From climate change to migration to women’s rights, these exhibitions from the Visa Pour L’Image photojournalism festival will make you see the world differently.
Visa Pour L’Image takes place in Perpignan, in the south of France, and presents 24 of the best photo stories of the year.
For this 35th edition of the world’s largest photojournalism festival, people came from near and far to see the exhibitions presented across the city. The in-depth reports help humanize the major issues facing the world today – from climate change and war to women’s rights and migration.
Each visitor we spoke with came away with a different feeling and message.
“My favorite was the report on elephants (Brent Stirton, “Asian Elephants: Culture, Conservation, Conflicts & Coexistence”) because they are my spirit animals,” said Julie, 22, from Perpignan. “But also the one on abortion (Stephanie Sinclair, “What a High-Risk Pregnancy Looks Like After Dobbs”) because it’s an issue that affects women.”
“I liked the report on coal (Pascal Maitre, “Le coal, l’or noir du poor”) because it was shocking and made me see reality in a different way,” said Nathan, 16 years old, originally from Italy.
At Euronews Culture, this year we have compiled a list of four exhibitions at Visa Pour L’Image that made us think differently about the world.
Michael Bunel, “Search, Save, Protect”
French photojournalist Michael Bunel has been covering migration in and around Europe for over 10 years, from Syria through Turkey and the Balkans and now from the Mediterranean Sea. His most recent photographic project focuses on rescue workers in the Mediterranean, whom he depicted during four separate missions at sea with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and SOS Méditerranée.
“I really tried to show the humans behind the story, the people who act,” Bunel told Euronews Culture. “They prepare for days, they build friendships. There is humanity on these ships, and we never see it. We see people saving other people and that’s it. And Until the next tragedy happens, we stop talking about it.”
The central Mediterranean has been described by the United Nations refugee agency as the most dangerous migration route in the world: one in six people leave North Africa on small boats, seeking refuge or better economic opportunities in Europe, dies during his journey. But as the death toll continues to rise, public interest in the story has cooled.
“I never sold that report,” Bunel said. “The editors would tell me it’s great work, but the readers already know the story, or we’ve already covered it.”
Bunel received a grant to carry out this project from the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF). He says he is driven to continue this work by a deep feeling of “disgust” at the situation and by the need to bear witness to it.
“I always tell young people that our photographs have little direct impact on these kinds of events,” he said. “You have to think, with this kind of subject, that it is also about creating a body of evidence showing the action or inaction of certain people at a given moment. This way, future generations will be able to look back back and pass judgment.”
Stephanie Sinclair, “What a High-Risk Pregnancy Looks Like After Dobbs”
The New York Times Magazine asked award-winning American photographer Stephanie Sinclair to document the loss of women’s reproductive rights in the United States – after the Supreme Court ruled that access to abortion would be decided by each state.
In August 2022, Sinclair gained access to photographs of doctors and patients in the Department of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the largest and most respected specialty centers in the country. Ohio is one of the states that banned abortion following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, but that ban has since been blocked by a judge.
“It felt like a privilege to be in the room,” Sinclair told Euronews Culture. “I felt like I was given the task of making history with respect for the difficult decisions that (these women) were making. So that’s what overwhelmed me, the simple responsibility to do a good job.”
Her series of intimate photographs depicts women faced with difficult decisions: Catrina Rainey, pregnant with twins, chose to abort one of her fetuses after learning that he suffered from a serious brain malformation and that he was unlikely to live beyond six months, and could also threaten the viability of his other fetuses. Megan Keeton decided to continue her pregnancy, despite doctors recommending she terminate it due to complications from two previous pregnancies.
All these women thought that the choice should be left to the pregnant person.
“What I took away from being a part of this project for a few weeks is that there are still a lot of people in the fight,” Sinclair said. “All these women in this project are part of the fight, they all shared their stories because they believed that women should have reproductive rights and have access to abortion. (…) I think it’s an obligation to continue to be part of this conversation and push for the rights of the generations that come after us.”
Sinclair, who is also the founder of anti-child marriage nonprofit Too Young To Wed, said that despite the depressing situation in her home country, she continues to believe the future is bright.
“I’m optimistic that the ship will right itself,” she said. “It’s just a slight setback in this last period of power, as the demographics are changing in the United States. But I don’t think these younger generations are going to put up with it.”
“I hope that what people see in my photographs is not really bad news, but rather resilience, determination, courage. Because that is what I saw in these women. “
Nanna Heitmann, “War is peace”
German-Russian photographer Nanna Heitmann was based in Moscow when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Over the following months, Heitmann documented the war from the Russian perspective, attempting to illustrate how the government’s control over information within its borders had profoundly distorted citizens’ sense of reality.
“The force of the propaganda is very impressive,” Heitmann told Euronews Culture. “We live in an era of information warfare and Putin has developed this propaganda over the last 20 years. It is very aggressive and very effective. What has always struck me the most is how much the “People are capable of living in a different reality. I think it’s shocking how you can manipulate people in different ways.”
Heitmann’s series takes a panoramic look at Russia from the start of the war – with the first protests against what Putin called a “special military operation” – to the muted daily reminders of continued fighting. She photographed poor families who had lost their sons fighting in Ukraine, lavish events going on as usual in Moscow, and school plays hammering home messages of patriotism and duty.
“There are so many different realities in Russia right now,” she said. “There’s this Potemkin paradise in Moscow where it’s party time and the war seems distant because it’s far from the capital. And then you go to the regions, you go to Dagestan, where almost everyone has someone who is fighting or lost someone fighting. in Ukraine. I hope one day this will be a historical document so people can look back and see what life was like in Russia back then of this dictatorship.
Nick Brandt, “The Day May Break”
English photographer Nick Brandt’s ongoing series, “The Day May Break,” features otherworldly snapshots: a woman poses on a chair as a jaguar walks behind her, a man sits on a wooden crate while a rhino stops within arm’s reach, an owl appears oppressed and gloomy. figures walk in the background. In each of the shots, an eerie fog obscures the world around the subjects.
The photography project aims to shine a light on the people and animals who have been irreversibly affected by climate change, from extreme drought to floods.
The animals are almost all long-term rescues, victims of everything from habitat destruction to poaching, and can never be released back into the wild. As a result, they were accustomed to the presence of humans, allowing subjects to safely pose nearby.
The fog – created by fog machines installed in several sanctuaries and conservation areas in Africa and South America – symbolizes a natural world that is rapidly disappearing from view. It is also reminiscent of the smoke from wildfires, intensified by climate change, that have devastated much of the planet.
Brandt’s astonishing series sits at the intersection of documentary and art, presenting a stark warning of what will happen if humans don’t make serious efforts to stop global warming and environmental destruction .
Many other photo exhibitions can be discovered during Visa Pour L’Image, which runs until September 17 in Perpignan. You can also view the exhibitions virtually on the the festival website.