For the first time, the screenings of the Perpignan photojournalism festival are also taking place online.
Bodies exhausted, collapsed, or streaming with water. A year after the world athletics championships held in Doha in 2019, the images of the competition are still striking. Slightly forgotten, drowned in the flow of news that followed them, they resurface in this first Visa pour l’Image screening, broadcast this Monday, August 31, and devoted to the events of September and October 2019.
Health crisis obliges, the screenings no longer take place in the traditional Campo Santo, but in the chapel of the Funeraria, right next door, and in a much smaller committee (one hundred people maximum). For those who cannot make it into the chapel or could not have made it to Perpignan, the festival has for the first time planned virtual screenings.
Accessible from the Visa site, they provide access to the same videos, without time constraints. The experience is still a bit frustrating: most photos benefit from being projected on a large scale, and lose some of their weight on the small screen. They are nonetheless a great way to immerse yourself – thanks to a series of snapshots punctuated by music – in the highlights of the past year, and to be surprised a second time by the news. And the quality of the images.
The great school strike for the climate in September, the fire at the Lubrizol factory in Rouen, the electoral contest in Bolivia or the death of ISIS ‘caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, come back to the fore front, through well-known photographs and others less seen. Focuses on Benedictine monks, cruises or Western Sahara, also offer a more offbeat look at current events and an exhibition space for other photographers who are not among the official selection.
Nelly Didelot et Aubane Lemaire
https://www.visapourlimage.com/
