The Visa pour l'Image international festival of photojournalism kicks off on Saturday in Perpignan, in the south of France. The 35th edition will highlight the consequences of climate change, as well as migrant crises in the Mediterranean and South America, the war in Ukraine and uprisings in Iran.
"We've been saying for years that the house is burning down, but we still haven't moved! We're going to have to adapt: climate change is becoming an urgent problem, and if Visa can help make people aware of it, that would be great," Jean-François Leroy, the festival's director, told French news agency AFP.
James Balog, Nick Brandt, Giles Clarke and Ian Berry will exhibit their photos showing the consequences of over-exploitation of the planet's resources – not only for nature but also for populations deprived of water, poisoned by pesticides or even forced into exile.
Human face of climate change
In her series "Farewell Isle de Jean-Charles", photographer Sandra Mehl turns her lens on the United States' first climate refugees, in the state of Louisiana.
Climate change is not sparing the world's leading economic power, yet many migrants dream of setting foot there and embark on perilous journeys to do so.
"By dint of giving figures for deaths and disappearances at sea, they become statistics, and we want to show that behind them there are human beings who are suffering and taking insane risks to give themselves a better life," Leroy explained.
Migrant crises
This year's festival sees two photojournalists look at migration on different continents.
Michael Bunel shows the people who attempt to cross into Europe via the Mediterranean, which has become the deadliest migratory route in the world.
Meanwhile Federico Rios Escobar – winner of the International Committee of the Red Cross's 2023 Humanitarian Visa d'Or award – captured the desperate journey across the Darién Gap, a jungle between Colombia and Panama that migrants face as they try to reach the United States.
The festival is also focusing on other subjects in the headlines, including the war in Ukraine and the uprisings in Iran – documented here by a group of anonymous photographers.
"These are photos that we retrieved from social networks or by VPN [secure connection], and this is a first for Visa, because in Iran it is no longer possible to work, to identify oneself as a photographer," says Leroy.
Photography in the age of AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) will also be the topic of a round table, with Leroy suggesting that AI is "bound to change things for illustrative photographers".
As for news photos, which must "capture the reality on the ground", he believes AI will never replace "the human eye, the human sensibility".
In total, 24 exhibitions and six evening screenings, as well as debates, conferences and meetings with photographers, are planned for this year's event.
The various prizes, which reward the best reports of the past year, will be awarded from 6 September.
► Visa pour l'Image runs in Perpignan from 2 to 17 September 2023. It will also be on display at La Villette in Paris from 16 to 30 September.
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