Once again, the Festival Internacional de Fotoperiodismo Visa pour l’Image de Perpiñán opens its doors with the objective of reviving the work and the relationships between photojournalists, agencies and the public. A forum to meet background documentaries and unedited stories that enhance the vivacity of a profession where the concept of authorship is not as valued by the general audience. During a period where technological evolution substitutes the traditional for the digital, where information circulates more freely each time and good quality materials are accessible –for almost everyone-, and the area of photojournalism experiences the incorporation of new photographers to the market. These professionals find in Perpiñán the occasion to dialogue with their peers, to debate on their production and establish commercial relations with agencies.

Around 3.000 credited professionals and 280 agencies representing over fifty countries come together during the first week of the festival in Perpiñán. From the 29th of August to the 4th of September, more than thirty agencies and collectives of authors from all over the word open their representative offices at the festival. The festival is not only strictly for professionals.  Around thirty exhibitions open until the 11th of September to offer the latest projects of authors such as Rodrigo Abad, Martina Bacigalupo, Jocelyn Bain Hogg, Jonas Bendiksen, Valerio Bispuri, Chien-Chi Chang, Barbara Davidson, Peter Dench, Bertrand Gaudillère, Cédric Gerbehaye, Yuri Kozyrev, Catalina martin-Chico, Fernando Moleres, Lu Nan, Ed Ou, Issouf Sanogo y un largo etcétera.

The public cultural offer of the festival also includes the Veladas de Proyección. These nocturne sessions will show some of the most important events of the journalistic sector of this last year according to the vision of agencies and autonomous journalists in order to establish a critical debate. Visa pour l'Image also projects the retrospectives historical on events and important personalities. As a result, a group of homonymous prizes have been created –Visa d’or News, Visa d’or Magazine and the Premio Joven Reportero of the Ville de Perpignan– which are conceived every year in the framwork of this night. Lastly, the section named Encuentros, offers an area of debate for professionals based on production questions, use of images and the future of the profession. The 24th Edition of the Festival Internacional de Fotoperiodismo Visa pour l’Image is open today, August 29 and will remain open in Perpiñán until September 11th. Alejandro Martínez and Ana Rodríguez-Andía 

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