Photojournalism in focus at Perpignan's Visa Pour l'Image 2017

EACH year, a selection of the best – and harrowing – news stories from around the world are exhibited in Perpignan, in the south of France. Across 25 exhibitions, this annual festival surveys photojournalism and international conflict coverage.
"What do you make of the fact that so many magazines have lots of money to spend on a royal wedding but claim they don't have enough to send journalists out into the field?" said Jean-François Leroy, the founder, and director of the Visa pour image festival, to TIME.
Leroy launched Visa Pour image in 1989. His aim was to show both emerging talent and revisit well-known photojournalists.
Some notable series from this edition:
Daniel Berehulak's work for The New York Times, "They Are Slaughtering Us Like Animals", focused on President Rodrigo Duterte's murderous drug crackdown in the Philippines. Within months of Duterte's election, thousands were shot dead by police and by vigilantes.
Stephen Dock examined human trafficking in Nepal, where the poor and uneducated populace often falls prey to human traffickers, forced into horrible work conditions and winding up in brothels or fake orphanages.
Meridith Kohut reported for The New York Times on the collapse of Venezuela after years of government corruption and failed economic policy. She chronicled Venezuelans' struggle to survive food and medicine shortages, violent crime, and repression of anti-government protests.
Amy Toensing, for National Geographic Magazine, examined widowhood: a social peril for women in many parts of the world (notably Bosnia, India, Uganda). Amidst such traditional cultures, a woman's life is solely determined by her father, and then her husband; when her husband dies, she becomes an outcast.
For over a decade, Lu Guang traveled across China reporting on the dark side of economic growth, highlighting the threat to the environment due to human behavior and industry, namely overdevelopment, pollution, and industrial waste.
This edition also features three exhibitions on the battle for Mosul (by Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde, Alvaro Canovas for Paris Match, and Lorenzo Meloni for Magnum Photos).
There is also an exhibition in homage to Stanley Greene, who died in May.
The Visa Pour l'Image evening events will provide a chronological review of the main news stories of the past year, two months at a time.
An international panel of picture editors will select winners for the festival's awards, based on published and unpublished reportages from the past year.
The exhibitions at Visa Pour L'Image are on view free of charge in Perpignan from September 2-17, 2017. — AFP Relaxnews