The Winners of the Visa D'or Awards 2020

Each year, top stories from around the world are awarded at Visa pour l'Image.

For the Visa d'or News award and the Visa d'or feature award, the Ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik award and the Figaro Magazine Lifetime Achievement Visa d'or award, picture editors and assistant picture editors (see the list) make a selection from all reports seen over the past year (both published and unpublished), choosing four nominees per category.

A second jury meets in Perpignan to choose the winners for each Visa d'or award (News, Feature and Daily Press).

Here is the list of the winners of the Visa d’Or, Grants and Prizes of the Visa pour l’Image festival 2020.

Visa D'or News Award

For the thirteenth time, the Region of Occitanie/Pyrénées-Méditerranée will fund the prize of €8,000 for the Visa d'or Feature award winner.

Fabio Bucciarelli for The New York Times

Project: Bergamo, Covid-19 in Italy Claudio Travelli (60) was examined by red Cross volunteers. He chose to remain at home, but the next day his condition worsened and the red Cross team returned to take him to hospital. Cenate Sotto, Italy, March 15, 2020.

Visa d'or Feature Award

For the thirteenth time, the Region of Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée will fund the prize of €8,000 for the Visa d'or Feature award winner

Bryan Denton for The New York Times

Project: Drought and Deluge in India Children playing in water pumped through a privately owned bore well. The use of bore wells increased 10 to 15 years ago when monsoonal rains became less consistent, causing a substantial decline in groundwater levels in the region. Lamheta, Uttar Pradesh, June 2019.

Visa d'or Daily Press award

Rosem Morton/CNN.com

Project: I was raped and broken. So I picked up my camera.
When I told my husband I was assaulted, I said, 'I will go to therapy for a couple of months and put all of this behind me.' By November, I had been seeing my therapist every week for four months. At the end of this session, sitting in my car, I broke down and realized that the work had only just begun."

The jury for the Visa d'or Daily Press award, sponsored by Perpignan Méditerranée Métropole, met with the following members of the jury:
- Sarah Caron
- Elena Chernyshova
- Sanne Derks
- Emilienne Malfatto
- Nicole Tung
Entries were received from 23 newspapers. The Visa d'or has been awarded to the American digital news media CNN.com for the report by Rosem Morton ''I was raped and broken. So I picked up my camera.''

Visa d'or franceinfo Award for the Best Digital News Story

For the fifth year, the Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l'Image-Perpignan is featuring the Visa d'or franceinfo Award for the Best Digital News Story, with the support of national public broadcasting media funding the prize money of €8,000: France Médias Monde, France Télévisions, Radio France and the french National Audiovisual institute (iNA).The scope of the award covers virtual reality, interactivity and editorial video work released on social media. In the context of non-stop news around the world, the Visa d'or franceinfo Award for the Best Digital News Story recognizes an idea, content and original work offering an interesting angle and perspective on the news. The winning digital news story for 2020 is on the subject of victims of domestic violence, women who are murdered by their partners. The project was produced by Le Monde newspaper under the title ''Féminicides - Mécanique d'un crime annoncé'' and features photography by Camille Gharbi. The prize money of €8,000 will be donated to the women's shelter "Maison des Femmes" in Saint-Denis (Greater Paris) which is managed by Ghada Hatem.

ICRC Humanitarian Visa d'Or Award International Committee of the Red Cross

The ICRC Humanitarian Visa d'Or Award, founded in 2011, is an annual award, for a professional photojournalist who has covered a humanitarian issue related to a situation of armed conflict. The subject chosen this year is urban warfare and the impact on civilians, either trapped and hiding or forced to flee. The winner of this year's award, with prize money of €8000 funded by the ICRC, is Alfredo Bosco/ Luz for his report "Forgotten Guerrero" on the consequences of the war between the drug cartels in the state of Guerrero, Mexico.

Alfredo Bosco/Luz

Project: Forgotten Guerrero A young man from the Centro region, with a community self-defense group. Rincon de Chautla, Guerrero, January 12, 2019.

Figaro Magazine Lifetime Achievement Visa d'or Award

The Lifetime Achievement Visa d'Or award was created by Visa pour l'Image and Le Figaro Magazine in recognition of the lifetime achievement of an established photographer who is still working. The eighth Lifetime Achievement Visa d'Or award is sponsored by le Figaro Magazine, with prize money of €8000. The winner of the 2020 edition is Jean-Pierre Laffont.

Jean-Pierre Laffont

The Manhattan House of Detention for Men (a.k.a. "The Tombs"), New York City, NY, USA, September 28, 1972.

2020 Canon Female Photojournalist Grant

For the twentieth year in a row, canon and Visa pour l'Image will be presenting the prestigious Canon Female Photojournalist Grant to an outstanding photographer in recognition of her contribution to photojournalism. The 2020 winner, Sabiha Çimen / Magnum Photos, will receive prize money of €8000 to help carry out her work in progress, "Hafiz, the Guardians of the Quran," which will be featured as an exhibition at the 2021 festival. This year's Visa pour l'Image festival will exhibit the work of the 2019 grantee, Anush Babajanyan / VII, "A Troubled Home."

Sabiha Çimen /MAGNUM PHOTOS

Project: Hafiz, the Guardians of the Quran
Elif (9), a new student at a Quranic school, wearing a hijab for the first time. Rize, Turkey, August 4, 2018.

Urban Newcomer Photographer's Grant sponsored by Google

Visa pour l'Image, Google and Dysturb are proud to announce the winner of the Urban Newcomer Photographer's Grant. The five finalists on the shortlist are Marvin Bonheur, Aïda Dahmani, Emilie Désir, Ilyes Griyeb, and Cebos Nalcakan. And the winner is AïDA DAHMANi.The choice made by the jury stands as recognition of an up-and-coming figure in French photography with an innovative approach to work on urban stories. The winner will receive the grant to carry out one or more projects. The grant provides funding of €8,000 plus monitoring and assistance from Google, Visa pour l'Image and Dysturb, as well as the possibility of featuring the winner's work on the Google Arts & Culture website.

Ville de Perpignan Rémi Ochlik Award

Picture editors of international magazines have chosen the best young reporter for the Ville de Perpignan rémi Ochlik award which is being presented for the fifteenth time. The jury selected the young photographer who, in their opinion, produced the best report, either published or unpublished, in 2019/2020. The Ville de Perpignan sponsors the prize of €8,000. The 2020 winner is Anthony Wallace/ AFP for his work on the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.

Anthony Wallace/ AFP

Project: Opposing Views
In the arrivals hall at Hong Kong international airport, a human wall formed in protest against the draft extradition bill. July 26, 2019.

Pierre & Alexandra Boulat Award

The award, which is being sponsored for the sixth time by la Scam (the collecting society for multimedia authors), is designed to help a photographer carry out an original reporting project. The winner of the 2020 award, with prize money of €8000, is Jérôme GeNcewho was selected by the jury on the basis of his plan to report on telecommuting in France.

Jérôme Gence

Jeje, a digital nomad, working alone in Dojo Bali, a coworking space in Canggu (Bali, Indonesia). She used to be a flight attendant, but the pressure of the uniform was too much, so she decided to try a career as a digital nomad. At first, coworking spaces are great, but as you start to belong to a community and make friends, you are distracted and less productive. Now, I prefer to work in a café, alone.

Camille Lepage Award

The Association named Camille Lepage - On est ensemble was founded on September 20, 2014, only months after the death of Camille Lepage while reporting in the Central African republic. The Association commemorates Camille, her work and commitment. For the fourth time, the collecting society la sAif* is supporting the award which provides backing and encouragement for a photojournalist committed to a long-term project. The award presented to this year's winner, Olivier JOBARD / Myop, will help him carry out his report on a little known path taken by migrants, crossing from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia, depicting the experience of the family of Mustafa, a man he met in Aden. (*) La SAIF, the French collecting society for original authors of visual work in architecture, design, drawing, 3-D work, illustrations, cartoons/comics, painting, photography and sculpture.

Olivier Jobard/MYOP

Near Galafi on the border between Ethiopia and Djibouti, one of the hottest regions in the world. Hundreds of Oromo refugees fleeing Ethiopia cross the mountains to reach Djibouti.

ANI-PixTrakk Award

For more than twenty years, the ANI (Association Nationale des Iconographes) has been organizing presentations of portfolios during the professional week at the festival Visa pour l'Image - Perpignan, seeing over 350 photographers from a wide range of backgrounds, providing guidance and advice. This year, while it is impossible to hold this key activity of the festival at the Palais des Congrès in Perpignan, ANi members are pleased to be conducting portfolio reviews online. The three award winners for 2020 are Odhràn Dunne, Jeoffrey Guillemard and Kamil Zihnioglu. The 2020 winner, Odhràn Dunne, received the main award, which is being presented for the eleventh time, with prize money of €5,000 sponsored by PixTrakk, the solution for monitoring and tracking pictures published in the printed press and on the web

Odhràn Dunne

Yves Rocher Foundation Photography Award

The Yves Rocher Foundation Photography Award was established by the Yves Rocher Foundation in partnership with the International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l'Image - Perpignan. In 2020, the winner of the sixth award, with prize money of €8,000 funded by the yves Rocher foundation, is Mathias DePARDON. The award will help the photographer carry out his report on changes in the historic region of Mesopotamia with the Tigris-euphrates river system running dry, looking at the impact on both the ecosystem and society, as soil salination and the prevailing drought in Iraq see more and more communities displaced. For the three million people who live in Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, water is a major challenge. "we have no water for livestock, and if we wash in it, we fall ill. More than 100,000 people had to go to hospital for treatment for the effects of poisoning," explained Hashim who lives in the working class district of Al-Tannuma on the east bank of the Shatt al-Arab river.© Mathias Depardonwinner of the 2020 Yves rocher Foundation Photography Award

Mathias Depardon

For the three million people who live in Basra, the second largest city in Iraq, water is a major challenge. “We have no water for livestock, and if we wash in it, we fall ill. More than 100,000 people had to go to hospital for treatment for the effects of poisoning,” explained Hashim who lives in the working class district of Al-Tannuma on the east bank of the Shatt al-Arab River.

The Carmignac Photojournalism Award

The Carmignac Foundation is pleased to be associated with the festival Visa pour l'Image for the sixth time. The 11th Carmignac Photojournalism Award, on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has gone to the British/Canadian photographer Finbarr O'Reilly. Finbarr O'reilly started working on the project in January this year, before the Covid 19 pandemic turned our lives upside down. with borders closed, he could not travel to the DRC, so devised a new approach, working with the award team and adapting the report to cover the current crisis. This has produced the "congo in conversation" project as a joint online report done in close collaboration with Congolese journalists and photographers. The Congo in Conversation website presents original content with regular additions, featuring photographic and video reports documenting the many human, social and ecological challenges in the DRC today, as seen in the context of the unprecedented health crisis.

Finbarr O'Reilly

expand_circle_rightCongo in Conversation

A red Cross burial worker shows a man how to put on protective gloves before the inspection of the body of an 11-month old girl who died during the Ebola outbreak in the town of Rutshuru in North Kivu province, February 2020.

expand_circle_rightProgram of the 32nd International Festival of Photojournalism Visa pour l'Image