its photographs, screenings and seminars featuring some of the biggest names of 20th century photography, we had never seen anything like it, and we haven’t seen anything like it since. As perhaps the oldest photojournalist still active, I cherish my memories of Roger and welcome every year Jean-François’ devotion, along with his heroic efforts to keep their dream intact.
• Romain Lacroix, Head Photo Editor of Grazia.
I go to Perpignan every year for… the hangovers.
The hangovers from a day of exhibitions.
The hangovers from an evening of screenings.
The hangovers from a night of drinks with photographers we hardly ever see in Paris.
And the hangover I have in the morning while I’m sitting on a jury, when Jean-François Leroy is kind enough to ask me.
• Valérie Toranian, Managing Editor at Elle
We come to Visa because we know that the selection and quality of the exhibitions are one-of-a-kind. Visa represents the aesthetic bias of a team, and in the current media world we need bias more than ever, bias and commitment—not an ideological bias, but a photographic and journalistic bias. We come to Visa because we leave more informed, overwhelmed, and always grateful to the photographers who continue to impress us with their work.
• Tom Stoddart, Photojournalist for Getty Images
For me, Visa pour l’Image is about passion, energy, optimism and creativity. All week long, I catch up with old friends, drink too much, and recharge my passion for photojournalism. My favorite thing to do is to go to the exhibitions alone. I love standing in front of these superb images, feeling inspiration and admiration for the courage and talent of these photojournalists faced with such difficult work. Last year, Yuri Kozyrev’s photos of the Arab Spring were simply incredible.
• Aurélie Filippetti, Minister of Culture and Communication
Visa pour l’Image is a major photojournalism festival that has paid tribute since 1989 to the photographers and journalists who keep us informed about our world, often at the risk of their lives and freedom.
This year, I am especially touched by the retrospective devoted to Rémy Ochlik, who died in the line of duty in Homs, Syria, on February 22.
• Karim Ben Khelifa, Independent Photojournalist and Founder of www.emphas.is
Visa pour l’Image is an annual event that defines the industry because it allows for one week a year people working at all levels of our profession to come together to interact: the photojournalists who take the pictures, the agencies that distribute them, the media that publish them and the public that will ultimately consume them. It’s also a kind of friendly meeting among photojournalists, who put aside their habitual nomadic nature to come together and take the pulse of our industry and our world.
