Visa Pour l'Image 2025: 37 years of photojournalism that leaves no one indifferent

On Saturday, August 30, Perpignan will kick off the 37th edition of the Visa Pour l'Image 2025 International Photojournalism Festival, officially opening this edition. The festival, which will take place from August 30 to September 14 (every day from 10 am to 8 pm), will bring together thousands of visitors, image professionals and photojournalists from all over the world. And from September 15 to 19 and 22 to 26, the exhibitions will be open to school groups.

For this edition, the Festival maintains its commitment to showing some of the great issues of our time through the gaze of photographs from around the world. Attendees will be able to visit the exhibitions that will be spread across the main cultural and historical spaces of Perpignan. In parallel with the festival, the organization has programmed a series of activities from September 1 to 6 such as conferences, discussions on armed conflicts, humanitarian crises, migrations, climate emergency, as well as stories of resistance and hope.

• Photograph of Saher Alghorra in 2023.

Apart from the photographic exhibitions, there will also be six night screenings (from September 1 to 6 at Campo Santo starting at 9:30 a.m.), debates and meetings with professionals, consolidating itself as an essential meeting point for graphic journalism and a platform to give visibility to the new batch of young photographers. Some of the topics that will be discussed are: The consequences of climate change in India, Kenya, Senegal, California, France and Spain. The election of Donald Trump, the war in Ukraine, the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the war between Israel and Hamas, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp, the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King and the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X, the fall of Saigon and the outbreak of civil war in Lebanon and Angola, the death of Pope Francis, etc.

From September 1st to 3rd and 4th, a three-day workshop entitled “ Transmission pour l'Image ” will be held, which is a forum for meeting and debate. Photographers and image editors who wish to do so will talk about their work and the decisions they have had to make to sell their photographs, their day-to-day lives.

It is also worth mentioning the Visa d'or News Award , the Visa d'or Reportage Award and the Visa d'or Rémi Ochlik Award of the City of Perpignan, as the image editors and deputy image editors of the jury will make a selection from all the reports seen during the last year (both published and unpublished), and choose four nominees per category. A second jury will choose the winners of the Visa d'or award (News, Reportage and Daily Press).

• Photograph of Paloma Laudet in 2025.

With 37 editions under its belt, the festival reaffirms its role in the space of denunciation. Reflection and recognition of the work of photojournalism which is very risky. According to the Festival director, Jean-François Leroy “with the world in an even worse state than usual, this Festival is more necessary than ever even though at its beginnings when we presented this project no one believed in it. One of the main criticisms we have had to face is that the Festival tends to be too gloomy, violent and pessimistic. Unfortunately, we were a little too ahead of our time. The world is bad, but now everyone is saying it. Journalism is on the front line of all this bad news. Some are tempted to be alarmists, to exploit the tragedy, spread rumors and incite panic. We are not”.

Leroy also explained that during the night screenings in Campo Santo and at the exhibitions “we will continue to do what we have always done: show the best in photojournalism. Nuanced and verified information from the field, not from social networks; images made by humans, not by generative AI” and concluded by stating that “after almost forty years of collaboration with the city of Perpignan and our loyal partners, together with my team led by Dephine Lelu, we are more determined than ever to guarantee the continuity of the festival. I hope to be able to announce new projects in the future”.

25 Exhibitions throughout the city

A total of 25 exhibitions can be visited throughout the town of Perpignan. The participating artists in this edition are: Cynthia Boll (Reshaping home: Indonesia's capital migration), Juan Carlos (El Salvador), Jean-Louis Courtinat (40 years of social photography), Deanne Fitzmaurice (Lionheart: The Story of Saleh), Cédric Gerbehaye (Kashmir. Wait & See), Gaëlle Girbes (Ukraine, surviving amidst the ruins), Adam Gray (American Madness), Jean-Pierre Laffont (Photographer Unchained), Pascal Maitre (Uncontrollable megacities, Dacca, Kinshasa, El Alto-La Paz), Eugene Richards (Do I know you?), Rijasolo (Madagascar, Land of Spirits), Stephen Shames (A lifetime in photography), George Steinmetz (Feed the Planet), Brent Stirton (Virunga: 100 years), Carolyn Van Houten (The war against Islamic State in Somalia) and International Daily Press newspapers.

On November 28 and 29 (at 8 am and 6 pm), coinciding with its reopening, the emblematic theater in the west of Paris (Théatre Nanterre-Amandiers) this year invited the Visa pour l'Image Festival to its main auditorium, completely renovated, with a capacity for 800 people. In this space, a selection of reports will be projected on a giant screen during two sessions presented by Jean-François Leroy and Pauline Cazaubon. It should be remembered that during these 37 editions the Festival has presented more than 1,000 exhibitions, with prints produced by the best professionals based in Paris.