Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up – 30 August 2019

This week on Photojournalism Now: Friday Round Up – a special edition featuring the 31st Visa Pour L’image Festival in Perpignan, the world’s most renowned photojournalism festival. This year features another amazing collection of visual journalism from around the world.

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Special Feature:

Visa Pour L’Image – 31/8 to 15/9

It is now seven years since I attended my first Visa in the picturesque French town of Perpignan. It was a profound experience that continues to influence my work, both journalistic and scholarly, work that investigates the power of the photograph to impact social change.

Looking at the line-up of exhibitions at this year’s Visa reinforces, for me, the import of photography in informing the public about stories we might not otherwise know about. In the “Age of the Image,” to borrow from Fred Ritchin, visual journalism is more important than ever. These photographs, many of which come to us because journalists have risked their own safety, deserve our full attention.  Bravo, to Jean François Leroy and his amazing team in putting together yet another brilliant celebration of photojournalism.

Below is my selection from more than 20 exhibitions. You can visit the website to see the full programme. There’s also a massive screening programme – this is the list as it currently stands.

Frédéric Noy

Lake Victoria, Slowly Dying

Giant egrets scavenging for any scraps of tiny dagaa fish left by the women who dry and sell the fish. In the distance is Musira, a prison island in precolonial times when kings reigned over the country. Bukoba, Tanzania.
© Frédéric Noy

A man rinsing plastic bags in a rubbish dump in marshland, where the blue dye from the plastic runs into the lake. The wetlands form a natural filter for surface water, but poor people in search of work settle there, causing pollution and damage to the environment. Katabi, Uganda.
© Frédéric Noy

At Dunga Beach at 5 in the morning, boats can get through when the wind changes direction, driving the water hyacinths out to sea and opening up a path for the fishermen. In the evening the water hyacinths move back, blocking the way to the shore over hundreds of meters. Kisumu, Kenya.
© Frédéric Noy

Louie Palu

Distant Early Warning

A US Navy diver helping a team from the Arctic Submarine Laboratory recover a torpedo fired from the nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine USS Hartford. The diver was from Ice Camp Skate, a temporary base on an ice floe. Beaufort Sea, c. 200 kilometers north-west of Deadhorse, Alaska.
© Louie Palu / National Geographic

Some 400 US paratroopers playing the role of an invading army as part of the exercise code-named Arctic Anvil, training for cold weather warfare. Donnelly Training Area near Fort Greely, the US Army launch site for ballistic missiles, just below the Arctic Circle.
© Louie Palu / National Geographic

Canadian Rangers from Resolute Bay and Arctic Bay training soldiers in Arctic survival at temperatures as low as -60°C. Crystal City training site, Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada.
© Louie Palu / National Geographic

A special issue on the Arctic will be published in National Geographic in September. 

Cyril Abad

In God We Trust: Faith and Eccentricity in the United States

Bill Malbon, a former civil servant in the State of Virginia, has been preaching as a pastor since 1992 when he was still working. In 2005 he came up with the idea of building a micro-mobile church. He and his chapel take to the road and travel throughout Virginia, offering wedding ceremonies with a difference, and at a very reasonable price.
© Cyril Abad / Hans Lucas

Thirty years ago, a small Christian community decided to live in the middle of a forest in Virginia, far from worldly concerns, and to live there naked. The faithful chose to practice religion according to their own principles.  Every weekend, one of two pastors, with more conventional congregations elsewhere, comes to give a sermon, and adopts the habits of the community.
© Cyril Abad / Hans Lucas

John lives in Berlin, Maryland. He works for the City Council of Ocean City, was once a professional cyclist, and is a fervent Christian. During the Easter vacation (the Spring Break for students), he gets on his “Cross Bike” after work and does the rounds of Ocean City, warning the young people about the dangers of alcohol.
© Cyril Abad / Hans Lucas

Lynsey Addario

Maternal Mortality

Mamma Sessay, who died from a massive hemorrhage after giving birth to twins at Magburaka Government hospital, will now be buried in her village. Sierra Leone, May 2010. 
© Lynsey Addario / National Geographic / Getty Images

Indian families rest in a ward reserved for women recovering from cesarean sections, at Tezpur Civil Hospital. Assam has the highest rate of maternal mortality in India. Many public medical facilities are overcrowded and unhygienic, suffer from a chronic shortage of doctors, and often have patients sprawled on floors and in hallways. Tezpur, Assam, India. April, 2015.
© Lynsey Addario / National Geographic / Getty Images

“Today, with awareness raising and efforts by the international community, the maternal mortality rate has declined by approximately 40% since 1990 according to the World Health Organization. This is the case for all countries in the developed world, with the exception of the United States and Serbia which, tragically, have both seen maternal death rates increase. Many people today have no idea that the natural human events of pregnancy and childbirth can still be fatal for large numbers of women. It is a basic human right for pregnant women to have access to proper healthcare services and perinatal care.” Lynsey Addario.

Kirsten Luce

The Dark Side of Wildlife Tourism

A polar bear with trainer Yulia Denisenko. The Polar Bear Circus is thought to be the only circus in the world with performing polar bears. The entire show is on ice, and the bears are muzzled. Kazan, Russia.
© Kirsten Luce / National Geographic / NG Image Collection

A macaque giving one of many daily performances. When the monkeys are not performing, they are kept in tiny individual cages. Signs state that they are transferred to a more comfortable area for the night after the school closes, but it is not true. Mae Rim Monkey School, Chiang Mai, Thailand.
© Kirsten Luce / National Geographic / NG Image Collection

Gluay Hom, a four year-old male Asian elephant, has a broken leg and open sores on his face. He is housed beneath the stadium where the elephants perform. His was the worst case of neglect that we witnessed in the course of the month spent covering the elephant tourism industry in Thailand. Our fixer returned six months later (in December 2018) and found him still languishing there in the same condition. Samutprakarn Crocodile Farm and Zoo, on the outskirts of Bangkok, Thailand.
© Kirsten Luce / National Geographic / NG Image Collection

Ed Jones

The Koreas – Across the Peninsula

Smiling children in bright costumes and make-up belted out the finale of their hour-long show: “We Cannot Live Without You, Father,” an ode to Kim Jong-un. Sinuiju City Kindergarten, December 1, 2018.
© Ed Jones / AFP

On the final day of the annual “Chuseok” Thanksgiving celebration, a woman is seen against the city skyline, walking over stepping-stones by the Han River. Yeouido Park, Seoul, September 26, 2018.
© Ed Jones / AFP

Looking Back…

Patrick Chauvel

50 Years on the Front Line

A Chechen girl on a Russian tank destroyed by Chechen fighters. Grozny, Chechnya, 1996.
© Patrick Chauvel

During the last battle in Baghouz, an American Christian NGO, the Free Burma Rangers, distributed blankets and food aid to the wives of jihadists. Syria, March 2019.
© Patrick Chauvel

Alain Keler

Diary of a Photographer

Rue Gay-Lussac after rioting. Paris, May 1968.
© Alain Keler / MYOP

Catholic confessions in public. Vladimir Lenin shipyard, Gdansk, Poland, August 23, 1980.
© Alain Keler / MYOP

Winners:

Anush Babajanyan / VII Photo Agency – 2019 Canon Female Photojournlaist Grant 

Six children in the Village of Nor Erkedj, Nagorno-Karabakh.©

Thomas Morel-Fort / Hans Lucas
Winner of the 2019 Camille Lepage award, supported by la SAIF

Axelle de Russé / Hans Lucas
Winner of the 2019 Pierre & Alexandra Boulat award, sponsored by la Scam

After four years behind bars, Magalie is free. Reims, October 11, 2018.
© Axelle de Russé / Hans Lucas