Once again, Visa pour l’image does not deviate from its purpose of telling the story of the world through its conflicts, crises, natural disasters and societal and environmental developments. On the program of the 36th edition of the International Photojournalism Festival, 26 exhibitions including one retracing the career of the American Paula Bronstein and the work of Pierre Faure on peripheral France or that of Jérôme Gence on ultra-connected young people and Francisco Proner on the lands ravaged by mining extractions in Brazil. However, the absence of an exhibition on the October 7 massacre and the war in Gaza raises questions for a festival dedicated to photojournalism and current events. Jean-François Leroy, founder and director of the festival, explains the reasons.
In your first press release, last April, on the Visa pour l’image program, there was no exhibition on October 7 or on the war in Gaza. All that was mentioned was Sergey Ponomarev’s report on the West Bank for the New York Times. For what ?
Jean-François Leroy: Because the information is completely blocked. We can’t go back to Gaza. There are very few photographers that the army lets work normally. When you’re no longer in information but in communication, I have a problem. Then, there are so many good photographers in Gaza who send their photos to magazines, or to agencies, that I didn’t particularly want to put one more forward than another. I’m delighted that the Visa d’or of the City of Perpignan Rémi Ochlik was awarded to Loay Ayyoub. But it was the jury who decided, not me.
Why not have designed a collective exhibition of these Palestinian photographers?
JF.L. : Group exhibitions at Visa don’t work, every time it’s a flop. People want to see a photographer’s work one-on-one.
Yet last year, the exhibition on the revolt in Iran, designed by two journalists from Worldwas a great success with the public?
JF.L. : It’s not the same. Because in this exhibition, 75% of the images collected were amateur and anonymous photographs or videos, taken with a mobile phone. In Gaza, I can name about twenty photographers: Loay Ayyoub, Jadlall, Mahmud Hams (editor’s note: nominated for the Visa d’or News awarded on September 7)… To only keep two or three photos from their reports for a collective exhibition, I don’t find that worthy. I preferred that we do a big retrospective as part of our screening evenings. This retrospective begins on October 7 to continue on the war in Gaza. We scheduled it for Thursday, September 5, because if I had scheduled it for Friday evening, the beginning of Shabbat, I would have been called an anti-Semite.
Since the creation of Visa pour l’image, has there been another conflict as complicated to deal with in an exhibition?
JF.L. : No. This is the first conflict we are facing where we cannot say anything without being attacked by one side or the other. We are in totally knee-jerk reactions. If I say that there were terrorist massacres on October 7, I am anti-Palestinian, and if I say that the Israeli response to Gaza is disproportionate, I am anti-Netanyahu.
. We can’t talk to anyone anymore.
Is a screening enough for Visa to address this conflict? JF.L.
: I don’t know. It’s the decision I made. If I do too much, I’ll be criticized. Then, I’ll be told that I’m not doing enough. In any case, I won’t please anyone. I made my decision, I stand by it.
Has it become more difficult for you, the founder and director of Visa, to show a war today? JF.L.
Erratum – September 13, 2024
Contrary to what was published in JdA n°638, Jean-François Leroy had of course said “anti-Netanyahou” and not the other way around.
