Education is one of the top priorities this year!

For the first year, Visa Pour l’Image extends the festival by one week for schools from Perpignan and its surroundings to visit the exhibitions. Accompanied by their teachers, hundreds of students (from 8 to 20) discover the work by the photojournalists. While the youngest look at Michael Nichols’ elephants or Brent Stirton’s gorillas, the oldest visit the exhibitions in relation with their studies or interests. They all have to fill in a questionnaire. They gather in front of the pictures and write down their impressions. Some students have the privilege of meeting Jean-François Leroy, or the photographers Franck Boutonnet, Magdalena Herrera, Bertrand Gaudillère, to discuss, ask questions, share their feelings. Some questions are recurrent: “why this festival?”, “how do you choose the photographers and subjects?”, “what is the role of captions?”

When Jean-François Leroy asks « who has heard of Darfour? », a few hands go up, but the subject remains vague for the students, which shows the lack of coverage by the media. Jean-François explains: “It is the goal of Visa to display subjects we don’t hear about. The situation in Darfour is a catastrophe. We don’t know how many people are starving and dying there, but it’s in large number, and nobody cares.”

Jean-François meets 12 year-old children. He sits with them, and proposes to talk about the pictures that held their attention: “the one with tanks”, “the one with cannons”, “men waging war and kids with a helmet”, “kids putting their hands over their ears”. In spite of their young age, the questions are relevant. They saw David Duncan’s exhibition. “Why those pictures of war?” one of them asks. Jean-François explains that David Duncan has made the most meaningful war pictures: “The soldiers on the pictures show what all the soldiers in every war feel. They are very representative.” Then, he talks about the civilians who are killed in wars. The students look interested, ask questions about the Tibetans, war, and try to find a subject that would not have been treated at Visa: pollution? Diseases? Endangered species? The children have a lot of imagination. When Jean-François asks why the photographer Jan Grarup uses panoramic shots, they answer “because it saves room.”

The meeting with teenagers is more difficult. Most of them say they are shocked by the pictures. Jean-François says: “The job of photojournalist is to testify. What you see on the pictures is the reality of the world. There are no shocking pictures, but violent pictures.”

Everybody agrees: the educational week is very important and interesting. The main purpose is to inform of course, but also to make students aware of what is going on in the world.

Marion Mozzi