The 35th Visa Photojournalism Festival puts the spotlight on the climate

The Visa pour l'image international photojournalism festival begins on Saturday September 2 in Perpignan for a 35th edition focusing on the impact of climate change, and other current topics such as the migrant crisis, the war in Ukraine or revolts in Iran. "It's been said for years that the house is burning down, but we still haven't moved! We will have to adapt: ​​climate change is becoming an urgent problem and if Visa can help people become aware of it, that would be good,” festival director Jean-François told AFP. Leroy. The images of James Balog, Nick Brandt, Giles Clarke, Sandra Mehl or even Ian Berry thus show the consequences of human greed and the overexploitation of the planet's resources, on nature but also on populations deprived of water, poisoned by pesticides, or even forced into exile. Animals of endangered species whose natural habitat is dwindling, ancient and gigantic trees which appear as survivors, fires, mining operations, melting glaciers are all themes that James Balog has been exploring for forty years.

Nick Brandt bears witness to the human impact with his portraits of people whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by droughts or floods in Zimbabwe, Kenya and Bolivia. “Without water, we will die,” warns Giles Clarke, showing a Somalia deprived of rain and threatened by famine. Land and water, precious and contaminated resources, as evidenced by the images of Cristopher Rogel Blanquet on horticultural plantations in Mexico, or those of Ian Berry on displaced populations in India, Bangladesh and Ethiopia; Sandra Mehl showing that even the United States knows its first climate refugees, in Louisiana. A disruption of the climate that does not even spare the world's leading economic power, which so many migrants nevertheless dream of treading the ground, embarking for this on perilous crossings. "By dint of giving figures of dead and missing at sea, they become statistics and we want to show that behind that, there are humans who suffer and who take foolish risks to grant themselves a better life", underlines Jean-Francois Leroy. Michael Bunel thus shows these beings who face a Mediterranean that has become "the deadliest migratory route in the world" and Federico Rios Escobar the hell of the Darien, an inextricable jungle between Colombia and Panama faced by migrants from all continents aspiring to join the United States. As always, Visa emphasizes such long-term issues and topical issues, such as the war in Ukraine, but also the revolts in Iran with a collective exhibition of almost all anonymous photographers.

"These are photos that we got from social networks or via VPN (secure connection, editor's note) and this is a first for Visa, but because in Iran, it is no longer possible to work", de identify themselves as a photographer, specifies the director of the festival. Artificial intelligence will also be the theme of one of the round tables, Jean-François Leroy believing that if AI “will inevitably change things for illustration photographers”. As for news photos, which must "apprehend the reality on the ground, it will never replace the human eye, human sensitivity". Taking stock of the 35 years of Visa, its director notes that they have been marked by "the digital revolution", the acceleration of the speed of transmission of images, but "what has not changed is the commitment of the photographers and their talent". Then he adds: "The newspapers produce less, the newspapers pay less, but all the same, every year, we see young people arriving who have the passion and the desire to exercise this profession and that is rather reassuring". In total, 24 exhibitions and six screening evenings, with free access, as well as debates, conferences and meetings with photographers are planned for this edition, the various prizes of which will be awarded from September 6, with a publishes the Visa d'or News on September 9th.