Keep on keeping on!

2008 and 2009 will no doubt go down in the annals of photojournalism as grim years. Plenty of agencies now have flat rate schemes – Just pay a flat fee and use all the photos you need - offering attractive prospects for magazines and newspapers run by people whose only goal is profit, preferably double-digit profit. We could also mention the one-size-fits-all rate – Take what you like, it’s the same price, whether postage-stamp format or a double-page spread – and the extensive use of photos marked © All rights reserved, often provided free of charge by press and PR departments.

We scarcely need to cite the case of picture desks of magazines with the same profit-driven management demands and which use amateur photo Websites, paying one or two euros a shot.

The press is struggling; everyone is struggling. And with these different practices becoming more widespread, photo agencies that refuse to embark on such a system are being starved out of business, as are photographers in general. Who can still produce photos? When I say “produce”, I mean produce a real report, in length and depth, spending the time needed on the story, staying there, looking around, working and understanding the situation; in other words, being a “journalist”.

Bankruptcy is on the horizon for the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. OK, but there is also the World Wide Web, so we are told. We are always hearing tales of advertisers leaving the printed press and going over to the Web. So why doesn’t the money being poured into Web coffers ever end up with people producing genuine work, with photographers and journalists? There’s a mystery.

What can Perpignan do? We have no intention of turning into a sanctuary for the last generation of dinosaurs. Certainly not! We will show that quality work is still being produced, even though it may be becoming scarce. New paths are to be explored, new standards are to be set. We will not be tolling the death knell of photojournalism. We will not be joining the ranks of gravediggers rushing to bury the printed press. We shall continue to engage in the battle, alongside everyone who is determined to believe in quality journalism. This is not just wishful thinking. It is a solemn promise.

Jean-François Leroy