The Françoise Demulder Awards, created by the Ministry of Culture in partnership with the international photojournalism festival Visa pour l’Image-Perpignan, highlights the careers of women press photographers by rewarding two of them each year for the quality and singularity of their project. The 2023 edition rewards two French photographers:
Mahé Elipe / Women Photograph and Juliette Pavy / Collectif Hors Format
The winning projects were selected by a jury made up of image professionals. Each production grant is endowed with €8,000. The images produced will be presented during the next edition of the Visa pour l’Image – Perpignan festival (August 31 – September 15, 2024).
The jury for the 2023 Françoise Demulder Grants brought together
Pascal Beausse, head of the photography collection, CNAP (National Center for Arts)
Lionel Charrier, photo editor-in-chief, Libération
Fannie Escoulen, Head of the Photography Department, DGCA, Ministry of Culture
Charlotte Flossaut, founder and artistic director, Photo Doc.
The winners of previous editions:
2020 : Chloe Sharrock, Nicole Tung
2021: Darcy Padilla, Axelle de Russé
2022: Nanna Heitmann, Adrienne Surprenant
In 2022, the Ministry of Culture’s Production Grant for women photojournalists became the Françoise Demulder Awards, in tribute to the first female press photographer to receive the prestigious World Press Photo prize in 1977, who died in 2008.
Since 2020, this system has promoted the emergence of young female talents by rewarding two female photojournalists each year, in recognition of their contribution to the profession.
This prize is part of the proactive policy of the Ministry of Culture in favor of the place of women in the photography sector, for which actions have been carried out for several years.
Mahé Elipe (born in 1991), for her reportage “Those who struggle” on the actions and demonstrations of women’s collectives against gender violence in Mexico and their commitment to migration and environmental policy. A French photographer based in Mexico, in 2018 she undertook a long-term photographic project bringing together the lives of women of all ages who have risen beyond the status of victim to become true defenders of rights. 2024 will be a pivotal year for Mexico because for the first time in the country, two women will face each other in the presidential election.
She is part of the Women Photograph collective. Her documentary work focuses on the human condition with a particular interest about the place of women in society.
Juliette Pavy (born in 1996), for her project “Under the Arctic ice, mercury” The Arctic is a region in which she has been interested for around ten years.
At the time a biology engineering student, she took her first steps as a scientist there before returning a few years later as a photojournalist. For this project, she will travel to Nunavik (Canada), in the Hudson Strait region because it is in these territories that the highest levels of methylmercury in populations have been measured.
Member and co-founder of the Hors Format collective, she develops a documentary approach to photography on environmental and societal subjects.
