For the 32nd time, Canon Europe will partner Visa pour l'image, one of the world's leading photojournalism festivals. The event will take place during Pro Week from 30 August to 4 September 2021. The long-standing partnership underlines Canon's ongoing commitment to the craft of photojournalism and the photographers whose high-quality work captures some of the most important chapters in our history. Canon's alliance with Visa pour l'image promotes creative storytelling about the world we live in, with exciting initiatives for emerging talent and professional photographers. The commitment is flanked by the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant, the Canon Video Grant and the Canon Student Development Programme.
Visa pour l’image 2021 – Canon honours the best photojournalists
For the 21st consecutive year, Canon and Visa pour l'image award the Canon Female Photojournalist Grant to an outstanding female photographer in recognition of her contribution to photojournalism. The 2021 award winner is Acacia Johnson. She will receive 8,000 euros to carry out her project in Alaska entitled "To Know The Earth from Above: Connecting the Bush Pilot:ing Rural Alaska." Currently, only 20 percent of the region is accessible by road. Dozens of the remote settlements, mostly Alaska Native communities, rely on bush planes for vital food transport, medical care and rescue. Based in her hometown of Anchorage, Acacia Johnson has impressively showcased this community with large-scale portraits of the pilots and their aircraft, as well as aerial shots of the Alaskan landscape.
Both Acacia Johnson and last year's winner of the Prize for Women Photojournalists, Turkish photographer Sabiha Çimen (Hafiz: Guardians of the Koran), will present their work at Visa pour l'image 2022.
The Canon Video Grant
Canon and Visa pour l'image are delighted to present Camille Millerand with the second Canon Video Grant for his documentary film. The award honours creative documentary filmmakers and recognises the best emerging talent. Camille Millerand will invest the 8,000 euros in working on his project "The Invisibles". The work focuses on illegal workers, who make up a significant part of the French economy. Canon is also providing him with high quality professional video equipment on loan to support his work.
Millerand's documentary will be screened at the 2022 Festival alongside the work of the first winner of the 2020 Canon Video Grant. French-Swiss photographer and filmmaker Michaël Zumstein's documentary "Bangui la coquette" followed the proceedings surrounding the Miss Central African Republic pageant.
Inspiration for future photo talents
2021 will see the fifth edition of Canon's Student Development Programme, aimed at those aspiring to a career in photography. During Pro Week from 1 to 4 September, which will be held digitally for the second time, Canon will offer over 200 students from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa the opportunity to participate in this outstanding professional development programme. This initiative aims to nurture the talents of the participants and advance their careers. Through lectures and portfolio exams, they are exposed to some of the best professionals in the industry. The 21 professional photographers include Canon Ambassadors Jérôme Sessini, Marco Longari, Muhammed Muheisen, Aïda Muluneh and Magnus Wennman, as well as other recognised industry experts who will review the students' portfolios. Participating photo editors and curators include Fiona Shields (The Guardian), Chiara Bardelli Nonino (Vogue Italia), Whitney Richardson (The New York Times), Jay Davis (Getty), Mohamed Somji (Gulf Photo Plus) and Lars Lindemann (GEO).
From 1 September, a series of inspiring and educational talks, delivered in digital format by world-renowned experts, will be available to all visitors who register with Canon. This year's speakers include guests from Magnum, Politiken and Reuters. They will talk about the ethical and moral responsibility of photographers, as well as the social responsibility towards our society. They will also address what agencies and photo editors look for when hiring photographers and talk about the possibilities of multimedia.
Canon Ambassador Exhibitions
Several exhibitions will be held in Perpignan as part of the festival. Jérôme Gence, winner of the Pierre and Alexandra Boulat Prize 2020 and Canon Ambassador, will present his telework. His story for 2019 is about digital nomads in Bali, where young people have turned their backs on urban life and work remotely to enjoy an alternative lifestyle under the sun and palm trees. In addition, Canon Ambassador Gabriele Galimberti will exhibit his work "The Ameriguns". For this work, he travelled to the United States to meet proud gun owners and take portraits of them and their guns in their homes.
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