Visa pour l'Image in Paris

On Tuesday, November 4, 2008, hundreds of people lined up outside Paris’s Grand Rex theater.

The show was the program screened in Perpignan to mark the 20^th anniversary of the International Festival of Photojournalism, Visa pour l'Image. The audience in Paris had the opportunity of experiencing the Festival held every year in the first week of September in the wonderful city of Perpignan. This time Visa pour l'Image was brought to Paris, for one evening, and the venue was the historic and magical movie theater, Le Grand Rex, which kindly hosted the occasion for us. The event was a "first", and judging from the number of people who turned up, it was a great success.

The Abax team who have produced all the evening screening programs for the Festival for the past 20 years, presented reports selected from the 20 festivals, providing the audience with an opportunity to discover (or rediscover) the photos that had marked the eyes, minds and memories of both professionals in the world of photography and members of the general public.

There was acclaim and applause for the work by all the photographers presented, including special features by Philip Blenkinsop, Joakim Eskildsen, Paul Fusco, Stanley Greene, Jocelyn Bain Hogg, Paolo Pellegrin, Hans Silvester, Laurent van der Stockt, Scott Thode, and Stefan Vanfleteren. While they are distinguished figures in the world of photojournalism, they are names often unfamiliar to the wider public, but here they were able to share their work and commitment with the enthusiastic audience eager to discover their reports and stories.

Dear audience, we were delighted to make the trip to Paris for you, and hope that this glimpse of the Festival will be incentive for you to come and visit us in Perpignan in September 2009.

We look forward to seeing you there and to the pleasure of presenting more talented photographers and more stories for you to discover.

See you in sunny Perpignan !

The Team at Visa pour l'Image